Vitória Dioto de Brito is an early career archaeologist and PhD candidate. Her research aims to explore pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies through the lens of material culture, focusing on the preservation and interpretation of cultural traditions. Integrating field archaeology with ethnographic methods through the lenses of anthropology.
Vitória began her academic journey at State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Studies, where she completed a double Bachelor in Social Science and Anthropology. In a culturally rich environment, surrounded by a spirit of social justice and appreciation of cultural heritage, she developed a profound passion for the study of the past, and the knowledge and work of past civilizations.
Her academic formation was enriched by a mobility semester at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (2023-2024), Italy, where she studied Conservation Science and Technology for Cultural Heritage. There, she deepened her understanding of preservation methods and techniques in the context of environmental and urban transformation. And was able to have field experience on the impact of the environment on historical buildings, and how to mitigate these damages. She also developed an interest in the uses of LiDAR for revealing hidden sites and detecting threats to archaeological sites. She has written papers on topics as the Vesuvius eruption, El Nino possible impact on LatinAmerica sites and recently had article selected for publication by award winning University of São Paulo (USP) on the arrival of Italian cuisine in Brazil and its importance and significance to the italian immigrants in the XIX and XX centuries.
With a strong sensitivity to social, cultural, and environmental issues, Vitória believes archaeology should serve as a bridge between the past and present-day communities, encouraging heritage education and the recognition of diversity as a core value.
“My main goal is to focus on the research of religious practices of pre-columbian mesoamerica societies, and the demystification of their ceremonies. I believe that too much of today perception of past cultures is based on biased colonization reports and material analises is the closest we can get to actually communicate with people of the past”