DARCY RIBEIRO AND THE BRAZILIAN INTELLIGENSTIA: FORMATIVE YEARS

Abstract

This article aims to carry out an analysis of Darcy Ribeiro's intellectual trajectory during the
period between 1946 and 1957. For that, this trajectory will be taken in a broad sense, both in terms of
Ribeiro's graduation in social sciences, at the Escola Livre de Sociologia e Política situated in São
Paulo city, as well as evoking his concomitant political-party militancy within the Partido Comunista
Brasileiro, acting in clandestine conditions during the years of Vargas' Estado Novo (1937-1945). In
this way, the intellectual and political dimensions of Darcy Ribeiro's trajectory will be analyzed in an
immersive way, in their correlation and in their reciprocal determinations, in line with the
aforementioned purpose of taking that trajectory in a broad sense. In addition, the analysis will
consider as a founding element of this trajectory readings imposed on Ribeiro by a scholarship at that
school, readings composed of interpretations about Brazil, presented to student in the form of essays
written by predecessor intellectuals, such as in the form of fictional literature. Finally, the intended
analysis will be the performance of Darcy Ribeiro, after graduating, in ethnological works with
indigenous populations of the Pantanal and the Brazilian Amazon, linked to the Serviço de Proteção
aos Índios and under the direct influence of Marshal Cândido Rondon.