The cranial morphology of the Botocudo Indians, Brazil

Author(s)

Strauss, Andre ^[1] ; Hubbe, Mark ^{[2, 3]} ; Neves, Walter A. ^[4] ; Bernardo, Danilo V. ^[5] ; Atui, Joao Paulo V. ^[4]

Affiliation

^[1] Max Planck Inst Evolutionary Anthropol, Dept Human Evolut, D-04103 Leipzig - Germany

^[2] Ohio State Univ, Dept Anthropol, Columbus, OH 43210 - USA

^[3] Univ Catolica Norte, Inst Invest Arqueol & Museo, San Pedro De Atacama - Chile

^[4] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Biociencias, Lab Estudos Evolut Humanos, Dept Genet & Biol Evolut, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[5] Univ Fed Rio Grande, Inst Ciencias Humanas & Informacao, Rio Grande - Brazil

• Document type: Review article
• Source: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY; v. 157, n. 2, p. 202-216, JUN 2015.
• Web of Science Citations: 8

Abstract

The Botocudo Indians were hunter-gatherer groups that occupied the East-Central regions of Brazil decimated during the colonial period in the country. During the 19th century, craniometric studies suggested that the Botocudo resembled more the Paleoamerican population of Lagoa Santa than typical Native Americans groups. These results suggest that the Botocudo Indians might represent a population that retained the biological characteristics of early groups of the continent, remaining largely isolated from groups that gave origin to the modern Native South American variation. Moreover, recently, some of the Botocudo remains have been shown to have mitochondrial and autosomal DNA lineages currently found in Polynesian populations. Here, we explore the morphological affinities of Botocudo skulls within a worldwide context. Distinct multivariate analyses based on 32 craniometric variables show that 1) the two individuals with Polynesian DNA sequences have morphological characteristics that fall within the Polynesian and Botocudo variation, making their assignation as Native American specimens problematic, and 2) there are high morphological affinities between Botocudo, Early Americans, and the Polynesian series of Easter Island, which support the early observations that the Botocudo can be seen as retaining the Paleoamerican morphology, particularly when the neurocranium is considered. Although these results do not elucidate the origin of the Polynesian DNA lineages among the Botocudo, they support the hypothesis that the Botocudo represent a case of late survival of ancient Paleoamerican populations, retaining the morphological characteristics of ancestral Late Pleistocene populations from Asia. Am J Phys Anthropol 157:202-216, 2015. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 04/01321-6 - Origins and microevolution of man in the Americas: a paleoanthropological approach (III)
• Grantee: Walter Alves Neves
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 08/51747-0 - Mortuary practices characterization of the pre-historic hunter-gatherers from Lapa do Santo, Lagoa Santa (MG)
• Grantee: André Menezes Strauss
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• FAPESP's process: 08/58729-8 - Human cranial diversity and its evolutionary implications
• Grantee: Danilo Vicensotto Bernardo
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate