Uno Nils Oskar Harva (known as Uno Holmberg until 1927; 30 August 1882, Ypäjä – 13 August 1949, Turku) was a Finnish religious scholar, who founded the discipline in Finland together with Rafael Karsten. A major figure in North Eurasian ethnology and study of religion, Harva is best known for his body of work on Finno-Ugric and Altaic religions.[1] He is considered to be one of the foremost 20th-century European interpreters of shamanism.[2]
Uno Harva | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 30 August 1882 |
| Died | 13 August 1949 (aged 66) |
| Nationality | Finnish |
| Other names | Uno Holmberg |
| Alma mater | University of Helsinki |
| Occupation(s) | Theology, Sociology |
Career
editHarva conducted fieldwork among the Siberian Ket and Evenk peoples in the 1910s, researching their mythology and religion. He also spent the summers of 1911–1913 with the Finno-Ugric Votyaks (Udmurts) in the Urals and the Cheremis (the Mari people) on the Volga. He is considered to be an important anthropologist of Siberia.[3][4]
His study Der Baum des Lebens (The Tree of Life; 1922–23) was the first to show that the world tree from Norse mythology had many parallels in Europe and Asia.[5]
Harva wrote the fourth volume of the book series The Mythology of All Races in 1927. It contains a classic general description of Subarctic shamanism.[3]
Principal works
edit- Die Wassergottheiten der Finno-Ugrischen Völker (German: The Water Divinities of the Finno-Ugric Peoples; 1913)
- Permalaisten uskonto (1914)
- Tsheremissien uskonto (Finnish: The Cheremi Religion; 1914)
- Lappalaisten uskonto (Finnish: The Lapp Religion; 1915)
- Elämänpuu (Finnish: The Tree of Life; 1920); reprinted in German as Der Baum des Lebens (1922)
- Jumalauskon alkuperä (1916)
- Pohjoisen Euroopan ja Aasian pyyntiriiteistä (1922)
- Finno-Ugric, Siberian Mythology (1927)
- Altain suvun uskonto (1933)
- Die religiösen Vorstellungen der altaischen Völker (German: Religious Concepts of the Altaic Peoples; 1938)
- Mordvalaisten muinaisusko (1942)
- Sammon ryöstö (1943)
- Suomalaisten muinaisusko (1948)
References
edit- ^ Juha Pentikäinen, ed. (1996). Shamanism and Northern Ecology. Walter de Gruyter. p. 32. ISBN 9783110811674.
- ^ Jeroen W Boekhoven (2011). Genealogies of Shamanism: Struggles for Power, Charisma and Authority. Barkhuis. p. 112. ISBN 9789077922927.
- ^ a b Andrei A. Znamenski, ed. (2004). Shamanism: Critical Concepts in Sociology. Psychology Press. p. 263. ISBN 9780415332491.
- ^ Mark Nuttall; Terry Callaghan, eds. (2000). Arctic: Environment, People, Policy. CRC Press. p. 418. ISBN 9789058230874.
- ^ Anders Andrén (2014). Tracing Old Norse Cosmology. Nordic Academic Press. p. 34. ISBN 9789185509386.