Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H8 — Those who did not pass the test.
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
OverviewUnable to bring themselves to touch something unclean, poisonous, dangerous or hot, people lost their immortality (var.: did not receive the blessings that came to Europeans).
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 4, Origin of death, diseases and hard life.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| C1 | 98.10% | In the past, a catastrophic shift in the layers of the universe occurred or will occur in the future. Among the variants (sometimes combined): the sky fell to the earth; the present earth or underground world swapped places with the sky; the earth turned upside down; it fell into the underworld; the layers of the universe successively collapsed onto the earth or will swap places in the future. |
| F24 | 97.93% | Women lose blood when they are bitten by fish, snakes, etc. |
| E26 | 97.79% | People, or only women, go underwater and turn into fish. Men catch them with fishing gear. Those who are caught become human (women) again. (Narratives about the transformation of only one caught fish into the hero's wife are not included; see motif F7). |
| H35 | 96.47% | Human teeth are made of fragile material. Usually, the motif explains the aetiology of toothache. |
| L7A | 96.40% | A character who sticks to another creature and refuses to let go, first sticking to a human, then to an animal, or first sticking to an animal, then to a bird. |
| L7 | 95.88% | While chasing a person, spirit, monster or beast, mistakenly chases after a large two-legged object passing by, usually an animal. |
| F50 | 95.64% | Children have the ability to leave their mother's womb and return to it again. |
| M43 | 95.59% | To kill or catch a monster, he sees a figure made of wood or clay or a living person. Most often, a monster's claws or sharp leg get stuck when they pierce a tree. |
| F4 | 95.55% | In the days of the first ancestors, children were conceived not through sexual intercourse, but in vessels, piles of earth, lumps of clay, etc. |
| J6 | 95.47% | A pregnant woman is killed (and eaten). Twins are taken from her womb, who are usually also destined to be eaten, but they escape, live (secretly) in the house of their antagonists, and take revenge on them. |
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
20 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 20 traditions: Dinka, Atuot, Nuer, Luba (Baluba, Luba-Katanga, Shaba), (Ba)Holoholo, Tumbwe, Bena-Piana, Tabwa, Benabena-Mitumba, Zela, Bene-Marungu, Northern Taiwan: Atayal (Tayal; Taruko (Toda, Taokas, Torok, Taroko), Pazeh, Sedeq (Sediq, Seedeq, Sazek), Saisiyat (Saixia), Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Viet, Muong, Lacandon, Sicuani, Kaxuyana (Warikyana, Arikena), Wayapi, Emerillon, Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Wanana, Tucano proper, Pira-Tapuya, Arapaso, Baniwa (incl. Wakuenai), Bare, Piapoco, Curripaco, Siusi, Guarikena , Yagua, Ticuna (Tucuna), Suruí, Gaviâo, Zoro, Arua, Cinta Larga, Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Calapalo, Kamayura, Trumai, Kayabi
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