Sir James George Frazer was a British (Scottish) social anthropologist.
In his major work The Golden Bough (first edition 1890), he compared magic, religion and agricultural rites from around the world. In it he discussed in detail grain spirits of European villages such as the “corn mother” and “corn old woman,” and harvest customs holding that a spirit dwells in the last sheaf of grain to be cut. Germany’s Kornmuhme is one of these grain spirits.
