The Golden Bough in the Guianas: Mãe-do-Ouro analogues and fire traditions in Richard Schomburgk

Record summary

Richard Schomburgk’s travels in Guiana record Indigenous communities, environmental knowledge, stories, and observations from the interior during the 1840s. The account is a promising documentary lead for fire, glowing minerals, atmospheric appearances, and sky-related traditions in the Guianas, where later folklore writing often blends Indigenous narratives with colonial travel lore. The exact relevant passage must be located in the German volumes or translations; broad online claims may attribute later Venezuelan or Brazilian stories to Schomburgk without support. Its ethnographic perspective is strongly nineteenth-century and colonial.