This paper is part of the theoretical concerns of the author on the reception of the "Chicago School" in Brazil. It analyzes the passage of Robert Park in the late '30s in Bahia, his motivations and the effects on international social sciences. This trip is little known, and the paper offers a little collaboration to the history of social sciences in Brazil and Bahia. Based on data from original research conducted in Brazil and the United States, the author considers the importance of the visit by Park [and Pierson] to Bahia. It incorporates classical notions of Marginal Man, developed by Park and melting pot, used by Park and disciples, which referred to the conviviality of Chicago communities from different nationalities, who did not mix, distinguishing it from the Bahian case, of miscegenation. This singularity transformed Bahia into a "social laboratory", prompting the arrival of other anthropologists, and new questions and theoretical interpretations, now resumed.
Chicago School; Robert Park; Donald Pierson; race relations; Bahia and Brazil
