Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
E30 — Wooden substitute spouse.
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
OverviewA man has no wife or a woman has no husband, and uses a wooden substitute as a spouse.
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.
E30 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedE30. A man has no wife or a woman has no husband, and uses a wooden substitute as a spouse.
E30a. A man without a wife or a woman without a husband uses a substitute spouse made of wood or other material until a real spouse appears.
E30b. A man makes a figure or receives a woman. She comes to life and becomes his wife.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K8C5 | 98.71% | A zoomorphic character no larger than a fox allows itself to be swallowed by a bear and kills it by tearing it apart from the inside. |
| M42A | 98.33% | The character (usually after losing his own eyes) inserts seeds or berries into his eye sockets and sees again. |
| M84B | 97.95% | An animal, bird or fish that is killed and eaten comes to life after its bones are thrown into the water. See M84 motif. |
| F67 | 97.49% | An old woman lives with her (adopted) daughter, niece or daughter-in-law. She (supposedly) turns into a man, marries a girl or tries to do so. |
| J61 | 96.75% | The character has the ability to move or hover in the air like a feather or a fluff. |
| B75B1 | 96.72% | The character pushes his mother-in-law or wife into a hollow, and she turns into the creaking of trees or an echo. |
| M49A | 96.56% | hero needs to penetrate unnoticed into the locus of dangerous creatures; he meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a doctor) going there, puts on her skin, and penetrates into dangerous ones in her guise creatures. |
| K27B | 96.55% | Test: smoke a huge or poisonous pipe or breathe in clouds of poisonous smoke. See motif K27. |
| J40B | 96.52% | After the hero comes back after a long absence and finds his parents enslaved, he tells them to demonstrate openly a lack of respect to their masters and punishes those who were cruel with them |
| M41 | 96.43% | The character throws his eyes (an inhaler has a tooth) up or into the distance. At first they return to the eye sockets, but then they disappear. |
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
24 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 24 traditions: Papua-NewGuinea Highland Papuans:Trans New Guinea & unclassified:Chimbu,Gimi,KaugelHuli,Gadsup,Kuman,Kutubu,Foi (Foe),Kyaka,Kamano (Kafe),Mawatta,Kukukuku (=Anga,=Sambia;Manki,Nauti,Ejuti),Baruya,Kewa,Tembregak,Menya,Melpa,Wiru,Pondoma, Melanesians of the northern coast New Guinea, nearest off-shore islands and Huon Gulf (Morobe district): Watut, Bilbil (Bilibili), Jabim (incl Kai), Tami, Bukawac, Wogeo, Tumleo, Yakamul, Manam, Sissano, Sio, Tuamotu, incl Pukapuka (different from Pukapuka in Cook Islands), Vahitahi, Anaa, Hao, Fangatau, Marquesas, Mansi, Udeghe, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Inland Tlingit, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lillooet, Tillamook, Yokuts, Asurini, Parakana; Arawete, Halkomelem (Snaymuk)
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