ABSTRACT
Robert Morey and Yolanda Murphy have addressed the causes and consequences of sex antagonism in the Amazon. In particular, their analysis concerns a complex of beliefs and behaviors that includes both unconscious projections stemming from early Oedipal experiences and social structural factors that segregate men and women and intensify sexual conflict. The two myths possess a number of similarities that at core constitute the Oedipal story. The focal individuals are young men who are either married or about to be married. These young men experience women ambivalently. The Machiguenga of Peru speak an Arawakan language and inhabit the mountainous terra firme lands of the Upper Amazon rain forest east of Cuzco. In order to minimize travel costs in procuring wild foods, including game, fish, fruits, nuts and insects, they typically live in scattered groups of single households or clusters of related households (hamlets).
