An amazonian myth and its history

Taking as its starting point a single myth told to him by a Piro man, Peter Gow presents an analysis of a century of social transformation in an indigenous Ammazonian society, the Piro people of Peruvian Amazonia. Gow explores Piro history and ethnography outwards into the domains of myth-telling in general and, followinf the logic f certain importants myths, extends his exploration further outwards into other important domains of Piro experience such as visual art, shamanry, and girls´ initiatin ritual. All these domains, like the myths themselves, have been demonstrably, changing over the period since the 1880s.