Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
C12B — People – descendants of dogs.
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
OverviewAll people or individual ethnic groups, lineages, families are considered descendants of dogs (with which a man mated).
Berezkin category: Disasters
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.
C12 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedC12a. The dog warns of an impending global flood or fire and advises what to do.
C12b. All people or individual ethnic groups, lineages, families are considered descendants of dogs (with which a man mated).
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| A11B | 95.91% | The sun or moon has one eye (usually the second eye is knocked out or sucked out, but sometimes the reason is not explained; among the Munduruku, the sun of the rainy season has lost both eyes, while the sun of the dry season has retained both). See motif 11A. |
| I69 | 95.77% | Luminous celestial objects or atmospheric phenomena are bodily secretions of celestial beings. |
| D1A3 | 95.59% | A man marries a woman who is fire. She is mistreated, or her husband does not like her, and the marriage breaks down. |
| G9A | 95.59% | The field that was cultivated the day before turns back into virgin soil by morning. |
| A11A | 93.12% | The visible sun or moon are their eyes; if the eyes of the luminaries were not damaged, it would be much brighter and hotter. |
| I7A | 93.07% | Lightning is associated with a snake. |
| G15 | 91.49% | In another world or in the past, products or materials used by humans look or looked like people. |
| I19 | 91.47% | Anthropomorphic creatures satisfy their hunger with the vapours of food being prepared. See motifs I14 (people without anuses), I15 (people without mouths). |
| I8E1 | 91.24% | The sky or earth is supported by four objects or beings located at the four cardinal points (either four groups of beings, or four at the corners and a fifth in the centre). Th A841. See motifs 8A, 8D. |
| C7 | 91.15% | Initially or after the flood, an earthen or stone barrier, the body of a character or creature prevents the flow of water. Later, this barrier is removed or destroyed. |
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
28 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 28 traditions: Efe Pygmies, Kango (Mbuti) Pygmies, Aka, Baka (Badjue) and other Western (Bantu speaking) Pygmies, Nicobarese, Marathi (incl. Bhamta; incl. Mumbai area), Lepcha, Koreans, Norwegians, Uyghur, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Aleuts, Karok, Yurok, Yuma proper (Quechan), Mohave, Maricopa, Huichol, Tepecano, Popoloca; Tlapanec, Tepehua, Totonac, Huastec (Teenek), Mixtec, Trique, Cuicatec; Amuzgo, Tzotzil, Chol; pre-Columbian Mayan iconography outside of Yucatan, Lacandon, Warao, Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Kodiak
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