For the Indigenous communities whose ancestral history is the subject of this research, the state of honest uncertainty is, in some ways, more respectful than false certainty would be.

It acknowledges that the question of where their ancestors came from is a question that the dominant culture’s science does not fully understand — that the knowledge systems those communities carry, rooted in their own oral traditions and cultural practices, are not simply redundant to what science can tell them.

The genomic evidence constrains the range of possible historical scenarios, but it does not provide the kind of complete, detailed, specific account of ancestral history that a living cultural tradition can provide to its members.

The ancient people of Lagoa Santa knew who they were, where they came from, and what their place in the world was.