diff --git a/Macaulay2.spec b/Macaulay2.spec
index 60bcf43..47bc6bc 100644
--- a/Macaulay2.spec
+++ b/Macaulay2.spec
@@ -330,9 +330,18 @@ sed -e 's/\(LIBDEPS_FOR_BUILD := \).*/\1/' \
 ## configure macro currently broken, due to some odd prefix-checks.  probably fixable -- Rex
 mkdir -p BUILD/%{_target_platform}
 pushd BUILD/%{_target_platform}
+# On ppc64le with the compiler in strict mode, the pari declaration of
+# vec_insert() is deemed to ambiguate the declaration of the AltiVec function
+# __builtin_vec_insert().  We add -fpermissive to downgrade the error to a
+# warning, but we should find a better fix.
+%ifarch ppc64le
+cxxflags="%{optflags} -fsigned-char -fpermissive"
+%else
+cxxflags="%{optflags} -fsigned-char"
+%endif
 CPPFLAGS="-I%{_includedir}/cddlib -I%{_includedir}/frobby" \
 CFLAGS="%{optflags} -fsigned-char" \
-CXXFLAGS="%{optflags} -fsigned-char" \
+CXXFLAGS="$cxxflags" \
 LDFLAGS="-Wl,--as-needed $RPM_LD_FLAGS -L%{_libdir}/atlas" \
 LIBS="-lsatlas" \
 ../../configure \