The article analyses the pictures of Indians (tapuias) produced by the Philosophical Journey (1783-1792) of the naturalist Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, based on 18th century theories that promoted taxonomies and hierarchized the humankind according to technical progress. The paper develops initially a historiographical evaluation on studies devoted to Linnaeus, Buffon and Robertson. Then, it analyses how these theorists were fundamental to the composition of the pictures. Habits, the environment and contacts with Portuguese and Spanish people were used to explain, according to Ferreira, the existence of several different nations. Amazonian peoples constituted a single race, but were in different stages of human evolution.
Colonial Amazon; Travellers; Taxonomy; Race; Progress
