Try a different filter or a new search keyword Streaming and Download help Redeem code supported by 231 fans who also own “Das Nuvens” Just discovered Sam Wilkes and some of his work and bass playing It reminds me a lot to John Hassell/Eno era a bit more jazzy supported by 230 fans who also own “Das Nuvens” Acoustic instrumental guitar tracks from Barry Archie Johnson The first solo release in over a decade from Bev Lee Harling is a personal travelogue filled with euphoric compositions supported by 219 fans who also own “Das Nuvens” Spontaneous and free without feeling jammy Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp A Guide to Imaginational Anthem’s 10 Volumes of Stirring American Primitive Guitar The Vin Du Select Qualitite Label Brings a Punk Aesthetic to Acoustic Music Backxwash joins the show to discuss her recent release pianist Antonio Adolfo has gone on to be one of the foremost bandleaders in Brazilian jazz and Milton Nascimento became one of Brazil’s most essential and influential singers Two young musicians in Rio De Janeiro became friends and Antonio Adolfo was leading a pioneering samba-jazz group called The 3-D Trio a largely unknown 25-year-old guitarist and singer who hailed from the small city of Tres Pontas in mountainous Minas Gerais was in town to perform at the International Song Festival Adolfo has gone on to be one of the foremost bandleaders in Brazilian jazz became one of Brazil’s most essential and influential singers they both were trying to make a name for themselves “Milton is a genius,” Adolfo recently declared over the phone from Rio while discussing his latest release BruMa (Mist): Celebrating Milton Nascimento The pianist fondly remembers hanging out at the home of songwriter brothers Marcos and Paulo Sérgio Valle with the soon-to-be star and others who became major figures in Brazilian pop “Marcos wrote a song called ‘Viola Enluarada’ that we recorded together—Marcos and Milton “Then we did a show at the Teatro Santa Rosa for two months that featured some of Milton’s songs like—‘Outubro,’ ‘Vera Cruz,’ ‘Travessia’ and ‘Tres Pontas.’ That was the only time I performed with Milton.” Nascimento went on to claim 2nd prize in the song festival and “Travessia”—with an English lyric by Gene Lees—eventually went on to become his first international hit Adolfo features “Outubro” and “Tres Pontas” on BruMa as well as seven other Nascimento compositions including “Nada Será Como Antes,” “Canção Do Sal” and “Cais.” “I always thought about recording his songs,” Adolfo said he brought some odd meters and modal ideas that he got from Miles [Davis] and Herbie [Hancock] and Wayne [Shorter] he did new types of [chordal] voicings on his guitar That’s why jazz musicians like Wayne and Herbie love him: He is so jazzy.” “This is one of the great gifts that Coltrane gave us — he gave us a key to the cosmos in this recording,” says John McLaughlin In his original liner notes to A Love Supreme The Blue Note Jazz Festival New York kicks off May 27 with a James Moody 100th Birthday Celebration at Sony Hall Blue Note Entertainment Group has unveiled the lineup for the 14th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival New York “I’m certainly influenced by Geri Allen,” said Iverson during a live Blindfold Test at the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival Ethan Iverson performed as part of the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival in… we’re left with similarities,” Collier says “Cultural differences are mitigated through 12 notes.” DownBeat has a long association with the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference but it’s still kind of productive in a way because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing… About|Terms of Use|PrivacyCopyright © 2025 Maher Publications DownBeat is an internationally registered trademark of Maher Publications Shorter’s first wife was a Brazilian woman named Ana Maria (the inspiration for his song) who encouraged him to record with the talented young singer Back when I was starting my career as a deejay, I worked the graveyard shift every Tuesday from 1–6:00 a.m. To close out my sets, I’d queue up Nascimento’s “Chamada” (“The Call”) around 5:50 a.m even though I was headed to bed soon after and I’ve since featured Nascimento’s work more times than I can count on my shows Milton Nascimento was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1942 a place far removed from what most people associate with the country its various regions are characterized by different musical styles The name “Minas Gerais” means “General Mines”; it was where all the gem mining took place in the 1800s and 1900s The discovery and ensuing gold rush in 1693 brought with it a huge influx of prospectors and opportunists looking to profit and the Portuguese employed slave labor to build the roads and dig the mines so many slaves were brought over that by 1750 Minas had grown to a point where its population exceeded that of New York City Newfound wealth established a solid middle and upper class in Minas once the mines were exhausted and slavery abolished in 1888 the once thriving Minas was reduced to a mere ghost town I think about this every time I hear Milton’s music I was lucky enough to visit his home state during a trip to Brazil in 1990 As our plane descended into Belo Horizonte from Rio I was struck by how its mountainous landscape stood in stark contrast to the coastline and beaches below In the chapter on Milton in my book, Rhythm Planet: The Great World Music Makers “Hearing Nascimento’s achingly pure falsetto was like watching a shooting star across the sky His plaintive ballads echo the feelings of millions of Brazilians.” In Minas the towns are separated from one another by mountains and large expanses of barren land The music born there is a far cry from the carefree Milton’s melancholic vocals and music reflect its lonely landscape who would forever change the sound of bossa nova Milton himself worked as a deejay at the station You can also stream them on Spotify or Tidal so your donation is critical to KCRW's music programming Anne Litt shares her take on the week in KCRW music Donate by midnight tomorrow and your $100 becomes $200 for KCRW thanks to a $10,000 match by music legend Moby DOuble dollars Get the latest from KCRW in your inbox 3x a week In Novo Hamburgo, Rio Grande do Sul, an organization called Adventist Solidarity Action is collaborating with an ADRA Distribution Center to aid families impacted by the recent flooding in the region. According to the Adventist News Network this center serves as a hub for nationwide donations distributing essential items such as clothes and hygiene kits through local Adventist churches when the center received letters of solidarity from fourth-grade students of Escola Municipal Cônego Vitor in Três Pontas Born from classroom discussions about the disaster teacher Lila Mendonça and her students sent messages and drawings expressing hope and support In the article Mendonça described how the letters and donations came from her students wanting to discuss what they had seen on the news: “They talked a lot about the rescues They said that many people lost everything can we help?’ And then we talked and agreed that whoever could You should’ve seen their joy in bringing the donations from home!”  Many letters contained drawings of helicopters saving people from the water along with words of encouragement and hope complemented by donations from family and friends deeply moved both the recipients and volunteers at the ADRA center To comment, click here. We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience and analyze our traffic This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings we will not be able to save your preferences This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again You only have to walk into Araras Coffee & More once for owners Celina Bredemann and Liz Marina Cardozo to treat you like family That means lots of conversation (in Portuguese and English) as well as lots of regulars who the two women greet with effusive hugs and hellos imported from the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil since coffee pairs perfectly with chocolate I also had (and loved) the housemade brigadeiros tiny truffles that come in a variety of flavors which tastes like "home." Her brigadeiros are so popular they're often special ordered for bridal shower favors They're also one of the top reasons to pop in here as one can always do with something sweet Bredemann began with four flavors when she opened her shop nine years ago but now has 200 varieties and is always adding more More: Where to eat before summer ends in Westchester, Rockland; Muchnick's recap of the best They, are in fact, what made her start doing cooking lessons on YouTube, as so many customers asked how she made them She now has more than 150,000 followers and has helped many of them start their own brigadiero businesses On the day I was there I tried the coconut but on various days you'll also find mango There are also gluten-free homemade alfajores (cookies) diners will find empanadas including mini empadinhas (pot pie) stuffed with vegetables fried dough stuffed with shredded chicken and cheese The other star of the show is the pão de queijo aka Brazilian cheese bread Plus too many coffees to mention including the shop's popular Dulce de Leche and Brigadeiro with expresso Bredemann and Cardozo are always coming up with new variations — for the Barbie craze they have a Barbie BonBon with pink condensed milk more milk and sprinkles as well as a smoothie — in addition to their regular menu they were among the first on the cocoa bomb craze during the height of the pandemic There are also plenty of imported South American snacks giving you (and me) just one more reason to stop by Address: 406 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, 914-831-5439, ararascoffee.com Have a suggestion on where I should go next? Email JRMuchnick@gannett.com. Be sure to follow my foodie adventures on Instagram where my tagline is "Stay hungry and stay tuned." Jeanne Muchnick covers food and dining. Click here for her most recent articles and follow her latest dining adventures on Instagram @lohud_food or via the lohudfood newsletter Milton Nascimento was born in 1942 in Rio de Janeiro had once sung in a choir conducted by Villa Lobos He was a math teacher and one time ran the local radio station where the young Milton occasionally served as DJ A self-taught musician who liked to hear music and play guitar in the kitchen beside a warm firewood stove Milton Nascimento learned from the snippets of music he heard on the radio growing up in Tres Pontas The area is a stronghold of Catholicism in Brazil and the church-like harmonies that inform so much of the singer’s music began here finally gaining wider exposure when the legendary pop singer Elis Regina recorded his “Cancao do Sal” in 1966 With his appearance at Brazil’s Internacional Song Festival the following year and his rendition of “Travessia (Bridges) Milton’s musical career was effectively launched Fernando Brant and Ronaldo Bastos and other friends including Beto Guedes Milton Nascimento recorded Clube da Esquina (Street-corner Club) notably “Cravo e Canela” (Clove and Cinnamon) and “Nada Sera Como Antes” (Nothing will be As It Was) which are still being recorded by Brazil’s pop superstars many years later Nascimento hooked up creatively with the iconic American jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter the stunning 1975 Nascimento classic Native Dancer brought the Brazilian artist into the American music marketplace and consciousness; fans and critics alike remarked at the time that Nascimento was more comfortable phrasing in the sideways swim of his native Portuguese than in up-and-down English Shorter later reunited with the singer on Nascimento’s Grammy-nominated 1993 Warner Bros Over the years Nascimento has recorded many solo albums Among the other highlights from his extensive globally bestselling catalog are A Brazilian Love Affair a collaboration with George Duke (1980); his Top Ten jazz album Encontros E Despedidas (1986); his Top Ten World Music album Txai (1991); the Grammy nominated 0 Planeta Blue Na Estrada Do Sol (1994); and Nascimento the 1997 Grammy winner for Best World Music Album Nascimento also gained new legions of fans around the globe during what many view as one of his true creative peak in the 1980s a five album series with Ariola Brazil featuring Sentinela (1980) and Anima (1982) which paid homage to his own past as an anonymous musician earned Nascimento his first Latin Grammy Award in 2000 Milton Nascimento’s voice can heard on Paul Simon’s The Rhythm of the Saints and Sara Vaughan’s Brazilian Romance He appeared on Duran Duran’s “Breath After Breath” (which he co-wrote) and has performed on albums with James Taylor many of whom appeared on his debut Warner album Angelus His music has been recorded by numerous U.S including the Manhattan Transfer and Stan Getz The Brazilian singer has also acted in and contributed music for many Brazilian films and has also written ballet music for the groups 0 Corpo The company’s first release was the double album Trihas de Ballet which included the scores to “Maria Maria” and “Ultimo Trem,” specially composed for Grupo Corpo Milton Nascimento is one of the rare vocalists who can draw audiences around the world regardless of language Milton Nascimento has performed throughout the United States Pieta includes special guest performances by legendary jazzmen Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny as well as acclaimed Brazilian vocalists Maria Rita Mariano Pieta’s 16 tracks play like an extended love poem to his beloved late adoptive mother Milton Nascimento received the The Latin Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award the Latin Recording Academy said: “Undeniably one of Brazil’s top musical innovators songwriter Milton Nascimento has recorded more than 40 albums and toured worldwide In 2012 he is celebrating 40 years since the release of his acclaimed album which is considered one the most important works of popular Brazilian music “This three-time Latin GRAMMY and GRAMMY winner is known for his falsetto and tonal range and he is recognized for his early works that fused Africanized folk with bossa nova transforming the tone of Brazilian music forever His international success has led to collaborations with artists such as Duran Duran; Earth Wind & Fire; Peter Gabriel; Herbie Hancock; Quincy Jones; Paul Simon; and James Taylor.” the Nascimento sound integrates numerous diverse cultures It assimilates 20th century pop and the Jazz giants with centuries-old sacred and folk expression Milton Nascimento is also profoundly attached to his roots in the interior of Brazil 2003)O Coronel e o Lobisomem (Universal Music 2005)Milagre dos Peixes Ao Vivo (2007)Novas Bossas (EMI 2008)Belmondo & Milton Nascimento (B-Flat Recordings 2011)Uma Travessia 50 Anos de Carreira (Ao Vivo) (Universal Please enter an answer in digits:4 × four = USP archeologist and anthropologist describes how he developed a theory on man’s arrival in the Americas the oldest skull ever found in the Americas Luzia belonged to an extinct group of hunter-gatherers from the region of Lagoa Santa in the vicinity of the city of Belo Horizonte Archeologist and anthropologist Walter Neves coordinator of the Laboratory for Human Evolution Studies of the University of São Paulo (USP) was not responsible for retrieving this ancient skeleton from its pre-historic site thanks to his research work – Luzia – the name he gave the skull – became the symbol of a controversial theory on how America was populated This theory is based on a biological model with two components the theory advocates that our continent was colonized by two waves of Homo sapiens coming from Asia The first migration wave is believed to have arrived approximately 14 thousand years ago and had been comprised of individuals resembling Luzia similar to that of the current Australians and Africans This first wave did not leave any descendants The second migratory wave is believed to have arrived here approximately 12 thousand years ago and the members of this group had the physical features of the Asians from whom the modern-day indigenous people possibly derive popular scientist who loves to take part in an active academic discussion – talks about Luzia and about his career I come from a poor family from the town of Três Pontas I already knew at the age of 8 that I wanted to be a scientist I wanted to work in the field of human evolution my brother – who is three years older than I am – and me my father worked as a bricklayer and my mother was a street vendor – she sold Yakult I started working one year after we came to São Paulo I sold pasta once a week at a street market in my neighborhood a luggage manufacturer; my job was to make suitcase locks I was hired to work at Rolls-Royce’s turbine manufacturing facility I benefitted enormously from that environment I believe my excellent management skills were developed during the time I worked at Rolls-Royce we had to bow to a portrait of the Queen of England It was a glamorous update for a boy who had come from the backwoods I started out as a clerk and when I left the company I had been promoted to the post of assistant to the technical director The job of Rolls-Royce in Brazil was to receive the turbines and do repair and general maintenance work on them My boss was the director of that department and I was his assistant I worked eight-hour days and went to night school Brazil’s public high school education system was excellent I had always believed that the way to study human evolution was to study history The institute had been founded by Paulo Duarte and was housed in the Zoology building I visited the History department because I wanted to get some information on the course I was told that I would not learn anything about human evolution if I studied History when I saw a sign with “Pre-History Institute” written on it I went to the institute and met archeologist Dorath Uchôa There I saw replicas of hominid fossils and pre-historic skeletons that had been dug out of the middens found on Brazil’s seacoast So I said to Dorath: “I want to enroll in the archeology course and study skeletons.” And she answered: “Don’t enroll in History You have to enroll in Biology or Medicine.” I couldn’t enroll in Medicine because it was a full-time course I was hired as a technician in 1978 by the Pre-History Institute while I was still attending the undergraduate course I think I was a sophomore about to enter my junior year I was hired as a researcher and a professor There was no competitive exam held at that time it came under the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology/ MAE archeology was taught at three different places at USP: at the Pre-History Institute the oldest venue; at the MAE; and at the archeology department of the Paulista Museum I worked as a researcher at the Pre-History Institute from 1980 to 1985 I entered a “sandwich” doctorate program at Stanford University because there were no specialists in this field in Brazil at that time The material was available at the Pre-History Institute but there was nobody at the Institute who could be my academic advisor Wasn’t there any research work being done on human evolution The institute was very small; it was staffed by two researchers I was hired together with Solange Caldarelli doing research on groups of hunters-gatherers believed to have lived in that region 5 to 3 thousand years ago She encouraged me to become an archeologist My transformation from biologist to physical anthropologist was self-made The progress of our research group exposed the mediocrity of the work being done at the Pre-History Institute and in Brazil This led to a fierce battle between us and the establishment We were kicked out of the university in 1985 Most of the faculty members had been hired as temporary professors and we were kicked out of the Pre-History Institute by the older faculty members What is the difference between a physical anthropologist and an archeologist I consider myself an anthropologist and an archeologist I classify myself under a category that exists in the United States called evolutionary anthropologist Even among evolutionary anthropologists it is difficult to find those who are involved in physical anthropology archeology and social-cultural anthropology which my colleagues did not fully understand I studied physical anthropology and biological anthropology and was involved in archeology projects I’m one of the very few people in the world involved in all possible fields of anthropology I am not proficient in any of the referred fields; on the other hand my understanding of the human being is much more multifaceted than that of my colleagues So the archeologist does the field work and the physical anthropologist waits for the material The physical anthropologist can do field work He waits for the archeologists to deliver him the material so that he can study it I said: I want to be an archeologist as well a field called bioarcheology was defined; the professionals in this field are physical anthropologists who got tired of depending on archeologists I rebelled independently against this situation The fact that I had to leave the institute in 1985 was traumatic because seven years of field work was lost My career was eliminated from one minute to the next by that time I had already presented my doctorate thesis in the Biology Institute; more specifically thanks to a six-month sandwich grant from the CNPq which at the time was equivalent to US$ 250 paid me another US$ 250 for my work at the laboratory Ask me why I didn’t go to work with a physical anthropologist if I was self-taught in terms of osteology because the work that Cavalli-Sforza does is fascinating I was enrolled in the master’s degree program in Biology and my advisor here was [Oswaldo] Frota-Pessoa but he has a much broader view of the human being I would not have been able to get my master’s degree He realized what kind of situation I was in and was very generous Cavalli-Sforza found out that I was enrolled in the master’s degree program and not in the doctorate program He would look at me and say: “How can you be enrolled in a master’s degree program if you have already published several papers you coordinate two archeological projects and have seven students I’m going to send a letter to Frota-Pessoa suggesting that you go directly into the doctorate program .” Nowadays I defended my doctorate thesis in December 1984 and Solange Caldarelli was so disgusted by the whole episode and by the academic community that she gave up her university career And this is when three possibilities arose One was to enter a post-doctorate program at Harvard; another was to enter a post-doctorate program at Pennsylvania State University and the third possibility was unexpected He knew that my condition would always be in conflict with Brazilian archeology the CNPq had an integrated genetic program which was a major factor for the development of the field of genetics in Brazil Frota coordinated some of the itinerant courses So Frota said: “Now that we were going to have a specialist in human evolution you are leaving to give an itinerant course around Brazil on human evolution.” I taught the course at the Federal University of Bahia at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte I told him about my career and that I was going to the United States He asked me “ Is there anything I can do to make you change your mind?” I answered: “Look Guilherme,” his name is Guilherme de La Penha “the only thing that would make me stay in Brazil would be an opportunity to set up my own interdisciplinary research center which would not be connected with anthropology or with archeology.” And then he invited me to set up what at the time was referred to as the biology and human ecology center I also had a personal reason that led to my decision to stay in Belem I fell deeply in love for the first time in my life a short while before I started to teach this course around Brazil the best thing that had ever happened to me it would have been very difficult to take him along it would be easier for him to find a job and continue our relationship So this is why I accepted the offer to work at the Goeldi Museum the last thing that you can do is work with skeletons because they cannot be preserved I began to dedicate myself to ecological anthropology Ecological anthropology studies how traditional societies adapt to the environment this was a line of research that American researchers had really focused on when working in the Amazon Region This line of research never moved forward in Brazil because our anthropology is based mostly on structuralism and breaks out in a rash whenever there is anything said or done that involves biology So I thought to myself: “Great – so I’m going to pick another fight I’m going to train the first generation in ecological anthropology.” Most of my research work on ecological anthropology in the Amazon Region involved the indigenous people So I decided to do research work on traditional mixed race populations We published the first major study in how mixed race peoples adapt to the Amazon Region The book was published in Brazil and abroad I sent some of my students who worked with me in the Amazon Region to enter doctorate programs abroad What conclusions would you highlight in this study As I was studying these traditional populations from the Amazon Region I realized that everybody who goes there – especially the NGOs – believe that those people have a malnutrition problem they do have a growth deficit in comparison to international standards But our research work showed that they eat enough carbohydrates and proteins sometime after I had moved to the Amazon Region So we made the decision to go back to São Paulo when he was at the terminal stage I came back to get a post-doctorate degree in anthropology I didn’t want to go back to the Amazon Region Were you attending the post-doctorate program in anthropology at USP Then I took two competitive entrance exams one of which at the Federal University of Santa Catarina As in 1989 I had already discovered what would become my model of the occupation of the Americas I thought to myself: “I have to work somewhere where I can dedicate myself to this field and go back to focusing on human skeletons.” Then a vacant position was announced in this department I knew I would be able to set up a center for studies on human evolution that would include archeology How did you get the idea of creating an alternative model for the colonization of the Americas one week from today I have to be at a conference in Stockholm on salvage archeology I need you to substitute me.” I said,: “At the last minute?” Then I remembered that Copenhagen is on the way to Stockholm I asked Guilherme for permission to spend some five days in Copenhagen to visit the Lund Collection I went on the trip and not only did I visit the collection but I also measured the Lagoa Santa skulls that are in the collection a researcher from Argentina who was spending some time at the Goeldi Hector is the leading South American bioanthropologist and my closest research partner I proposed that we use this material to do some research work we learned about the work being done by Niède Guidon whose conclusions seemed to me to be unbelievable such as her conclusion that the Americas had been populated thirty thousand years ago My idea for the research work on the Lund skulls was to show that the early Americans were not much different from the currently existing indigenous people You can imagine how astonished we were when we saw that the Lagoa Santa skulls resembled Australians and Africans more than they resembled Asians We realized that we needed a model to explain that Some classical authors from the 1940s and 1950s had already acknowledged that the Lagoa Santa material was similar to that in Australia Rivet’s theory proposes the existence of direct migration from Australia to South America to explain the similarity due to the progress of studies on the genetics of the indigenous peoples especially the work of (Francisco) Salzano it became clear that all American genetic markers pointed to Asia There was no similarity with the Australians So we then decided to create a model that would explore this morphological duality and so we began to study the occupation of Asia We found a morphological duality there as well which had existed in the late Pleistocene Age The population there at that time included pre-Mongolians and Mongolians Our Lagoa Santa populations resembled the pre-Mongoloids The currently existing indigenous population resembles the Mongoloids This is when we thought that America might have been populated by two different waves: one with a generalized morphology resembling the African and the Australian morphologies; the other wave with a morphology resembling the Asians Our first paper was published in Ciência e Cultura So you created this model before you had analyzed Luzia’s skull several museums had collections with material from the region of Lagoa Santa But as I was the spoiled child of Brazilian archeology I was not allowed access to the collections This is why decided to study the Lund Collection I was only allowed access to the collections in Brazil from 1995 onwards after some of the people who had placed the obstacles in this respect had passed away Luzia’s skull was one of the skulls that I was most interested in the skeleton was known as Lapa Vermelha IV the name of the site where the skeleton had been found The site had been explored by a French-Brazilian mission coordinated by Mrs Luzia’s skeleton was found during the digging stages in 1974 and 1975 With the exception of an article that she had published prior to her death there was nothing in writing about Lapa Vermelha Did she mention in the article that the skull was very old Madame Emperaire believed there were two skeletons in Lapa Vermelha: a younger one and an older one the culture that Luzia allegedly belonged to André Prous (a French archeologists who had been a member of the mission and is currently a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais/ UFMG) revised her notes and realized that the skull belonged to the younger skulls buried approximately one meter above the older skeleton Luzia was not buried; she had been placed on the floor of a shelter Prous demonstrated that the skull had rolled over and fallen into a hole in the roots of a rotten gameleira [a type of Ficus tree] the skull belonged to those remains whose age had been estimated at 11 thousand years Madame Emperaire died believing she had found evidence of a pre-Clovis culture in South America This is the skull that I baptized as Luzia Where was Luzia’s skull when you examined it It had always been in the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro; but the information on the skull was not found there The museum had partnered with the French mission Were Luzia’s people restricted to the region of Lagoa Santa In the article that provides a description of my research work – the article was published in 2005 in the PNAS journal – we referred to 81 skulls from that region Just to give you an idea of how rare it is to find skeletons that are over 7 thousand years in our continent the United States and Canada together have only five such skeletons We also have some material from other parts of Brazil I proved that the pre-Mongoloid was not unique to Lagoa Santa I believe that the non-Mongoloids probably arrived in that region approximately 14 thousand years ago and the Mongoloids arrived approximately 10 or 12 thousand years ago the Mongoloid morphology in Asia is something very recent I believe that there is a difference of only 2 or 3 thousand years between one wave and the other Are two or three thousand years enough to change the phenotype it has become rather clear that the Mongoloid morphology is the result of the exposure of the populations that came from Africa with a typical African morphology and were submitted to the extreme cold of Siberia My model has not been entirely accepted by some colleagues They believe that the Mongolian process occurred concurrently and in independent form in Africa and in America We are not going to solve this issue because we lack samples You choose the model that involves the smallest number of evolutionary steps to explain what you found which depend on the existence of two parallel and independent evolutionary events But my model is being opposed by some people But I don’t believe my model will be buried by this kind of data There is no reason for the mitochondrial DNA to behave in evolutionary form in the same way as skull morphology Where geneticists see a certain homogeneity from the point of view of the DNA Another argument is that there was only one migration wave that came to the Americas comprised of a population with Mongoloid and non-Mongoloid types such as Luzia But the genetic drift had to have been astonishing to explain colonization in this manner Why would have one phenotype disappeared and only the other one remained I believe that this one is the least convincing But how do you explain the disappearance of Luzia’s morphology we discovered in the last few years that the morphology had not disappeared we believed that one population had substituted the other one a colleague from Argentina described a Mexican tribe that had been isolated from the rest of the indigenous peoples in a territory that today belongs to California This tribe maintained the non-Mongoloid morphology until the 16th century We have also discovered that the Botocudo indigenous tribe maintained this morphology until the 19th century When we studied the ethnography of the Botocudos we realized that they continued living as hunter-gatherers until the end of the 19th century They were surrounded by other indigenous tribes with whom they had a bellicose relationship So some non-Mongoloid morphology had remained until recent times What is your opinion of the work of archeologist Niède Guidon at the Serra da Capivara National Park She believes human beings arrived in the State of Piauí approximately 50 thousand She published a short statement in Nature in the 1990s and we are still waiting for more papers Niède and I were mortal enemies for 20 years I have already been to Piauí several times and we even published some papers on the skeletons found there There were two skull morphologies in the Park I had good training in terms of analyzing flint stones Niède gave me and Astolfo Araujo (nowadays working at the MAE) access to the lytic collection after which I was 99.9% convinced of the fact that human occupation had taken place more than 30 thousand years ago Niède should invite the leading international experts in lytic technology to analyze the material and publish the results of the analyses we would have to throw away everything we know the work of everybody else – would become useless © Revista Pesquisa FAPESP - All rights reserved.