Gunnar Landtman

Gunnar Landtman (to the left) doing fieldwork in Papua New Guinea. Gunnar Landtman (6 May 1878, Helsinki – 30 October 1940, Helsinki) was a Finnish philosopher as well as a sociology and philosophy professor. A pupil of Edvard Westermarck, he graduated from the University of Helsinki in 1905. He later became an associate professor there from 1910 to 1927 and then a temporary professor until his death in 1940. At the university, Landtman was a member of the Prometheus Society, a student society promoting freedom of religion.

Landtman was the first modern sociological anthropologist. He spent two years in Papua New Guinea, where he lived with Kiwai Island Papuans from 1910 to 1912. From 1922 to 1924, he served as a member of the Parliament of Finland, representing the Swedish People's Party of Finland (SFP).