Description:
R. Bastide played a most important role in the cultural lifeof Brazil, particularly within the young University of Sao Paulo, but also in the larger sphere of the national intelligentsia. Very soon after arriving in 1938 he became one of the most dynamic elements of the intellectual circles, both as art and literary critic and as sociologist. Rapidly persuaded that unless he modified totally the logical categories inherent in his European mentality he would be unable to understand the Brazilian civilization which fascinated him, he was led first to study the works of the early Brazilian researchers and later to observe personnally the Afro-Brazilian cults, and these investigations provided him with the key to this strange and complex world. Finally the ritual of initiation to the candomblé in which he was allowed to participate attained its real significance in his life, that of a new birth which allowed him to become totally integrated in the Brazilian way of life, for the greater benefit of the researchers and students of the country.