Juha Pentikäinen (born 26 February 1940) is a professor emeritus of the Department of Religious Studies at the
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...
and a professor of northern ethnography at the
University of Lapland and the Institute for Northern Culture in
Helsinki
Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
. With a field-work oriented approach to the study of religious traditions he is especially interested in the oral history of languages, religions and cultures.
Research
He has research interests in religious traditions in the Finnish culture, and their psychological effects on humans. Along with many guest professorships, he has appeared to speak at over 100 Universities in numerous different countries. Based upon his work, other professors (i.e. Veikko Anttonen and Nils G. Holm) in his field have analyzed his approach towards the studies of religion.
Recognition and publications
He is recipient of many awards and honors including the 3rd honorary medal of the international society for research for the lifetime career as the scholar of shamanism in 1999. His publications since 1960 include 30 books, 250 scholarly articles, and 15 films. In 1995 he was nominated to membership of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. He is most known for his book ''Kalevala Mythology'', which is an in-depth analysis of
Elias Lönnrot's epic ''
Kalevala''. He analyzes both the career background and life of Lönnrot. Then he analyzes the epic, and the differences between the two versions that Lonnrot wrote. He reveals the flaws within the epic and presents the argument that the epic instilled a spirit of national romanticism within the Finnish society, which makes it so significant to the Finnish culture.
Personal life
His father
Veikko Pentikäinen (1909–1992) was an influential
Laestadian Lutheran priest. His uncle
Vilho Pentikäinen (b. 1903), a lieutenant serving as a photographer for the General Staff of the
Finnish army, was discovered in 1933 spying for the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. The uncle fled to the Soviets, and later served as a Soviet officer in
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
and in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
and
Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
during the
Winter War
The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...
. Responding to an inquiry by Juha Pentikäinen in 2007, the Russian intelligence service
FSB stated that his uncle had died of starvation in a prison camp in March 1942, convicted of spying for Finland;
however, some researchers believe he continued to serve in Soviet military intelligence and died in 1967.
Publications
* ''The Nordic Dead-Child Tradition: Nordic Dead-Child Beings — A Study in Comparative Religion''. Translated by Antony Landon. FF Communications 202. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1968.
* ''Oral Repertoire and World View. An Anthropological Study of Marina Takalo’s Life History''. FF Communications 219. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1978. .
*
'Kalevala Mythology'' Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 1987. .
* ''Kalevala Mythology''. Folklore Studies in Translation. Edited and translated by Ritva Poom. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989 (first edition), 1999 (expanded edition). .
* ''Shamanism and Culture''. Helsinki: Etnika, 1998. .
* ''Golden King of the Forest: The Lore of the Northern Bear''. Edited and translated by Clive Tolley. Helsinki: Etnika, 2007. .
As editor
*
Uralic Mythology and Folklore'. With Mihály Hoppál. Ethnologica Uralica 1. Budapest: Ethnographic Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1989. .
* ''Northern Religions and Shamanism''. With Mihály Hoppál. Ethnologica Uralica 69. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1992.
* ''Shamanism and Northern Ecology''. New York: De Gruyter, 1998. .
* ''Sami Folkloristics''. NNF Publications 6. Turku: Nordic Network of Folklore, 2000. .
* ''The Finnish Sauna, the Japanese Guro, the Indian Inipi: Bathing on Three Continents''. Helsinki: Rakennustieto, 2001. .
* ''Shamanhood: Symbolism and Epic''. In collaboration with Hanna Saressalo and Chuner M. Taksami. Religion and Society 36. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado, 2001.
* ''Shamanhood: An Endangered Language''. With Peter Simoncsics. Oslo: Novus Forlag, 2005. .
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pentikainen, Juha
1940 births
Living people
Finnish scientists
Academic staff of the University of Helsinki
Scholars of comparative religion
Shamanism