To reinvent the wheel The circulation of samba among subjects, events and repertories in Cachoeira, BAThis thesis describes institutionalization and professionalization processes of samba de roda groups and sambadores (samba players) from Cachoeira, Bahia, from the 1950s till the present. The thesis is divided in three parts for assessing such process from different perspectives: the path of individual and collective subjects engaged in the practice of samba; the position of samba within musical events of the city; and samba's musical characteristics and relations to other repertoires. Research data was mainly collected during a fieldwork period of 20 intermittent months between 2015 and 2018 in Cachoeira. The fieldwork consisted of following sambadores in their everyday life as well as at extraordinary events of the city's festive calendar. It encompassed a large range of civic, festive and religious events, as well as family and community relationships of sambadores. Analysis of fieldwork data, interviews, audiovisual material and musical transcriptions sought to understand the particularities of the institutionalization and professionalization processes of samba and sambadores, which were reinforced by the patrimonialization of samba de roda in 2004, but date back to older sociocultural developments specific of the city. The thesis aims to demonstrate that, by means of such processes, samba became the articulator of a musical system of Cachoeira, impacting the musical practices of sambadores and leading to the protagonism of the samba de roda group over other forms of social organization, as well as of samba corrido over other samba styles.