Roger Marius Cesar Bastide was born in Nimes, Frances on April 1, 1898 and died in France on April 10, 1974. He was raised in France and brought up as a protestant by his family. He went to Nimes College in France. Bastide could be considered both a sociologist and an anthropologist, even though he studied theology in college. His interests eventually lead him to Brazil in 1937 where he taught at the University of Sao Paulo.
Roger Bastide had great interests in race relations, the sociology of mental illness, the meaning of “structure”, and applied anthropology. Because of his interests he studied the Afro-Brazilian people while he was in Brazil. He also studied Brazilian religion and contributed to Brazil's education system by helping to reform it. Another interest of his was the Candombles of Bahia, which were cults that have African religious elements in them. He also had two major works on Brazilian religion which were Le Candomble and Les Religions Africaines au Bresil. These works were about the popular religions of the Afro-Brazilians.
Bastide also taught at a variety of schools including Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Institut des Hautes Etudes d'Amerique Latine, University of Pairs, and he also founded the Centre de Psychiatric Sociale which he directed until he died.
Lyons, Andrew P. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol 18, New York, NY, 1979
Winters, Christopher (Editor). International Dictionary of Anthropologists, Garland Publishing, NY & London, 1991
Written By: Lance Barker, 2003