Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M8C — Cleaned eyes
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
OverviewBirds pierce through a layer of clay, wax, resin, etc., that covers the character's eyes or anus.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
M8 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedM8. Some characters (not humans) are struggling to break a strong barrier that prevents access to the desired location or to a high-value object. See also M8A - M8D motifs; they are included in the M8 motif in the correlation tables.
M8a. 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 includes groups whose texts deal with the exit of the first ancestors to earth from a confined space.
M8b. Animals, and often birds, struggle to break through the rock to get water or honey hidden inside it.
M8c. Birds pierce through a layer of clay, wax, resin, etc., that covers the character's eyes or anus.
M8d. Birds break through the hard cover on the character's body to reach his entrails.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| F47A | 100.00% | Men use each part of the body of a single woman for copulation, or each man takes a part of her body cut into pieces. |
| K27YY2 | 99.85% | The hero is sent to bring the chick of a dangerous bird. |
| E20 | 99.36% | When a certain person enters the water, the fish die. A plant grows from parts of his body or on his grave, from which fish poison (timbó) is made. |
| M70 | 99.06% | The oldest character poisons the youngest with his intestinal gases. |
| A22D | 98.99% | The burned character turns into a constellation or a dark spot on the Milky Way. |
| B114 | 98.99% | A woman or a man (usually old people) turn into anteaters (the origin of anteaters). |
| B24A | 98.99% | After a character surrounds a group of people with a circle of feathers or throws feathers into their dwellings, the people turn into wild pigs or peccaries. |
| B36B | 98.99% | Birds find their voices by pecking at a large reptile and smearing themselves with the fluids that flow out of its body. |
| C17 | 98.99% | The men of the community of the first ancestors destroy most of the people and/or themselves on a pyre or in a fire pit. |
| C2A | 98.99% | Two characters meet a woodpecker and receive an object from it, which causes the ground to catch fire upon contact. The stronger and smarter of the two characters escapes, while the weaker and stupider one is burned or burned to death. |
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
9 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 9 traditions: Batak (Toba, Dairi), Machiguenga, Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Sanapana, Lengua (incl Angaite), Makka, Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Mataco, Chorote, Toba (incl Pilagá)
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