CV Lattes
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Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IB) (Institutional affiliation for the last research proposal) Birthplace: Brazil
I have a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the Biosciences Institute of the University of São Paulo (USP 1999), a master's degree (2002) and a doctorate from the same institution (2007). I worked as a researcher-curator at the Department of Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom (2006-2010) and then I did postdoctoral studies at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of USP (2011-2014). I was a lecturer at the Postgraduate Program in Archaeology (PPGArq) of the Dept. of Anthropology of the National Museum-UFRJ (2014-June 2018). I am currently a lecturer at the Dept. of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology of the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo and coordinated the Laboratory of Human Evolutionary Studies in this department. I have experience in Human Evolution, Bioarchaeology, Biological Anthropology and Archaeology, working mainly on the following subjects: human biocultural studies, human microevolutionary studies, Brazilian prehistoric settlement, cultural transmission in hunter-gatherers and application of statistical methods in archaeology. I hold a productivity fellowship at CNPq (PQ-2) and I am a Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter (UK). (Source: Lattes Curriculum)
| Articles published in other media outlets (3 total): |
| Head Topics (Brasil): De 6 a 8 mil anos: pesquisa estabelece nova idade para o sítio arqueológico Alice Boer (07/May/2021) |
| India Education Diary (Índia): University of São Paulo: From 6 to 8 thousand years: research establishes new age for the archeological site Alice Boer (07/May/2021) |
| Jornal da USP online: De 6 a 8 mil anos: pesquisa estabelece nova idade para o sítio arqueológico Alice Boer (06/May/2021) |
Okumura (University of São Paulo [USP]) and Cochrane (University of Auckland [UA]) are allied researchers in bio-anthropology and archaeology specialising in evolutionary-ecological theory and related quantitative methods used to study the human past. Their research programmes examine past populations focusing on demography, population interaction, and technological variation related to s…
The Ribeira de Iguape Valley, located in the south of the State of São Paulo, is one of the rare Brazilian regions that presents prehistoric human occupations, preserving both human skeletal remnants and their material culture, throughout the Holocene. Therefore, this place presents itself as an ideal one for understanding long-lived human settlement, including issues of contact, identity…
The construction of mounds was a common habit in several prehistoric populations around the world. In Brazil, there are several prehistoric prehistoric sites that can be described as mounds, among them, coastal shell mounds, Pantanal embankments, Cerritos in the south of the country and riverine shell mounds. In relation to the latter, the Ribeira de Iguape River Valley stands out as a re…
Several Paleoindian sites in Brazil, especially in the Southern and Central regions of the country, are known due to decades of excavations on those areas since the 1960's. However, few systematic analysis of the material culture of those Paleoindian sites have been done until this day. Archaeological literature from Brazil usually classifies only two archaeological cultures for the Paleo…
It has been proposed that the Umbu tradition, whose definition is based on the presence of bifacial points, originated in Southeastern Brazil around 10,000 BP, and it could be still observed around 1,500 BP. So far, very few chronological markers have been identified. That, together with its extended chronological frame, has resulted in much controversy about the actual existence of such …
| 2 / 2 | Ongoing research grants |
| 2 / 2 | Ongoing scholarships in Brazil |
| 3 / 1 | Completed scholarships in Brazil |
| 7 / 5 | All research grants and scholarships |
| Associated processes | |
(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)
| Publications | 7 |
| Citations | 64 |
| Cit./Article | 9.1 |
| Data from Web of Science | |
LOPONTE, DANIEL; OKUMURA, MERCEDES; CARBONERA, MIRIAN. New records of fishtail projectile points from Brazil and its implications for its peopling. JOURNAL OF LITHIC STUDIES, v. 3, n. 1, 2016. Web of Science Citations: 6. (10/06453-9)
OKUMURA, MERCEDES; ARAUJO, ASTOLFO G. M.. Long-term cultural stability in hunter-gatherers: a case study using traditional and geometric morphometric analysis of lithic stemmed bifacial points from Southern Brazil. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, v. 45, p. 59-71, MAY 2014. Web of Science Citations: 42. (10/06453-9)
HUBBE, MARK; OKUMURA, MERCEDES; BERNARDO, DANILO V.; NEVES, WALTER A.. Cranial Morphological Diversity of Early, Middle, and Late Holocene Brazilian Groups: Implications for Human Dispersion in Brazil. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, v. 155, n. 4, p. 546-558, DEC 2014. Web of Science Citations: 11. (08/58729-8, 04/01321-6, 10/06453-9)
MORENO DE SOUSA, JOAO CARLOS; OKUMURA, MERCEDES. A new proposal for the technological analysis of lithic points: Application for understanding the cultural diversity of hunter gatherers in Eastern South America. QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL, v. 562, p. 1-12, OCT 10 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0. (19/08870-0, 18/23282-5, 16/23584-6)
CHAHUD, ARTUR; OKUMURA, MERCEDES. The presence ofPanthera oncaLinnaeus 1758 (Felidae) in the Pleistocene of the region of Lagoa Santa, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. HISTORICAL BIOLOGY, AUG 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0. (18/23282-5)
OKUMURA, MERCEDES; ARAUJO, ASTOLFO G. M.. The Southern Divide: Testing morphological differences among bifacial points from southern and southeastern Brazil using geometric morphometrics. JOURNAL OF LITHIC STUDIES, v. 3, n. 1, 2016. Web of Science Citations: 5. (10/06453-9)
ALVES NEVES, WALTER; OKUMURA, MARIA MERCEDES M.; GONZÁLEZ-JOSÉ, ROLANDO; FIGUTI, LEVY; EGGERS, SABINE; BLASIS, PAULO ANTONIO DANTAS DE; HUBBE, MARK OLIVER ROHRIG. A new early Holocene human skeleton from Brazil: implications for the settlement of the New World. Journal of Human Evolution, v. 48, n. 4, p. 403-411, Apr. 2005. (98/14254-2, 99/00670-7, 99/12684-2)
PARELLADA, CLAUDIA; PARENTI, FABIO; OKUMURA, MERCEDES. A Bifacial Point of Extraordinary Dimensions Found in Parana State, Southern Brazil. LITHIC TECHNOLOGY, v. 46, n. 1, NOV 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0. (18/23282-5)
(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)
OKUMURA, Maria Mercedes Martinez. Diversidade morfológica craniana, micro-evolução e ocupação pré-histórica da costa brasileira. Tese (Doutorado) - Instituto de Biociências. Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo. (02/13441-0)