He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Florida, in 1977, under the supervision of Charles Wagley, who at that time was considered the foremost Brazilianist in the United States and had done extensive fieldwork in Brazil.

His dissertation was about the Tenetehara Indians of northern Brazil and in it Gomes expounded how this Indigenous people had managed to survive almost 400 years of relations with Western society.

Years later, Gomes published his first book called Os índios e o Brasil (Petrópolis, Vozes, 1988), where he hailed the survival of Brazilian Indians as the most important news in the recent history of inter-ethnic relations in that country.

Besides teaching in several universities in Brazil and abroad, such as Unicamp, in Campinas, São Paulo, UERJ, in Rio de Janeiro, Macalester College, in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Universidade Federal Fluminense (Niterói, RJ), Gomes has also been undersecretary of culture and education in the State of Rio de Janeiro (1991–1995) and president of the Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI – National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples).

Though considered a very difficult job, with critics coming from all sides, such as farmers, agribusiness, politicians, wildcat miners, loggers, and, last but not least, fellow anthropologists and NGOs.