Table of Contents

List of Maps, Diagrams, Charts and Figures vi

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction 1

1 New winds for an old people: ethnohistorical account of the post-Columbian Amuesha 13

2 The obsession with order and the permanent threat of chaos 36

3 The quest for knowledge and power, and the transcendence of the human condition 96

4 The praise of love: the paradigm of fatherhood and authority 163

5 The moral use of knowledge and power 229

6 Conclusions 295

Appendices

Appendix I Amuesha native communities and local settlements, 1980 307

Appendix II Amuesha descent groups of the mythical pre-social era 309

Appendix III Amuesha kin and affine reference terms for male and female ego 315

Appendix IV List of Amuesha Priests and Ceremonial Centres of the Past 317

Glossary 319

Bibliography 326

Index 332