Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
A31A — Severed breast.
Source data for narratives and traditions is drawn from Berezkin’s Analytical Catalogue. If you use this data, please acknowledge and link to it: Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of motif
OverviewUpon learning that her husband or lover has committed an act incompatible with accepted norms, a woman cuts off her breast and shows it to him.
Berezkin category: The Sun and Moon
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 5, Origin of human beings, ethnic groups, etiology of human anatomy, strange body configuration, ways of behavior, marriages before the establishment of the present norms.
A31 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedA31. As a result of intimate contact or romantic conflict, the night light takes on its current appearance – rising from the earth to the sky and/or spots appearing on it, which are now visible.
A31a. Upon learning that her husband or lover has committed an act incompatible with accepted norms, a woman cuts off her breast and shows it to him.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B16B | 99.65% | The sea is salty because a wolverine or a fox bathed in it or urinated in it. |
| B38B | 99.65% | Two quadrupeds (or a quadruped and another creature) adorn each other themselves or are adorned by someone else. |
| I123 | 99.08% | Altair with a small neighbouring star from the constellation Aquila or Vega with a similarly faint star are considered to appear during or immediately after the winter solstice, although they are actually visible before that. |
| M123C | 98.97% | A non-migratory bird sets off south with migratory birds, but is unable to reach its destination. |
| M123D | 98.32% | A bird from the corvid family is rejected after its mate or relatives discover that it eats carrion or filth. |
| M94A | 98.29% | The demonic character kills his victims, provoking them to slide down the mountain. |
| F91 | 97.69% | A man finds or breeds monstrous worms to eat his wife. |
| K51 | 96.86% | The husband feigns death, disappears or leaves home for a long time. The wife learns that he has married another woman, finds and, as a rule, kills her husband and/or rival, who often turns out to be a creature of non-human nature. |
| K45B | 96.40% | A man and a woman belonging to different generations (father – daughter, son – mother) come into conflict, as a result of which the woman turns into a marine mammal, the mistress of marine mammals, or a frog. |
| K27N3C1 | 96.29% | The inhabitants of the polar bear village – relatives of his wife – set the hero difficult tasks and trials. |
See the 100 most similar distributions →
Map of motif dispersal
DistributionDrag the map to pan, use the scroll wheel to zoom — choose a texture or projection below
Traditions
11 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 11 traditions: Reindeer Koryak, Maritime Koryak (Alyutor), Chukchi, Central Yupik, Ingalik (Der Hit’an), Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Iglulik, West Greenland, East Greenland (Angmassalik, Kulusuk), Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut)
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