Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
E3 — New people from the bones of the old.
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
OverviewAfter the destruction of the previous world, new people (rarely: new earth) are made from the remains of the dead.
Berezkin category: The origins of people and culture
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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L63 | 98.86% | The character eats food with the womb or anus. See motif F9A. |
| E14A | 98.64% | People kill demons, examine their bodies, make ritual costumes and masks, reproducing the appearance of the slain. |
| C11 | 97.30% | A father with magical powers destroys people (all or many) who have insulted or harmed his son. |
| K4 | 96.47% | The character climbs a tree or rock to get a bird, bird eggs, or chicks, climbs into a bird's nest, comes into conflict with another character, and/or cannot climb down. See motifs K1, K2A. Traditions in which the nest destroyer is a woman are highlighted in italics; bold italics indicate those in which the character falls into the trap not through the fault of another person, but by accident, or, having climbed up to destroy the nest, does not fall into the trap at all, although he quarrels with his companion; an asterisk* marks those in which the character remains in the trap (undergoes a metamorphosis). |
| M8A | 96.39% | Animals, and more often birds, find it difficult to break through a rock from the outside or inside, make a hole in the tree, in the body of an absorber creature, tear fetters, etc., to help a character or get out of the confined space by yourself. The list <b><i>includes</i></b> groups whose texts deal with the exit of the first ancestors to earth from a confined space. |
| M12 | 96.30% | Unable, unwilling or unable to obtain game (fish), the hunter (fisherman) cuts flesh from his own body, removes his own entrails and collects his blood. He usually offers this to others under the guise of animal meat or fish. Alternatively, a woman cuts flesh from her own leg to feed her husband. |
| F28B | 96.04% | A woman uses a penis made of wax, wood, fruit or root. Usually her husband or male relative smears it with pepper, and the woman is maimed or killed. |
| J58 | 95.75% | Characters shoot arrows (darts) that stick into each other and form a chain. They usually climb up the chain to the upper world. |
| K13C | 95.69% | The cannibal's daughter takes revenge on her husband for her mother's death and manages to cut off his leg. See motif K13A. |
| F53A | 95.32% | The husband hides his face from his wife because she does not know that he is a bat or an owl. |
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
13 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 13 traditions: Svans, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Klamath, Modoc, Chumash, Salinan, Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Wayana, Aparai, Puinave, Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Yabuti, Amniapä, Kumana, Wari (Aikana), More (Itene), Suruí, Gaviâo, Zoro, Arua, Cinta Larga, Ayoreo
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