IMAGES OF NATURE AND SOCIETY IN AMAZONIAN ETHNOLOGY

This review discusses changes in Amazonian indigenous anthropology since the synthesis presented in the Handbook of South American Indians. The past few years have seen the emergence of an image of Amazonia characterized by a growing emphasis on the complexity of indigenous social formations and the ecological diversity of the region. This new image of society and nature is taking shape in a theoretical context characterized by the synergistic interaction between structural and historical approaches, by an attempt to go beyond monocausal explanatory models (whether naturalistic or culturalistic) in favor of a dialectical view of the relations between society and nature, and by hopes of a “new synthesis” that could integrate the knowledge accumulated in the fields of human ecology, social anthropology, archeology, and history.