Rafael Karsten

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. 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. Karsten served as the professor of practical philosophy at the University of Helsinki in 1922–1946. Karsten died in Helsinki, aged 76. ==Publications in English (selection)==

• The Origin of Worship: A Study in Primitive Religion (1905) • Studies in Primitive Greek Religion (1907) • Indian Dances in the Gran Chaco (South America) (1915) • The Couvade, or Male-childbed among the South-American Indians (1915) • Contributions to the Sociology of the Indian Tribes of Ecuador (1920) • Studies in South American Anthropology (1920) • The Religion of the Jibaro Indians of eastern Ecuador (1922) • The Toba Indians of the Bolivian Gran Chaco (1925) • Civilization of the South American Indians, with Special Reference to Magic and Religion (1926) • Ceremonial Games of the South American Indians (1930) • Indian Tribes of the Argentine and Bolivian Gran Chaco (1932) • The Headhunters of Western Amazonas (1935) • The Origins of Religion (1935) • A Totalitarian State of the Past: The Civilization of the Inca Empire in Ancient Peru (1949) • Studies in the Religion of the South-American Indians East of the Andes (1964) ==Sources==