Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B2F2 — Carries an unburied corpse.
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 character carries the body of the deceased for a long time, unable to bury it or not knowing how to do so, but eventually buries the body in the ground.
Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 6, Origin and interpretation of culture elements, in particular related to agriculture, inadequate forms of subsistence and economic activity before the establishment of the present norms.
B2 has 8 other sub-motifs
RelatedB2a. The earth is a female character (alone or alongside a male character) and is considered to be female or associated with women.
B2b. The earth feeds on the people buried in it. See motif B2A.
B2c. The earth as a whole, elements of the landscape or fertile soil arise from the human body and (or) the earth (islands) are born of a woman.
B2d. The sky (the Sun, Thunder, the Wind living in the sky) is considered male and marries the Earth, who is female; The sky is combined with the female Water; with the daughter of the Earth; the creator (master) of the sky and the creator (mistress) of the earth are husband and wife; rarely: the female Sky (or Sun) is combined with the male Earth.
B2e. The Earth or the world as a whole is a male character (alone or alongside a female character).
B2f. The character cannot bury the deceased, not knowing how to do it or not finding a place for burial.
B2f1. (While the earth does not yet exist or has not yet hardened), birds bury the dead in their bodies â usually in their beaks or heads, which explains the unpleasant smell or the origin of the crest, swelling on the beak, etc.
B2f2. The character carries the body of the deceased for a long time, unable to bury it or not knowing how to do so, but eventually buries the body in the ground.
B2g. The chameleon walked on the ground when it had not yet hardened.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K56A4B | 99.58% | A girl is told to clean the yarn, or to spin and weave. The wind blows the yarn (cloth, spindle) away, the girl goes in search of it, and comes across a character who rewards her. |
| M114C | 99.50% | The character is puzzled as to how the other person's clothes (firewood, etc.) remained dry after the rain â the other person covered them with their body (hid them in a vessel, waited out the rain in a shelter). |
| K129A | 99.49% | A young woman (lying in a tomb) comes back to life, then appears dead again, but is ultimately freed from the spell. |
| M90C | 99.49% | man agreed with another that he could take the first thing he touched from his house. The visitor is going to take his wife, but when he takes up the stepladder to go up to the woman, he is told to pick up the stepladder and leave. |
| K60C | 99.35% | The stubborn wife of a worthy man goes on a date with a demon or a servant. He beats her, but she patiently endures her lover's beatings. |
| M94B | 98.88% | The character is lured to look under the mill wheel, he dies or is maimed. |
| M29Z1 | 98.74% | purely anthropomorphic character, or a character who bears the name of an animal or plant but does not act zoomorphic in the course of his adventures. See the motives in square brackets. {Data not fully entered} |
| K66B | 98.66% | Travelling from one place to another, the hero leaves one of his companions in each place (usually marrying them to the princesses he has received as a reward), and continues on his way. When he gets into trouble, his companions come to his aid. |
| H49D | 98.00% | A character (usually a bird) brings a healing (rejuvenating) fruit (seed, branch). Accidentally or maliciously, poison gets into the fruit. The person whom the fruit-bearer wanted to help kills or is about to kill his benefactor, and then learns of his mistake. |
| L125A | 97.82% | The woman with whom the man has come together is a creature of a non-human nature. This becomes clear after she suffers from thirst at night and, finding no water in the house, takes on her true form, turning into a snake, separating her limbs from her torso, etc. |
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
5 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 5 traditions: Saudi Arabia, Ingush, Kumyk, Terekemen, Kazakh, Bhutan
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