William R. Bascom (May 23, 1912 – September 11, 1981) was an award-winning American folklorist, anthropologist, and museum director. He was a specialist in the art and culture of West Africa and the African Diaspora, especially the Yoruba of Nigeria.

Biography

Bascom completed his B.A. at the University of Wisconsin, and earned his Ph.D. in anthropology at Northwestern University under Melville J. Herskovits in 1939, which was based on research carried out amongst the Yoruba. Bascom was the first American anthropologist to carry out fieldwork among the Yoruba. Bascom taught at Northwestern, Cambridge University. During World War II, he joined the O.S.S. and together with Ralph Bunche co-authored an unsigned volume, A Pocket Guide to West Africa in 1943. Post-war, Bascom and his Cuban-born wife, Berta began research into practices of Yoruba origin - such as the Shango cult and Santeria - in Cuba and elsewhere. Berta was a lifelong co-worker with Bascom. In 1957 he left Northwestern University for the University of California, Berkeley where he become the first director of the Lowie Museum of Anthropology, a post he held until his retirement in 1979. Bascom also helped in the creation of the master's degree program at Berkeley in 1965. Several of Bascom's articles on folkloristics serve as texts in graduate courses in folklore: his essays were regularly anthologised during his career. Published posthumously, Bascom's African folktales in the New World (1992) has been credited with making important contributions to debates around "diffusion and independent invention".

Recognition

Bascom served as president of the American Folklore Society between 1953 and 1954. His two Presidential Addresses were titled "Four Functions of Folklore" and "Verbal Art". His book Ifa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa was awarded the Pitrè Prize.

Four functions of folklore

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

Major works

Sources