William R. Bascom (May 23, 1912 – September 11, 1981) was an award-winning Americanfolklorist,anthropologist, andmuseum director. He was a specialist in the art and culture ofWest Africa and theAfrican Diaspora, especially theYoruba ofNigeria.^[1]

Bascom completed hisB.A. at theUniversity of Wisconsin, and earned hisPh.D. in anthropology atNorthwestern University underMelville J. Herskovits in 1939, which was based on research carried out amongst theYoruba.^[2] Bascom was the first American anthropologist to carry out fieldwork among the Yoruba.^[3]

Bascom taught at Northwestern,Cambridge University. During World War II, he joined theO.S.S. and together withRalph Bunche co-authored an unsigned volume,A Pocket Guide to West Africa in 1943.^[1]

Post-war, Bascom and his Cuban-born wife, Berta began research into practices of Yoruba origin - such as theShango cult andSanteria - in Cuba and elsewhere.^[2] Berta was a lifelong co-worker with Bascom.^[4]

In 1957 he left Northwestern University for theUniversity of California, Berkeley where he become the first director of theLowie Museum of Anthropology, a post he held until his retirement in 1979.^[2][3] Bascom also helped in the creation of the master's degree program at Berkeley in 1965.^[1]

Several of Bascom's articles onfolkloristics serve as texts in graduate courses in folklore: his essays were regularly anthologised during his career.^[1] Published posthumously, Bascom'sAfrican folktales in the New World (1992) has been credited with making important contributions to debates around "diffusion and independent invention".^[2]

Bascom served as president of theAmerican Folklore Society between 1953 and 1954.^[5] His two Presidential Addresses were titled "Four Functions of Folklore"^[6] and "Verbal Art".^[7] His bookIfa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa was awarded thePitrè Prize.^[3]

In a major article published in 1954,^[8] Bascom argued that folklore can serve four primary functions in a culture:

• Folklore lets people escape from repressions imposed upon them by society e.g.: tall tales
• Folklore validates culture, justifying its rituals and institutions to those who perform and observe them.
• Folklore is a pedagogic device which reinforces morals and values and builds wit. e.g.: scary stories/moral lessons
• Folklore is a means of applyingsocial pressure and exercisingsocial control. e.g.: the boy who cried wolf

• Bascom, William R. (1943). "The Relationship of Yoruba Folklore to Divining,"The Journal of American Folklore,56(220), 127–131.[1]
• Bascom, William R. (1943).The Sociological Role of the Yoruba Cult-Group. Menasha (Wis.): American Anthropological Association.OCLC 601812795.
• Bascom, William R. (1947).Ponape: A Pacific Economy in Transition
• Bascom, William R. (1954). "Four Functions of Folklore".The Journal of American Folklore.67 (266): 333–349.doi:10.2307/536411.ISSN 0021-8715.JSTOR 536411.
• Bascom, William R. (1955). "Urbanization Among the Yoruba,"American Journal of Sociology.60(5), 446–454.[2]
• Bascom, William R. (1955). "Verbal Art,"The Journal of American Folklore,68(269), 245–252.[3]
• Bascom, William R.; Herskovits, Melville J (eds.) (1959).Continuity and Change in African Culture
• Bascom, William R. (1964). "Folklore Research in Africa,"The Journal of American Folklore,77(303), 12–31.[4]
• Bascom, William R. (1965). "The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives".The Journal of American Folklore,78(307), 3–20.[5]
• Bascom, William R. (1969).The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. New York; Chicago: Holt Rinehart and Winston.ISBN 978-0-03-081249-1.OCLC 715779786.
• Bascom, William R. (1969).Ifa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.OCLC 929811461.
• Bascom, William R. (1973).African Art in Cultural Perspective: An Introduction. New York: Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-04368-6.OCLC 603357602.
• Bascom, William R. (1973). "Folklore, Verbal Art, and Culture,"The Journal of American Folklore,86(342), 374–381.[6]
• Bascom, William R. (ed.) (1975).African Dilemma Tales. The Hague: Mouton.ISBN 978-90-279-7509-6.OCLC 981270186.
• Bascom, William R. (ed.) (1977).Frontiers of Folklore. Boulder, Colo.: Published by Westview Press for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C.ISBN 978-0-89158-432-2.OCLC 3275349.
• Bascom, William R. (1980).Sixteen Cowries: Yoruba Divination from Africa to the New World. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Pr.OCLC 263249925.
• Bascom, William R. (1992).African folktales in the New World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.ISBN 978-0-253-31128-3.OCLC 25048839.

• Robert Georges & Michael Owen Jones,Folkloristics: An Introduction, Indiana University Press, 1995, pp. 171–192.
• Daniel Crowley andAlan Dundes, "Obituary: William Russel Bascom,"Journal of American Folklore 95 (1982): 465–7.
• Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology website - History page

• American folklorists
• American ethnologists
• American curators
• 1981 deaths
• 1912 births
• Anthropologists of the Yoruba
• University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
• Northwestern University alumni
• Academics of the University of Cambridge
• University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
• People of the Office of Strategic Services
• 20th-century American anthropologists
• Presidents of the American Folklore Society

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