Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
E17 — The origin of ornamentation.
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
OverviewPeople get the idea of ornamentation of vessels, baskets, bodies, etc., or of a sign system after someone manages to see a pattern on the body of a zoomorphic or supernatural creature or make an imprint of it.
Berezkin category: The origins of people and culture
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 6, Origin and interpretation of culture elements, in particular related to agriculture, inadequate forms of subsistence and economic activity before the establishment of the present norms.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| D2A | 96.73% | A woman gives birth to a son who is the embodiment of fire or the sun and dies from burns. |
| D2 | 94.94% | A woman gives birth to a son who is very hot. |
| I29 | 92.17% | A character climbs into an animal's burrow and finds himself in the underworld, or digs a deep hole and finds himself in a world inhabited by burrowing animals. |
| F47 | 92.16% | Pieces of a creature cut into many parts or a lump of living flesh are scattered or dispersed. After that, people emerge from them. Cf. motifs E38A and K98. |
| E5D | 92.00% | The first people to arrive on earth and settle within a limited space are threatened by a predator or monster. |
| I14A | 91.90% | People without anuses regurgitate what they have eaten through their mouths or other (marked) orifices. See motif I14. |
| J2 | 91.56% | Husband or lover – tree (temporarily transformed into a human). |
| F20A | 90.17% | At first, people mated as dogs do now, but then it became as it is now. |
| D13D | 89.68% | One character tries to make another character, who is hiding somewhere in the house, laugh in order to find them. |
| F24 | 89.04% | Women lose blood when they are bitten by fish, snakes, etc. |
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
20 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 20 traditions: Thai of Vietnam, Tai Lue, Khao (Kho, Tai Don, White Tai), Tai Dam (Black Tai), Nung; Zhuang, Buyi; Shui, Mon, Palaung (De Ang, Deang), Early Chinese written sources, Yana, Huichol, Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Waiwai, Kaxuyana (Warikyana, Arikena), Locono, Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Wayana, Aparai, Maue (Mawe), Xipaya, Shipibo, Conibo, Setebo, Rikbaktsa, Manao, Katawishi (Teffe lake); groups of uncertain affiliation mostly from Rio Jamunda, China
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