ABSTRACT
This chapter describes various perceptions of the Pantanal and pantaneiros: in the electronic media, in Brazilian literature and in the formal academy. It also strives to understand how the pantaneiros relate to other actors non-pantaneiro involved in the Pantanal and what fractures in pantaneiro society conflicts with non-pantaneiros might expose. The new context of globalization puts the cattle ranching of the floodplain in an ever more competitive scenario. Defining cattle ranchers, especially large ones, as the protectors of the Pantanal by sticking to tradition is unlikely to be enough to warrant economic success and sustainability in the Pantanal. In these farms the pantaneiros are mainly caboclos, that are mixes of natives of the Pareci, Guat, Chiquito and other Bolivians tribes with Afro-descendents and Spanish or Portuguese migrants and their descendents. With the arrival of immigrants from southern Brazil, new environmental and economic pressures started to develop and are still increasing.
