Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B36 — Living beings acquire their appearance.
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, fish, and four-legged animals deliberately or accidentally smear themselves with colouring substances or divide parts of another's body among themselves, thereby acquiring their current appearance.
Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar.
B36 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedB36. Birds, fish, and four-legged animals deliberately or accidentally smear themselves with colouring substances or divide parts of another's body among themselves, thereby acquiring their current appearance.
B36a. Two zoomorphic characters adorn each other, after which one is satisfied with the result and the other is not.
B36b. Birds find their voices by pecking at a large reptile and smearing themselves with the fluids that flow out of its body.
B36c. Animals receive meat and fat rendered from a certain creature or obtained in some other way. Some received a lot, others remained thin.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B36A | 99.14% | Two zoomorphic characters adorn each other, after which one is satisfied with the result and the other is not. |
| F47B | 98.86% | In order to create new people (new women) to replace those who have been destroyed, the character leaves something (feathers or pieces of flesh) in each empty hut (in the hearth, in the hammock, in the village), from which new people (new women) appear. |
| F43 | 98.24% | The women of the community of the first ancestors kill or abandon the men. |
| L36 | 98.18% | At the moment when the husband climbs or descends from a tree, his wife (or her brother) kills or maims him or turns into a demon that pursues him. |
| C9A | 98.17% | During the flood or when crossing a river, those who drowned or were saved turn into aquatic or amphibious animals. |
| M14A | 97.90% | To take revenge on his wife or her relatives for (allegedly) causing him offence, the husband roasts his wife alive. See motif M14. |
| E13A | 97.84% | Sacred knowledge, objects and rituals were first obtained by humans from the inhabitants of the underwater world. |
| M35 | 97.74% | Two zoomorphic characters compete to see which of them will spend the whole night in the cold and stay alive. By morning, one of them dies. Cf. K27A motif (the cold test does not involve a two-animal competition). |
| H24F | 97.72% | The character has the ability to put a large amount of meat or fish into a bag or container that is easy to carry. |
| M70 | 97.47% | The oldest character poisons the youngest with his intestinal gases. |
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
47 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 47 traditions: Batak (Toba, Dairi), Eastern Arunachal Pradesh: Abor (incl Minyong, Shimong, Padam, Pasi, Panggi), Apa Tani (Apatani), Bori, Bugun, Dafla (=Nyishi, Nisi, Nishing, incl Tagin), Gallong (=Galo, Adi), Mishmi, Chin-Naga: Ao, Mao, Sema, Zeme, Kolren, Kom, Lhota, Rengma, Angami, Kabui, Tangkhul, Koirenf, Lenape (Delaware), Micmac, Montagnais, Yana, Lipan, Gulf Nahuatl, Guajiro, Sanema, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Waiwai, Trio, Hixkariyana, Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan), Akawai, Locono, Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Wayapi, Emerillon, Maue (Mawe), Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Aimara, Ashaninca (Campa), Machiguenga, Shipibo, Conibo, Setebo, Cashibo, Amahuaca, Cashinahua, Sharanahua, Yaminahua, Yawanahua, Capanahua), Yuracare, Parintintin; Villa Bella (tribal affiliation unknown), Mundurucu, Curuaia, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Kamayura, Rikbaktsa, Iranxe, Nambikwara, Makka, Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Mataco, Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Chorote, Toba (incl Pilagá), Caduveo, Mbaya, Yamana (Yaghan), Alacaluf, Kodiak, Biloxi, Matses (Mayoruna)
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