This articles sets out to analyze the circunstances that led the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre to press for the belated inclusion of his home state of Pernambuco in the cycle of research projects on race relations in Brazil, promoted by UNESCO in the early 1950s. It also reviews the actual results of this research project, conducted by Freyre's associate Rene Ribeiro. The text uses the analysis of the context in which emerged the first criticisms of Freyre's work to demonstrate that he made an effort to strengthen the recently created Instituto Joaquim Nabuco (IJN), with which he hoped to institutionalize his own brand of sociology and to engage in debates with his critics.This explains the importance of the collaboration of Ribeiro, a physician-athropologist who combined two distinct traditions in his training: the school of social-medical studies developed during the 1930s in Pernambuco, and the anthropological specialization accquired under Melville Herskovits, during the late 1940s. He also had direct contact with Brazil's Mid-South region, particularly with the scholars of the Escola Livre de Sociologia e Política, in São Paulo. In this manner, Freyre prepared for the confrontations with the institutionalized social sciences, that were questioning his essayistic brand of sociological studies. The UNESCO project is a precise indicator of these times of controversy.
Gilberto Freyre; René Ribeiro; history of Social Sciences in Brazil, race relations; UNESCO