Emerging Adulthood in the Historical Life-story Study of Finnish Writer Arvi Järventaus in Lapland

The aim of this article is to consider the modern theories of Cultural Approach and Emerging Adulthood, developed by Dr. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, in qualitative history-oriented research. This article looks at the biographic study of a Finnish author’s and clergyman’s first forty years of life in north Finland during 1883-1923. The object person is Arvi Järventaus, the first storyteller in Finnish Lapland. The research questions, bearing the cultural approach in mind, focused on Järventaus’s development during lifespan periods in two major lines as follows: 1) how his religious convictions changed during the years of emerging adulthood and 2) how his social philosophical values changed as a result of the historical events he experienced during that period. Methodologically, this study relies on linguistic tradition, a careful choice and analysis of the texts and novels of Järventaus together with the documents he left behind. What is known about emerging adults in America today is compared with the unknown lives and mentalities of an era more than a hundred years ago in northern Scandinavia.