Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

B63 — The transformation of lazy children.

8 Myths, legends and folktales
8 Unique narratives for motif B63
3 Cultures & traditions where B63 is told
1 Sub-motifs of motif B63
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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

Overview

Children lie to their mother, pretending to work in the fields. When the deception is revealed, they are left without a harvest and are transformed into atmospheric phenomena or celestial objects.

Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature.

B63 has 1 other sub-motifs

Related

B63.  Children lie to their mother, pretending to work in the fields. When the deception is revealed, they are left without a harvest and are transformed into atmospheric phenomena or celestial objects.
B63A.  Several brothers turn into Thunder, Storm and other elements.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of B63’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
B24100.00%People who have entered into conflict or violated a prohibition are transformed into wild boars or peccaries.
E19100.00%Narcotic plants arise from the body of a human being torn to pieces by others.
F75100.00%A hunter sees a tapir summoning a woman who lives in the water with a secret signal; she emerges from the lake or river, and the tapir mates with her. The hunter himself summons the woman and becomes her lover.
J9100.00%Even before they are born, children speak from their mother's womb, showing her the way.
K27YY3100.00%The hero must bring the fruits growing on a tree that is dangerous to approach.
L76100.00%When a female cannibal attacks a man, she devours or tears off his testicles.
J15A99.95%Setting off on a journey (usually in search of a fiancΓ©, husband, or relatives), a woman finds herself in the lair or settlement of large dangerous predators - pumas or jaguars. See motif J15.
L8899.91%A man kills a demon, but when he touches its remains some time later, it comes to life.
B9999.85%A person or their head left on a tree turns into an insect nest.
J15B99.83%While travelling, a woman finds herself in the house of a frog or toad. See motif J15.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

3 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 3 traditions: Svans, Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Aimara

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