Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I93 — The Milky Way – the backbone of the sky.
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 Milky Way – the backbone, support, pillar of the sky or world.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations.
I93 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedI93. The Milky Way – the backbone, support, pillar of the sky or world.
I93A. The Milky Way is the tail of a creature that is being pulled by its tail.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K8C4 | 98.72% | A small animal (bird, mouse, porcupine, fox) or (rarely) a tiny human being allows itself to be swallowed by a large ungulate (elk, deer, bison, tapir) in order to rip open its belly (and eat it). |
| L97 | 97.65% | Seeing a character who is unable to move (nailed to the ground, his lower body rooted to the ground, petrified, completely absent), the hero himself manages to avoid a similar fate. |
| K8C3 | 97.45% | One (zoomorphic) character refuses to use any part of another's body except the one he uses to kill him. |
| J5 | 97.15% | The role of the victim is played by two or more brothers (friends). See motif J4. |
| J40B | 97.15% | 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 |
| F65C | 97.13% | A man pretends to be dead (in order to marry his daughter or to be able to eat the meat of hunted animals alone). One of his younger children recognises their (adoptive) father or notices that the supposed dead man is alive (he runs away from the funeral pyre, laughs, etc.). |
| M42C | 97.03% | Falling off a cliff and breaking his leg, the character eats his bone marrow. |
| A32B1 | 97.00% | A woman sits (jumps) on the face (back) of the Moon Man and is now visible in the silhouette of the moon spots. |
| D4M | 96.90% | The thief comes to the owners of fire or light. They feast or dance. He joins them and steals their valuables when the moment is right. See motif D4A. |
| J53C | 96.69% | Two women live together, both have children. One of them leaves the house with the other, kills her and (later) eats her. The children of the murdered woman escape. See motif J52. |
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
25 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 25 traditions: Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia, Tuareg, Bushmen (all groups), Nenets, Nganasans, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Potawatomi, Kiowa, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Ohlone (Costanoan), Chumash, Kawaiisu, Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Ute, Luiseño, Juaneño, Western Keres (Acoma, Laguna), Eastern Keres (Cochiti, Sia, San Felipe, Santo Domingo, Santa Ana, Paguate, Seama), Tewa (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe; Hano), Tiwa (Taos, Picuris; Sandia, Isleta), Towa (Jemez), Diegueño: Ipai, Tipai, Kamia (Kumeai)
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