Uno Nils Oskar Harva (known as Uno Holmberg until 1927; 30 August 1882,

Ypäjä Ypäjä is a municipality located in the countryside of South-Western Finland. It belongs to the province of Southern Finland and the region of Tavastia Proper. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. ...

– 13 August 1949,

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

) was a Finnish religious scholar, who founded the discipline in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

together with Rafael Karsten. A major figure in North

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelag ...

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

and study of religion, Harva is best known for his body of work on

Finno-Ugric Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is b ...

and

Altaic Altaic (; also called Transeurasian) is a controversial proposed language family that would include the Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language families and possibly also the Japonic and Koreanic languages. Speakers of these languages are c ...

religions. He is considered to be one of the foremost 20th-century European interpreters of

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...

Career

Harva 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 The Udmurts ( udm, Удмуртъёс, ) are a Permian ( Finnic) ethnic group in Eastern Europe, who speak the Udmurt language. In the course of history, Russian-speakers have referred to them as ' (), Otyaks, Wotyaks or Votyaks. Etymology The ...

) in the Urals and the Cheremis (the

Mari people The Mari ( chm, мари; russian: марийцы, mariytsy) are a Finnic peoples, Finnic people, who have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama River, Kama rivers in Russia. Almost half of Maris today live in the Mari El republic, with si ...

) on the Volga. He is considered to be an important anthropologist of

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part o ...

. His study ''Der Baum des Lebens'' (The Tree of Life; 1922–3) was the first to show that the

world tree The world tree is a motif present in several religions and mythologies, particularly Indo-European religions, Siberian religions, and Native American religions. The world tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereb ...

from

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern peri ...

had many parallels in Europe and Asia. Harva wrote the fourth volume of the book series ''

The Mythology of All Races ''The Mythology of All Races'' is a 13-volume book series edited by Louis Herbert Gray between 1916–1932 with George Foot Moore George Foot Moore (October 15, 1851 – May 16, 1931) was an eminent historian of religion, author, Presbyterian min ...

'' in 1927. It contains a classic general description of Subarctic

Principal works

* ''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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harva, Uno Finnish ethnologists Finnish Finno-Ugrists 1882 births 1949 deaths