Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B59 — Dancers turn into the Pleiades, A773.
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
OverviewA group of people (usually children, brothers or sisters) play, dance, rise to the sky and turn into the Pleiades or another small constellation.
Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B65 | 98.00% | A mischievous character imitates other animal-people. As a result, his belly is torn open and his spilled intestines turn into vines. |
| F92 | 97.42% | A male character allows himself to be used as a sexual object. |
| C12A | 96.43% | The dog warns of an impending global flood or fire and advises what to do. |
| L68 | 94.14% | Left alone (usually at night in a deserted place) with his companion, a man undergoes a monstrous metamorphosis. |
| L89 | 92.58% | One person, wishing to harm another, secretly gives him certain food to eat or a certain object to use. As a result, the other person dies (usually undergoing a metamorphosis). Cf. motif K82a. |
| B27B | 91.69% | The characters ponder what they should transform into and decide to become a celestial object. |
| J16 | 91.65% | The character perishes because, being forced to look for insects in the head of another, he refuses to chew insects, spits them out in disgust, or is suspected of doing so. |
| L84 | 89.87% | The character attempts to chop down a tree with an axe made of obviously unsuitable material. Cf. motif K27g5. |
| L29 | 89.74% | A person catches fish where it should not be, usually in a small forest pond isolated from running water; those who eat this fish die, undergo metamorphosis and/or are attacked by monsters. See motif L28. |
| I70 | 89.28% | Trees or reeds grow on the back or head of a reptile. |
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
15 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 15 traditions: Timor: Amarasi, Tetum, Meto, Atoni (incl Mollo), Kedang (Lomblen island), Leti Islands (Leti, Moa, Lakor), Lenape (Delaware), Huron (incl Wyandot), Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Caddo, Alabama, Koasati, Cherokee, Yana, Pima, Sicuani, Makiritare (Yecuana), Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Bolivian Guarani: Chiriguano (including assimilated Chane Arawaks), Pauserna (=Guarasu), Guarayu, Tapiete, Caraja, Caduveo, Mbaya
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