Ellen Katharine Luomala (September 10, 1907 – February 27, 1992) was an American anthropologist known for her studies of comparative mythology in Oceania.

She began her anthropological studies there by working with the Navajo people in the 1930s, chronicling their changing lives.

[1][2] In 1941 Luomala became an honorary associate at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, which position she maintained for the rest of her working life.

[2] In 1946 she became a professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa,[3] where she studied Hawaiian mythology and, from 1950, the ethnobotany of the Gilbert Islands.

[23][24] She also contributed to reference works, including the Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend (1950), edited by Maria Leach.