Joakim Donner et Juha Janhunen (éds.) : Kai Donner, Linguist, ethnographer, photographer

[Kai Donner, linguiste, ethnographe, photographe]. Helsinki, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura (SKS), 2014. 176 p. ISBN 978-951-616-245-7, ISSN 2243-1373.

Compte-rendu par Thierry Poibeau, in ETUDES FINNO-OUGRIENNES (INALCO):

https://journals.openedition.org/efo/5426

Sur Kai Donner et sur ce même blog:

http://pocombelles.over-blog.com/2016/08/the-samoyed-and-nature-kai-donner.html

http://pocombelles.over-blog.com/article-kai-reinhold-donner-1889-1935-par-aurelien-sauvageot-85345885.html

La méthode ethnologique de Kai Donner, un savant de terrain.

"For the second time I had returned from the wilderness back to the civilization. I was probably even more glad to get home the second time. The world war may have had something to do with this. But in spite of everything I felt as I did the time before. A feeling of longing and depression was mixed with the joy. Only a short time ago I had lived on the large plains and the immesureable wilderness, and now I had returned to the market place of civilization. All the difficulties and strains were forgotten, and before my inner eye there stood the fresh life and the marvelous stay among savages whom I had learned to love and understand. He who only knows our side of existence cannot understand the other one. But he who has seen life in his more original form will never forget what he has seen, and once he has left the infinite plains the memory becomes a shining revelation to him from which he can never tear himself away again. He has become an individual with double life, something of him has remained in the wilderness. That is what happened to me."

Kai Donner, Among the Samoyeds in Siberia (1911-1913) 1926.