Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
C37 — The sloth's catastrophe.
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 sloth causes a global catastrophe or saves people from it.
Berezkin category: Disasters
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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27H | 100.00% | The hero must carve an image of the character's head, which he never shows. It usually adorns a wooden bench. |
| I63 | 99.99% | The Milky Way is the tapir's trail; the tapir can be seen on the Milky Way. |
| B28A | 99.95% | A character pinned to the ground by a rod, transported somewhere to the edge of the world and associated with an object that continues to influence people. |
| B32 | 99.95% | As a result of conflict with their husbands, women turn into fish. |
| J10 | 99.95% | A woman loses her way after being stung by a wasp (or bee, ant, snake). She slaps her stomach (either to kill the insect or to punish her unborn sons, because of whom she went to pick a flower and was stung; see motif J11). The offended sons fall silent, ceasing to show the way. See motif J9. |
| B58 | 99.92% | After the first ancestors steal the original fire, a forest bird the size of a partridge (Penelope sp.; Anhima cornuta; etc.; jacu, paujil) swallows a hot coal. As a result (except for the Andoc), its neck turns red. |
| D4P | 99.92% | The parrot obtains fire for humans. See motif D4A. Australian data is not taken into account, as the common origin of the motif in America and Australia is excluded. |
| D6B | 99.92% | The one who is burned turns into a crocodile/caiman. |
| J11 | 99.89% | The son in his mother's womb asks her to pick flowers or fruit for him (usually when a woman picks flowers, she is bitten by an insect). See motif J9. |
| E21 | 99.85% | A child catches fish (with poison), or fish poison is secreted from his body. Fish or water snakes kill him. Death is avenged. |
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
8 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 8 traditions: Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Baniwa (incl. Wakuenai), Bare, Piapoco, Curripaco, Siusi, Guarikena , Yagua, Tenetehara, Culina, Paumarí, Arauá, Apurina, Cuniba, Tacana, Nambikwara, Cayapo (incl. Kubenkranken, Pau d’Arco, Shikrin or Xikrin)
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