ABSTRACT
Ever since the pioneering works of such people as Nimuendaju (1939), Fejos (1943) and Oberg (1949) were published, Amazonianist anthropologists have produced an impressive body of ethnography that has contributed significantly to general anthropological theory. Along with this process, and as discussed in the Introduction to this volume, they have shaped – more or less consciously – an ethnographic imaginary based on two radically opposing conceptions of Native Amazonians. The first image depicts them as 'fierce' peoples who exalt the value of war, entertain a 'macho' ideal of virility and are engaged in permanent intra- and intertribal fighting.
