Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
J22C — Conjoined women.
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
OverviewThere is a demonic character in the form of Siamese twins â two semi-fused women.
Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.
J22 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedJ22a. Two men or a brother and sister emerge from a single body or embryo cut in half, or the second emerges from a part of the body or from the secretions of the first. Cf. motif M37.
J22b. A woman is cut or torn in half, and two new ones appear.
J22c. There is a demonic character in the form of Siamese twins â two semi-fused women.
J22d. Foreigners or animals of two different species emerge from a single person or animal cut in half.
J22e. The second character emerges from the afterbirth of the first.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K69 | 90.64% | Several men walk towards the horizon to ascend to the sky and visit the Sun or another supreme deity. Usually, one or more of them perish along the way, while others reach their destination. They return by a shorter route than they came. |
| F45A1 | 90.45% | A woman, against her will, conceives from the wind. |
| K104 | 90.45% | The youngest of the brothers stays at home, wounds a red swan or duck, and follows its trail. |
| M75A | 90.00% | The character lures a veteran to avenge his fall from the sky. Either the (potauatomi) shovel drops the character or leaves him on top to avenge being lured and caught. |
| M66A | 89.54% | After eating a certain food, the trickster leaves a mountain of excrement that is larger than himself. |
| M13A | 89.07% | A deity and a human meet so that the former can fulfil the latter's request. As a result, the human is turned to stone. Usually (except for the Squamish), one of the supplicants wants eternal life and is turned to stone. See motif M13. |
| B42A | 88.70% | Hunters chase a bear across the sky and kill it in August-October. The bear's blood or fat falls to the ground in the form of dew or colours the foliage red. See motif B42. |
| H37B | 88.70% | One character gives another his power (usually a skunk gives his volley). The other wastes the resource unnecessarily to test its effect. Usually, when the need arises, the resource no longer works. |
| L75 | 88.30% | One of two brothers is the embodiment of evil; at birth, he cuts open his mother's body, killing her. |
| M53C | 87.89% | trickster, inviting birds to dance around him with their eyes closed, kills them one at a time and threatens to turn red at the one that opens their eyes; this is an empty threat, or for a bird that opens eyes and eyes have really turned red ever since. |
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
4 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Winnebago, Teton (incl Oglala), Kogi (Cagaba), Sanha, Creols of Aritama Valley, Sicuani
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