From 1954 until his retirement in 1968 Bastide was professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. (He returned to Brazil for extended stays in 1962 and 1973). His chair, was named “Ethnologie sociale et religieuse,” the designation to which Lévy-Brühl had given currency. His activities were numerous and his production intense. In touch with French Africanists, he assimilated the results of their research, did field work in Africa, and wrote on a group of Afro-Brazilians who returned to Africa. This chapter will focus on his general institutional involvements. Specific developments in theory of religion will be examined in the next chapters.

In the first two years Bastide wrote his dissertation and his book on Candomblé. He then produced a variety of books that share a somewhat different profile. They reflect his teaching, and opened up new areas of sociology; they have a sort of textbook quality, reflecting the current state of specific questions (with abundant international bibliography) and seem intended for gifted undergraduates. In this vein are Sociologie des maladies mentales (1965; English translation in 1972), Les Amériques noires (1967, 1973, 1996), and Anthropologie appliquée (1971; English 1973). In this category I would also place Sociologie et psychanalyse, first published in Portuguese in 1948 (1950, 1972, 1995). Many of these books were translated into a range of languages.