Donald Pierson

Pierson was born in Kansas on September 8, 1900.{{cite web|url=https://sbsociologia.com.br/project/donald-pierson/|title=Donald Pierson|last=Magaldi|first=Tiago|publisher=Brazilian Society of Sociology|date=|access-date=27 January 2025}} He received his doctorate degree from the University of Chicago in 1939, the subject of his doctoral thesis being on race relations in Bahia. The thesis was based on research made from 1935 to 1937. Afterwards, he remained as a professor at the Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo until 1959.{{cite web|url=https://academica.fflch.usp.br/sites/academica.fflch.usp.br/files/DONALD%20PIERSON.pdf|title=professores eméritos - Donald Pierson|last=|first=|publisher=Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo|date=|access-date=27 January 2025}} His 1942 book, Negroes in Brazil, a Study of Race Contact at Bahia, based on his thesis, contains numerical tables classifying people based on race, and concluded that although Black people had occupied the lower ranks of the Brazilian social hierarchy, there was not racism as it had been defined in the United States. His findings largely advanced the now-disproven racial democracy theory of Brazilian society, which posited that Brazilian society at large was not racist and that societal inequities were defined by class rather than by race.Thomas E. Skidmore. Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974. Pierson also dedicated two chapters to the local culture, which has strong influences from Africa.

While at the Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo, he coordinated research and studies, among the most notable being Cruz das Almas: A Brazilian Village (1951)Pierson, Donald. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000118569791;view=1up;seq=7 Cruz das Almas, a Brazilian village]. Washington, U. S. Govt. Print. Off., 1948. and O Homem no Vale do São Francisco (1972),[http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-71822006000100011&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=pt O homem no Vale do São Francisco: um legado de Donald Pierson às ciências humanas e sociais no Brasil]. By Elizabeth de Melo Bomfim. Psicologia & Sociedade vol. 18 nº 1 Porto Alegre, janeiro-abril de 2006. ISSN 1807-0310[https://scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-73312012000200018 Ciências Sociais e saúde no ciclo de pesquisas no Vale do São Francisco (1950-1960)]. By Nemuel Silva Oliveira and Marcos Chor Maio. Physis - Revista de Saúde Coletiva, Rio de Janeiro, 22 [ 2 ]: 733-753, 2012 both part of his "community study" program, the first research program carried out by Pierson.

Pierson was a colleague of Emilio Willems at the Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo, and had, as an important theoretical reference, the German philosopher Georg Simmel. He also initiated his research with a symbolic interactionist perspective, influenced by academics such as George Herbert Mead, Robert E. Park, and Robert Redfield.[http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0011-52582007000100002&script=sci_arttext Simmel no Brasil]. By Leopoldo Waizbort. Dados vol. 50 nº 1 Rio de Janeiro, 2007[http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/ojs/index.php/reh/article/view/65455/65426 Entre Chicago e Salvador: Donald Pierson e o estudo das relações raciais]. By Marcos Chor Maio and Thiago da Costa Lopes. Revista Estudos Históricos vol. 30, nº 60, maio de 2017, p. 121.

Pierson was named a Guggenheim fellow in 1963.{{cite news|title=English prof gets grant|newspaper=The Durham Sun|location=Durham, North Carolina, USA|date=1963-04-29|page=11|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-durham-sun/126648725/|via=newspapers.com|access-date=January 27, 2025}} He later was also named professor emeritus at the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences, University of São Paulo in 1993.{{Cite web|url=http://www.fflch.usp.br/emeritos|title=Professores Eméritos|publisher=Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo|language=pt-br|access-date=January 27, 2025}}

Pierson died on October 13, 1995, in Florida.

• Cruz das Almas: A Brazilian Village (Washington Smithsonian Institution), 1951.
• Survey of the Literature on Brazil of Sociological Significance Published up to 1940 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 1945.
• Race Relations in Portuguese America (capítulo em Race Relations in World Perspective - University of Hawaii Press), 1955.
• Negroes in Brazil: A Study of Race Contact at Bahia (University of Chicago Press), 1942.
  Brazilian edition: [http://www.brasiliana.com.br/obras/brancos-e-pretos-na-bahia-estudo-de-contato-racial Brancos e pretos na Bahia - estudo de contato racial]. With prefaces by Arthur Ramos and Robert E. Park. Companhia Editora Nacional, 1945 (available at Brasiliana Eletrônica).
• Estudos de Ecologia Humana (organizer). São Paulo, 1942.
• Estudos de Organização Social (org.). São Paulo, 1949.
• Teoria e Pesquisa em Sociologia. São Paulo: Melhoramentos, 1965.

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• [http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1517-45222005000200015 Donald Pierson e a escola sociológica de Chicago no Brasil: os estudos urbanos na cidade de São Paulo (1935-1950)]. By Edgar S.G. Mendoza. Sociologias nº 14. Porto Alegre, July-December 2005
• [http://www.anpocs.com/index.php/edicoes-anteriores/bib-23/388-donald-pierson-e-a-sociologia-no-brasil/file Donald Pierson e a sociologia no Brasil]. By Lúcia Lippi de Oliveira. BIB, Rio de Janeiro, nº 23, pp. 35–48, 1st semester of 1987

• Arthur Ramos
• Edson Carneiro
• Gilberto Freyre
• History of the socialist movement in the United States
• Melville Herskovits
• Rüdiger Bilden
• Ruth Landes

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Category:1900 births

Category:1995 deaths

Category:Academics from Kansas

Category:University of Chicago alumni

Category:Academic staff of the University of São Paulo

Category:Brazilianists

Category:American sociologists

Category:20th-century American social scientists