The Myths of the New World

Record summary

Daniel G. Brinton’s The Myths of the New World compares Indigenous American narratives concerning creation, celestial bodies, fire, culture heroes, and transformations. It is relevant to a nineteenth-century Latin American folklore inventory because it records how an influential scholar interpreted traditions circulating through published ethnographic and missionary sources. The book can help identify names, motifs, and earlier references, but its comparative framework reflects nineteenth-century theories of myth and may merge distinct peoples or traditions. It should therefore be read as a historical scholarly interpretation and bibliographic gateway.