Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B37 — Living beings are given 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
OverviewThe character decorates various birds (less often fish) and distributes fat to animals. Since then, the corresponding species have possessed their current characteristics.
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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| F80 | 97.41% | The first men and/or women have no genitals, then they acquire them. |
| D9 | 93.66% | The raven or other large dark-coloured bird of prey is the owner, embodiment, spouse, provider or thief of fire, the sun or daylight. |
| K87 | 93.19% | A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rarely another non-human creature). The husband takes care of her, but the marriage ends with the murder of the husband, the woman, their offspring, the woman's relatives, the transformation of the woman herself into an animal, leading to hostility between humans and animals, etc. |
| M18 | 93.10% | The character turns into an object of fishing or hunting and presents himself as a target. The fisherman or hunter does not harm them, but they take away what they use: arrows, darts, harpoons, hooks, bait; or they catch fish, having turned themselves into hooks; or they are caught but escape death by taking on human form again. |
| D8 | 92.89% | The first fire (or summer) is stolen from a large predator â a lion or leopard in Africa, a tiger in Asia, a bear in northern Asia and North America, and a jaguar in South America. |
| B31 | 91.52% | A woman (usually after coming into conflict with a man or being left alone), or a man and a woman (spouses, lovers, brother and sister) turn into aquatic mammals. |
| F20 | 89.88% | After copulation, the man and woman are unable to break their embrace. |
| L135 | 89.81% | A person leaves home and finds himself in unfamiliar places. His journey is marked by encounters with various strange creatures. In the end, he either returns home or leaves the earth for another world. (With an abundance of episodes, the story often either breaks off or does not contain the initial episodes explaining the reason for the hero's departure from home). |
| F80A | 89.76% | Genitals exist independently of people; they can be left behind, attached to the body, etc. |
| F46 | 89.54% | At the beginning of time, two or more men (human-animals) had only one woman. |
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
55 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 55 traditions: Fang (Pangwe), Eton, Bafia, Batanga, Benga, Bube (Bubi), Buheba, Yaunde (Ewondo), Yebekolo, Koko, Bulu, Beti (Beti-Bulu), Sekiani, Eghap, Samoa, Tikopia, Bellona, Rennell, partly Aneytium, Futuna (=Erronan, not to be mixed with Futuna in Western Polynesia), Vaeaka-Taumato, incl Matema, Nifeloli, Nukapu, Nupani, Pileni, Maori, Moriori (Chatam Islands), Tuamotu, incl Pukapuka (different from Pukapuka in Cook Islands), Vahitahi, Anaa, Hao, Fangatau, Hawaii, Palau (Western Carolines), Marshall Islands, incl Ailinglapalap, Arno, Jaluit, Kili, Lae, Maloelap, Majuro, Ratak, Wotho, Ujae, Jaluit (=Jalooj), Namdrik, Khmer, Bondo, Didayi (Gata'), Gutob (=Gadaba; cf Dravidian-speaking Gadaba), Chin-Naga: Ao, Mao, Sema, Zeme, Kolren, Kom, Lhota, Rengma, Angami, Kabui, Tangkhul, Koirenf, Western Sami, Swedes, Ainu, Udeghe, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Han, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Eastern Cree, Menominee, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Blackfoot, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Shuswap, Comox, Pentlatch, Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Quileute, Chemakum (Hoh), Quinault, Shasta; Chimariko, Karok, Hupa, Chilula, Yurok, Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Amuesha, Amahuaca, Cashinahua, Sharanahua, Yaminahua, Yawanahua, Capanahua), Chacobo, Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Paresi, Bororo, Ayoreo, Chamacoco (Ishir), Upper Chinook: Wasco, Wishram, Clackamas, Kathlamet, Palau
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