This book introduces the life and work of Darcy Ribeiro (1922–1997), one of the foremost exponents of Brazilian/Latin American Social thought in the 20th century.

Ribeiro was an anthropologist, indigenist ethnographer, social scientist, and planner and creator of universities and schools and held various political offices. This book examines Ribeiro’s work in conversation with other great names of Latin American critical thought and introduces the contemporary epistemological movement he inspired, ‘Modernity-Coloniality-Decoloniality’. It presents the 12 years of Latin American exile to which he was subjected in the 1960s to 1970s, highlighting the fame he gained as a reformer of universities on the continent. Finally, the book builds two new dialogues unheard of, one with Black Brazilian intellectuals and the other with contemporary post(de) colonial studies.

This book will appeal to all those interested in studying global asymmetries, social inequalities, and obstacles to development in Latin America. Scholars and students of Sociology, Social Theory, Anthropology, Latin American Studies, Political History, and Education will find it useful.

Adelia Miglievich-Ribeiro is Associate Professor at the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (Ufes), Brazil, working in the Postgraduate Programme in Social Sciences (PGCS). Researcher in social theories and the history of the Social Sciences, as well as in Latin American thought, with an emphasis on Darcy Ribeiro, she held the Darcy Ribeiro Chair (IPEA-CAPES). Currently, she is CNPq Productivity Researcher and composes the board of directors of the Brazilian Society of Sociology/SBS (2023–2025), as well as being a member of the founding board of the Darcy Ribeiro Foundation (FUNDAR).