Gerson Levi-Lazzaris (born in Curitiba, on November 25, 1979) is a Brazilian archaeologist, descendent of Italo-Slovenian immigrants. Most of the Lazzaris are from Forno di Zoldo, Veneto, from where most of them emigrated during the end of the 19th century, and also after the Second World War to Argentina, Australia, Brazil and United States.
Born as Gerson Levi da Silva-Mendes, he had his current surname recently recovered. In 1983, his family moved from Curitiba to São Paulo. At the age of 15 he moved to Lisbon, Portugal, following a short-experience in Finland. Accepted in the University of São Paulo, Levi-Lazzaris started his studies in Archaeology and History, focusing Anti-semitism in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (2003), obtaining his BA. In 2007 he obtained a Master degree in Archaeology in the same University of São Paulo based on an extensive dissertation about Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer societies in Southeast Brazil. He was the first archaeologist to introduce ecosystem approach in Brazilian archaeology. On March 2007 he was accepted as graduate student at Vanderbilt University.
Levi-Lazzaris has published more than 50 articles between, ranging from political reviews in Trotskyite periodicals to scientific reviews and governamental reports. He has also translated a book and is the author of two others, both in preparation for publication. Levi-Lazzaris is currently an assistant researcher in the State Museum of Roraima, Brazil, working in Roraima among the Ninam Indians, a Yanomamo subgroup,[1] developing ethnoarchaeological studies in the Uraricoera valley.[2]