Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

D12A — At sunrise, the sun's heat is sufficient to cook food.

6 Myths, legends and folktales
6 Unique narratives for motif D12A
4 Cultures & traditions where D12A is told
1 Sub-motifs of motif D12A
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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

People living in the east or west prepare food using the heat of the passing sun.

Berezkin category: Fire and Laughter

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.

D12 has 1 other sub-motifs

Related

D12.  People in the past or inhabitants of distant lands cooked food in the sun; or the owner of the fire lies, saying that the food was cooked in this way.
D12a.  People living in the east or west prepare food using the heat of the passing sun.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of D12’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
H12B94.67%In the afterlife, the dead or demons feed on excrement.
L11291.03%A physically defective boy is born (tiny, with one head, half a body, etc.). After a series of adventures, he gains physical completeness.
G8A90.58%A man cuts down a tree to make a boat or something else from the trunk (Yap: a board for building a house; one of the texts from Ulithi: a wooden bird), goes away to rest, and upon returning finds the tree intact again. Usually, the character who restored the tree in the man's absence then cuts down the tree himself and makes what the hero needs.
A21A89.45%The moon is an object that was accidentally released by its owners or stolen from them and ended up in the sky.
B11889.45%A character who was unable to reach the sky or returned from the sky to earth becomes an owl.
B74B89.45%The owl is forced to part with the moon and now cries out when it sees the moon. Usually, the story tells how the marriage of the owl and the moon fell apart or did not take place.
E39A89.45%An animal (snake, pig) conceives from a man's urine and gives birth to a human child (or twins).
F43C89.45%The husbands of the first women, Amazons or single women are small animals - usually flying foxes.
K32F89.45%A woman or girl raises a bird of prey chick, which brings her food and fire. This usually happens after an evil spirit leaves the girl or young woman in a tree or on an island.
K37D89.45%The character recognises the presence of another by noticing traces of their teeth or nails on fruit or leaves.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

4 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Teda (Tedaga), Yoruba; incl Ife), Nupe, Bini (Edo), Engenni, Chamba, Dakka, Kukuruku, Toraja (Toradja), To Mori, Baree (=Eastern Toraja), Mindanao and Sulu: Blaan (Bilaan), Bagobo, Bukidnon, Cotabato, HiligΓ‘ynon, Binukid, Magindaan (=Magindanao: main Muslim population), Mandaya, Mansaka, Manobo (Agusan, Ata, Dibabawon, Sarangani, Ilianen), Maranao, Samal, Subanon (=Subanun), Subanen, Tboli

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