William Russell Bascom

1912-1981

    William R. Bascom was an American anthropologist who's main concern was African religion, folklore and art. He attended the University of Wisconsin for an undergraduate degree in physics and later an M.A. in anthropology. He finished his Ph.D. at Northwestern University and taught there from 1939 to 1957, at which time he switched to the University of California where he taught folklore and worked as Director of the Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology.

    William Bascom wrote a few books on Yoruba culture and more on African art and folklore. His most notable titles include; The Sociological Role of the Yoruba Cult-Group, The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria, Ifa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa and Sixteen Cowries: Yoruba Divination from Africa to the New World. Bascom traveled numerous times to Yoruba and carried out research on African influence on the Gullah Sea Island culture and Cuba. He studied on Ponape in the Pacific for the Coordinated Investigation of Micronesian Atolls project. Bascom had an extensive collection of African art which went to the Lowie Museum when he died.

 

References

Picture reprinted with permission of the American Anthropological Association: American Anthropologist 88:1, March, 1986

American Anthropologist Vol 88, no 1. Page 154, The American Anthropologist Association, 1986

Contemporary Authors: Obituary Notice

Written By: Nikki Akins, 2002