Mercedes Okumura

Cranial morphological diversity of early, middle, and late Holocene Brazilian groups: Implications for human dispersion in Brazil

The history of human occupation in Brazil dates to at least 14 kyr BP, and the country has the largest record of early human remains from the continent. Despite the importance and richness of Brazilian human skeletal collections, the biological relationships between groups and their implications for knowledge about human dispersion in the country have not been properly explored. Here, we present a comprehensive assessment of the morphological affinities of human groups from East-Central, Coastal, Northeast, and South Brazil from distinct periods and test for the best dispersion scenarios to explain the observed diversity across time. Our results, based on multivariate assessments of shape and goodness of fit tests of dispersion and adaptation models, favor the idea that Brazil experienced at least two large dispersion waves. The first dispersive event brought the morphological pattern that characterize Late Pleistocene groups continent-wide and that persisted among East-Central Brazil groups until recently. Within the area covered by our samples, the second wave was probably restricted to the coast and is associated with a distinct morphological pattern. Inland and coastal populations apparently did not interact significantly during the Holocene, as there is no clear signal of admixture between groups sharing the two morphological patterns. However, these results cannot be extended to the interior part of the country (Amazonia and Central Brazil), given the lack of skeletal samples in these regions.

Contributions to the Dart versus Arrow Debate: New Data from Holocene Projectile Points from Southeastern and Southern Brazil

Lithic bifacial points are very common in the southern and southeastern regions of the Brazilian territory. Dated from Early to Late Holocene, these artifacts have not been studied in terms of their propulsion system. Given the characteristics of the bow and arrow compared to the atlatl and dart, there are important differences in the size and weight of arrowheads and dart points. Applying the techniques proposed by Shott (1997), Bradbury (1997), Fenenga (1953), Hughes (1998), and Hildebrandt and King (2012) to specimens recovered from eight sites dating from the early to the late Holocene, this work aims to present preliminary results to better understand the potential presence of darts and arrows in southeastern and southern Brazil. There was a variation in the results according to the application of different techniques. At least one set of points, dated from the Early Holocene, presented quite a high proportion of specimens classified as arrows, indicating the presence of points that could be used as arrowheads.

Extreme cultural persistence in eastern-central Brazil: the case of Lagoa Santa Paleaeoindians

Lapa do Santo rockshelter, a Paleoindian site located in Eastern-Central Brazil, presented two main occupations; one during Early Holocene (12,460 to 8700 cal BP), and a latter in Middle Holocene (5100 to 4200 cal BP). In spite of this 3600 year gap, the stratigraphy and general characteristics of the material culture did not indicate any visible discontinuity. This led us to hypothesise a reoccupation of the rockshelter by the same cultural group, tested by means of statistical analyses comparing lithics, bone artifacts, and faunal remains from early and middle Holocene layers. No significant differences were found, and our results indicate the presence of a cultural tradition that persisted for 8240 years, or roughly 412 generations.

Origem e dispersão dos Tupiguarani: o que diz a morfologia craniana? Origin and dispersion of the Tupiguarani: what does cranial morphology say?

Resumo: A origem e a dispersao dos povos Tupiguarani tem sido intensamente debatidas entre arqueologos e linguistas nas ultimas cinco decadas. Em resumo, pode-se dizer que a ideia de que esses povos, que ocuparam grande parte do territorio brasileiro e parte da Bolivia, do Paraguai, do Uruguai e da Argentina, tiveram sua etnogenese na Amazonia e dali partiram para o leste e para o sul, por volta de 2.500 anos antes do presente, e bastante aceita entre os especialistas, embora uma dispersao no sentido oposto, isto e, do sul para o norte, com origem na bacia do Tiete-Parana, nao seja completamente descartada. Entre os arqueologos que consideram a Amazonia como berco desses povos, alguns acreditam que esse surgimento se deu na Amazonia central. Outros acreditam que a etnogenese Tupiguarani ocorreu no sudoeste da Amazonia, onde hoje se concentra a maior diversidade linguistica do tronco Tupi. Neste trabalho, a morfologia de 19 crânios associados a cerâmica Tupiguarani ou etnograficamente classificados como tais foram comparados a varias series cranianas pre-historicas e etnograficas brasileiras por meio de estatisticas multivariadas. Duas tecnicas multivariadas foram empregadas: Analise de Componentes Principais, aplicada sobre os centroides de cada serie, e Distâncias de Mahalanobis, aplicadas aos dados individuais. Os resultados obtidos sugerem uma origem amazonica para os povos Tupiguarani, sobretudo pela forte associacao encontrada entre crânios Tupi e Guarani do sudeste e do sul brasileiro e dos Tupi do norte do Brasil, com os especimes provenientes da ilha de Marajo incluidos no estudo. Palavras-chave: Analise multivariada. Craniometria. Nativos americanos.