Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B27 — Variants of metamorphosis.
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 characters ponder what object or creature they should transform into, and once they have made their choice, they undergo metamorphosis.
Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
B27 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedB27. The characters ponder what object or creature they should transform into, and once they have made their choice, they undergo metamorphosis.
B27a. The characters ponder what they should transform into and decide to become thunder and/or lightning.
B27b. The characters ponder what they should transform into and decide to become a celestial object.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| F53 | 96.24% | An unattractive man marries, but hides his face. When he is seen, the marriage is dissolved. |
| M18 | 95.75% | The character turns into an object of fishing or hunting and presents himself as a target. The fisherman or hunter does not harm them, but they take away what they use: arrows, darts, harpoons, hooks, bait; or they catch fish, having turned themselves into hooks; or they are caught but escape death by taking on human form again. |
| K87 | 95.67% | A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rarely another non-human creature). The husband takes care of her, but the marriage ends with the murder of the husband, the woman, their offspring, the woman's relatives, the transformation of the woman herself into an animal, leading to hostility between humans and animals, etc. |
| F51 | 95.59% | Someone under cover of night/incognito approaches a person of the opposite sex. The marriage partner deliberately (to determine who it is) or accidentally (thereby exposing the visitor) makes a mark on his/her body (clothing). See motif A31. |
| M73 | 95.16% | Two characters compare their excrement or vomit to learn about each other's diet and decide which of them is the more powerful beast. One of them manages to replace the selections. (Traditions in which vomiting is substituted are greasy). |
| J16 | 94.95% | The character perishes because, being forced to look for insects in the head of another, he refuses to chew insects, spits them out in disgust, or is suspected of doing so. |
| K20 | 94.83% | Looking at the sky at night, a man or woman expresses a desire to marry a star or the Moon (kuchin: to possess a star as an object). See motifs K19a, K19b. |
| E14 | 94.73% | Rituals received from the spirits of the dead. |
| C34 | 94.48% | The flood begins after people kill (harm, maim) some kind of creature (usually aquatic). |
| B27B | 94.30% | The characters ponder what they should transform into and decide to become a celestial object. |
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
38 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 38 traditions: Inland Tlingit, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Netsilik, Caribou, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Lenape (Delaware), Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Comanche, Assiniboine, Crow, Natchez (incl Avoyel), Sierra Miwok, Lake Miwok, Plains Miwok, Coastal Miwok, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Navajo, Hopi, Guajiro, Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan), Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Napo (Quijo), Kanelo (“Jungle Kechua”), Kofan, 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), Machiguenga, Culina, Paumarí, Arauá, Apurina, Cuniba, Amahuaca, Cashinahua, Sharanahua, Yaminahua, Yawanahua, Capanahua), Harákmbet (=Mashco), Tacana, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Nambikwara, Chamacoco (Ishir)
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