Native American mythology and anthropology

Daniel Garrison Brinton

1837 – 1899

Daniel Garrison Brinton was an American anthropologist and the first professor of archaeology in the United States, whose extensive research into Native American mythology, folklore, and languages made him a foundational figure in the comparative study of indigenous spiritual traditions. Works such as The Myths of the New World (1868) and American Hero-Myths (1882) drew systematic parallels between Native American religious symbolism and world mythologies, contributing comparative data to the Victorian project of mapping universal patterns in human religious thought. His eight-volume Library of American Aboriginal Literature preserved primary linguistic and mythological sources that informed subsequent scholars of indigenous religion.