William A. Lessa

1.7k total citations · 1 hit paper
45 papers, 782 citations indexed

About

William A. Lessa is a scholar working on Sociology and Political Science, Geography, Planning and Development and Philosophy. According to data from OpenAlex, William A. Lessa has authored 45 papers receiving a total of 782 indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 6 papers in Sociology and Political Science, 6 papers in Geography, Planning and Development and 4 papers in Philosophy. Recurrent topics in William A. Lessa's work include Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (5 papers), Island Studies and Pacific Affairs (4 papers) and Study and Philosophy of Religion (4 papers). William A. Lessa is often cited by papers focused on Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (5 papers), Island Studies and Pacific Affairs (4 papers) and Study and Philosophy of Religion (4 papers). William A. Lessa collaborates with scholars based in United States. William A. Lessa's co-authors include Evon Z. Vogt, Stith Thompson, William Bascom, Dan W. Dodson, David Parkin, K. O. L. Burridge, Raymond Firth, Meyer Barash, Roger Caillois and Ben Finney and has published in prestigious journals such as American Sociological Review, The American Historical Review and American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

In The Last Decade

William A. Lessa

34 papers receiving 495 citations

Hit Papers

The Types of the Folktale. A Classification and Bibliography 1963 2026 1984 2005 1963 50 100 150
What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

  1. The Types of the Folktale. A Classification and Bibliography
    1963 175 citations William A. Lessa, Stith Thompson et al. Journal of American Folklore profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
William A. Lessa United States 13 225 164 137 111 74 45 782
Wilcomb E. Washburn United States 16 230 1.0× 208 1.3× 76 0.6× 44 0.4× 40 0.5× 115 843
Donald Brenneis United States 13 205 0.9× 180 1.1× 99 0.7× 53 0.5× 59 0.8× 31 820
Dennis Tedlock United States 15 200 0.9× 265 1.6× 220 1.6× 74 0.7× 109 1.5× 42 1.1k
William A. Christian United States 14 276 1.2× 141 0.9× 46 0.3× 137 1.2× 118 1.6× 66 874
Stephen A. Tyler United States 13 264 1.2× 198 1.2× 51 0.4× 49 0.4× 73 1.0× 36 715
Roger Bastide France 17 458 2.0× 292 1.8× 51 0.4× 36 0.3× 76 1.0× 110 1.0k
A. Irving Hallowell United States 13 295 1.3× 256 1.6× 27 0.2× 81 0.7× 55 0.7× 31 1.0k
Stanley Brandes United States 17 305 1.4× 155 0.9× 67 0.5× 75 0.7× 40 0.5× 73 776
Richard M. Dorson United States 12 197 0.9× 173 1.1× 297 2.2× 32 0.3× 73 1.0× 128 786
James Urry New Zealand 12 434 1.9× 371 2.3× 64 0.5× 178 1.6× 62 0.8× 51 1.1k

Countries citing papers authored by William A. Lessa

Since Specialization
Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of William A. Lessa's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by William A. Lessa with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites William A. Lessa more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by William A. Lessa

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by William A. Lessa. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by William A. Lessa. The network helps show where William A. Lessa may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of William A. Lessa

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of William A. Lessa. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of William A. Lessa based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with William A. Lessa. William A. Lessa is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

20 of 20 papers shown
1.
Lessa, William A., et al.. (2013). Ulithian Personality as Seen Through Ethnological Materials and Thematic Test Analysis. Medical Entomology and Zoology.
2.
Strauss, W. Patrick & William A. Lessa. (1976). Drake's Island of Thieves: Ethnological Sleuthing. The American Historical Review. 81(5). 1103–1103. 8 indexed citations
3.
Parkin, David, William A. Lessa, & Evon Z. Vogt. (1974). Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach.. Man. 9(2). 322–322. 59 indexed citations
4.
Lessa, William A. & William Bascom. (1970). Ifa Divination: Communication between Gods and Men in West Africa. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 9(4). 330–330. 105 indexed citations
5.
Lessa, William A. & Raymond Firth. (1969). Tikopia Ritual and Belief. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 8(1). 194–194. 31 indexed citations
6.
Lessa, William A.. (1969). The Chinese Trigrams in Micronesia. Journal of American Folklore. 82(326). 353–353. 1 indexed citations
7.
Lessa, William A., et al.. (1968). Polynesian Culture History: Essays in Honor of Kenneth P. Emory. Man. 3(4). 688–688. 21 indexed citations
8.
9.
Lessa, William A., et al.. (1963). Magic, Myth and Money: The Origin of Money in Religious Ritual. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 2(2). 259–259. 3 indexed citations
10.
Lessa, William A., et al.. (1963). The Types of the Folktale. A Classification and Bibliography. Journal of American Folklore. 76(301). 265–265. 175 indexed citations breakdown →
11.
Lessa, William A. & George C. Myers. (1962). Population Dynamics of an Atoll Community. Population Studies. 15(3). 244–244. 1 indexed citations
12.
Lessa, William A.. (1962). An Evaluation of Early Descriptions of Carolinian Culture. Ethnohistory. 9(4). 313–313. 14 indexed citations
13.
Lessa, William A.. (1962). The Decreasing Power of Myth on Ulithi. Journal of American Folklore. 75(296). 153–153. 1 indexed citations
14.
Lessa, William A.. (1959). GENERAL AND THEORETICAL: The Psychology of Religion: An Introduction to Religious Experience and Behavior. Walter Houston Clark. American Anthropologist. 61(1). 123–124. 1 indexed citations
15.
Lessa, William A. & E. O. James. (1958). Prehistoric Religion: A Study in Prehistoric Archaeology.. American Sociological Review. 23(1). 114–114. 1 indexed citations
16.
Lessa, William A.. (1956). Oedipus-Type Tales in Oceania. Journal of American Folklore. 69(271). 63–63. 12 indexed citations
17.
Lessa, William A. & William Thomas. (1956). Current Anthropology: A Supplement to Anthropology Today.. American Sociological Review. 21(5). 645–645. 6 indexed citations
18.
Lessa, William A.. (1955). An Atoll Culture: Ethnography of Ifaluk in the Central Carolines. Edwin G. Burrows and Melford E. Spiro. American Anthropologist. 57(5). 1090–1090. 1 indexed citations
19.
Lessa, William A. & George Devereux. (1955). A Study of Abortion in Primitive Societies.. American Sociological Review. 20(5). 613–613. 2 indexed citations
20.
Lessa, William A.. (1952). Somatomancy--Precursor of the Science of Human Constitution. 75(6). 355–365. 2 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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