Matsigenka myth and morality: Notions of the social and the asocial

This paper explores Matsigenka notions of morality as evidenced in central mythological texts. The focus is on myth since, it is argued, myths provide a means whereby fundamental conditions of everyday life as conceptualized by their conventional audience can be understood and interpreted. Although myth does not provide a uniformly accepted cultural blueprint of social reality, a certain intersubjective consonance is to be expected. It is argued that to the Matsigenka morality is primarily a means to maintain conditions of conviviality. Matsigenka moral considerations are thus context‐dependent and can only be reflected upon casuistically.