"Besides mtDNA and yDNA do not tell the whole thing, far from it. Just two examples: José Sarney is from Maranhão, colonial family stock, even though his mtDNA is African, his autosomal (the sum of his ancestors) is 99,9% European, which means that the African contribution was diluted close to zero. The same goes for Tiazinha, who is from the interior of Paraíba. Ivete Sangalo, from the interior of Bahia, scored 99,2% European and only 0,4% African and 0,4% Native American. Marcos Palmeira, whose family is from Bahia and Maranhão, who has a classic ""pardo phenotype"" (brown skin, curly hair, somewhat similar to Tiazinha) scored 93% European 5,5% Amerindian and only 1,5% SSA. Zeca Camargo, another tanned/brown skinned Brazilian, scored 96,5% European 2,6% Native American and 0,9% SSA(his mtDNA is European by the way). The key is: the Brazilian population is heterogeneous. There is no way to tell what is average so far. We all know there is strong African and European influences, besides Native American ancestry. Another important point, which is often overlooked, is that the current profile of Brazil is the result of a brutal exploitation process called colonization, which involved the decimation of Native Americans, the slave trade of Africans, and the cultural genocide of these populations. Moreover, leading scientists are also telling us that ""race"" is a social construct, not for real. There is no way the Census, with its colonial times words (""white"", ""black"" and ""pardo""), will capture the reality of Brazilian diversity. The levels of ancestry of Brazilians vary from person to person in such a way that it is really difficult to precise it. According to another study by the very same Brazilian Geneticist Sérgio Pena, in a sample of about 335 Brazilians from Rio de Janeiro, the ""blacks"" tested would be on average 41,8% European and 7,3% Native American in ancestry, thus roughly 50% non African in ancestry, autosomal ancestry (the sum of the ancestors, the overall profile)(http://cienciahoje.uol.com.br/152784). Would it be appropriate to characterize them as ""Africans"" then? They have multiple ancestries. According to that same study, the ""pardos"" from Rio de Janeiro would be roughly on average 70% European, and the rest made of African and Native American contributions respectively. And the ""whites"" from Rio de Janeiro would be roughly 90% European, and about roughly only 5% SSA (the African on par with the Iberian source, and practically within the noise range of the test), this way contradicting the often quoted studies posted so far. It is a proof of the high levels of diversity in Brazil. Again, it is important to stress the diversity of the Brazilian heritage, which is the result of European colonialism. Again, the studies posted by Opinoso are far from being conclusive. As shown below (Tiazinha and José Sarney examples), the European autosomal contribution is remarkable and to downplay it is as ridiculous as to overestimate it. Even from the point of view of that study alone both ""pardos"" and ""whites"" from Natal would be overwhelmingly European. As for the often quoted research by Pena (the 86% figure) that study was done a long time ago, and it has not been proved conclusively. As pointed out below, the Brazilian population is remarkably heterogenous, and there is no way to tell so far what is average, only if all Brazilians were tested. Just to illustrate it, another study, recently published, concluded that all Brazilians, be them ""black"", ""white"" or ""pardo"" would be predominantly European in ancestry (at 80% on average according to that study; in the South the European gradient would be even higher, at 90%) (http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ciencia/ult306u633465.shtml). "