That is, in the end, what the bones and the DNA of the ancient people of Lagoa Santa have been trying to tell us all along: that human history is never as simple as we want it to be, and that the complexity, when you understand it, is always more interesting than the simplicity it replaces.

The Living Descendants and What Science Owes Them

The ancient people of Lagoa Santa are not the only people in this story.

The living Indigenous communities of Brazil — the Tupí-speaking nations, the Macro-Jê nations, the hundreds of distinct communities that have maintained their languages, cultures, and identities through five centuries of colonial pressure, epidemic disease, forced displacement, and cultural suppression — are the descendants of the people whose bones are being studied.

They have a direct stake in how that science is conducted and communicated.