Walter Anderson (folklorist)

Walter Anderson (Minsk, (Belarus) October 10 1885 – August 23 1962 in Kiel (Germany) was a German ethnologist (folklorist).

Life

Anderson was born from a German family in Minsk, but soon moved to Kazan (Russia), on the edge of Siberia. His father, Nikolas Anderson, was professor in Finno-Ugric languages at the University of Kazan. His younger brother was the well known mathematician Oskar Anderson.

Work

Walter Anderson was one of the driving forces behind the comparative geographic-historical Method of folkloristics.He is best known for his monograph Kaiser und Abt (Folklore Fellows' Communications 42, Helsinki 1923).

External links

* On the history of comparison in folklore studies
* Folkloristics - Tartu University
* Folklore Fellows