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Letters signed by Donald Pierson (1955, 1967, 1974)

Letters signed by Donald Pierson (1955, 1967, 1974)

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This item is no longer available. However, we may be able to put you in contact with its owner — who knows if they might accept your offer? — or, alternatively, suggest other items of similar interest, without any obligation. Contact us via WhatsApp: +55 31 98221-5758 or email: contato@glorias.com.br

Donald Pierson, the pioneering American anthropologist in Brazil, discusses his research and publications.

  • Three letters from Donald Pierson to Valdemar Cavalcanti.
  • One page per letter.
  • In Portuguese.
  • 21.5 cm x 28 cm.
  • July 11, 1955 (São Paulo), May 03, 1967 (United States), and July 31, 1974 (United States).
  • Paper fragile due to age.
  • Unique set.

1955 Letter | This letter is very interesting because it mentions little-known research conducted between 1950 and 1953 in rural Brazil, in the São Francisco Valley.

1967 Letter | This letter mentions the publication of the book that was released in Brazil in 1971: Pierson, Donald. 1971 [1942] Brancos e pretos na Bahia: estudo de contato racial. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional. 2nd edition.

1974 Letter | This letter relates to the 1955 letter, as it discusses the publication of the book O homem no Vale do São Francisco, which was Donald Pierson's last work in Brazil.

We would like to thank Dr. Edgar S. G. Mendoza, from the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, whose PhD thesis and email comments helped us understand the contribution of Donald Pierson, from the Chicago Sociological School, to the beginnings of Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Science in Brazil; and, consequently, the importance of this set of unpublished letters.

Donald Pierson's field research procedure is very diverse: he made a detailed description of the racial situation, analyzed the proportional number of individuals in contact, degrees of prestige, racial segregation and miscegenation, occupations, clothing, group attitudes, the role of the mixed-race individual in the community, participation of social groups, ecology, economics, politics, and sociology of intergroup relations, racial consciousness, status, group feelings of segregation, and cultural forms.

Through participant observation, research techniques for selecting key information (men, women, age, etc.), questionnaire techniques, genealogies, and direct interviews, he obtained important firsthand data. By recording rituals, marriages, ceremonies, musical concerts, sporting events, solemnities, popular festivals, parades, opening and closing of school and church festivals, masses, tributes, inaugurations, clubs, cinemas, receptions, conferences, carnivals, processions, public libraries, and schools, Donald Pierson was able to gain a general understanding of these thematic situations. Furthermore, his studies in historical archives searching for documents, city maps, personal documents (letters), autobiographies, demographic censuses, life histories, classifications (proverbs), newspapers, scientific bibliographies, popular literature (novels, poems, short stories, etc.), allowed him to reconstruct Salvador's past.

Pierson began training students and disciples through classes, seminars, conferences, translations of books and articles, contacts with institutions, universities, and foreign professors. This was a way of training qualified professionals, and, at the same time, reproducing and constructing a method of conducting research in Brazil.

Donald Pierson was a central figure in sociological research in Brazil with new ideas, viewpoints, and orientations. His interlocutor, Valdemar Cavalcanti (1912 – 1982), was an award-winning writer and a pioneer of journalism in Brazil.

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