Rafael Karsten


Sigfrid Rafael Karsten was a Finnish social anthropologist and philosopher of religion, known especially for his work among the indigenous people of Southern America.

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.
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. He was a member of the Prometheus Society, a student society promoting freedom of thought and freedom of religion.
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. He also authored several academic course books on sociology and social anthropology.
Karsten served as the professor of practical philosophy at the University of Helsinki in 1922–1946. His pupils included Arne Runeberg.
Karsten died in Helsinki, aged 76.

Publications in English (selection)