Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
A34 — The fox and the moon.
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
OverviewThe jackal, coyote or fox are associated with the moon (usually with the appearance of lunar spots).
Berezkin category: The Sun and Moon
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K87A | 99.63% | A forest woman receives or kidnaps a little boy and raises him to be her lover. |
| F94 | 99.15% | A man ascends to the upper world, where he can choose a wife associated with either life or death. |
| B14 | 98.62% | In order to regulate the flow of the river in a certain way, the character creates rapids and waterfalls. |
| M71 | 97.16% | A character (usually carried away by a river or fallen from a height) turns into a piece of wood. Someone is picking it up. The character then takes on his true form, usually in the absence of the hosts. |
| I9A | 97.13% | Zenith and/or nadir are considered together with the four cardinal directions as one (or two) more main directions. |
| F28D | 97.09% | By masturbating with an artificial penis, a woman conceives children. |
| D4F | 96.96% | Once in the fire, the beaver (in North America) or fish (in South America) scatters and/or carries the fire away from its original owners. See motif D4A. |
| B28D | 96.40% | Not understanding who they are dealing with, the characters respond to the wandering Transformer that they are preparing weapons to kill so-and-so or a hiding place to escape from so-and-so. The Transformer kills them himself or turns them into animals. |
| K3 | 96.25% | The hero climbs a tree or rock to get bird eggs, chicks, fruit, honey, etc. He cannot climb down because another character makes the tree (rock) very tall or makes the tree trunk thick. See motif K1A. |
| B28E | 95.88% | The Moon (alone or together with the Sun) transforms the original "incorrect" world into the one in which people now live. |
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
21 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 21 traditions: Aka, Baka (Badjue) and other Western (Bantu speaking) Pygmies, Polar Inuit, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Ohlone (Costanoan), Owens Valley Paiute, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Northern Shoshone, Southern Paiute, Luiseño, Juaneño, Hopi, Diegueño: Ipai, Tipai, Kamia (Kumeai), Yuma proper (Quechan), Mohave, Maricopa, Seri, Pima, Huichol, Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Aguaruna, Huambiza, Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Aimara
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