Rafael Karsten

Sigfrid Rafael Karsten (16 August 1879 — 21 February 1956) was a Finnish social anthropologist and philosopher of religion, known especially for his work among the indigenous people of Southern America.[1]

Rafael Karsten in the 1920s

Career

Rafael Karsten was born in Kvevlax, Grand Duchy of Finland, to a very religious family, and his native language was Swedish. He studied philosophy at the University of Helsinki in 1899–1902 and had his first job at the British Museum.[1]

A student of Edvard Westermarck, Karsten was critical of theological explanations of religions. He was a critic of Christianity and state religion, and a proponent of freedom of religion. Karsten defended his doctoral thesis, The Origin of Worship: A Study in Primitive Religion, in 1905 at the University of Helsinki.[1] He was a member of the Prometheus Society, a student society promoting freedom of thought and freedom of religion.[2]

In total, Karsten travelled six times in Southern America and studied the indigenous people and their religions — in Bolivia and Argentine, 1911–1913, in Ecuador, 1916–1918, and in the Amazonas, 1946–1947, and others — and published extensively on them in Swedish, Finnish, German, English, and Spanish.[1] He also authored several academic course books on sociology and social anthropology.[3]

Karsten served as the professor of practical philosophy at the University of Helsinki in 1922–1946.[1] His pupils include Arne Runeberg.[4]

Karsten died in Helsinki, aged 76.[1]

Publications in English (selection)
  • The Origin of Worship: A Study in Primitive Religion (1905)
  • Contributions to the Sociology of the Indian Tribes of Ecuador (1920)
  • The Religion of the Jibaro Indians of eastern Ecuador (1922)
  • Civilization of the South American Indians, with Special Reference to Magic and Religion (1926)
  • Indian Tribes of the Argentine and Bolivian Gran Chaco (1932)
  • The Headhunters of Western Amazonas (1935)
  • A Totalitarian State of the Past: The Civilization of the Inca Empire in Ancient Peru (1949)

Sources
  1. Aho, Jouko (2005). "Karsten, Rafael (1879–1956)". Suomen kansallisbiografia 5. Studia Biographica, 3 (in Finnish). Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. pp. 15–16. ISBN 951-746-446-0. ISSN 1456-2138.
  2. Salomaa, Ilona. Rafael Karsten (1879–1956) as a Finnish scholar of religion: the life and career of a man of science (PDF) (Thesis). University of Helsinki.
  3. Karsten, Rafael in Uppslagsverket Finland (in Swedish).
  4. Runeberg, Arne in Uppslagsverket Finland (in Swedish).

Further reading
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