Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
E18 — Vessels and snakes.
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 learn to make or decorate ceramics or baskets (usually learning to apply patterns) thanks to a water creature.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| F31 | 98.95% | A girl or woman becomes pregnant, without knowing it, by a reptile when she unknowingly touches a dead reptile or when a liquid that has leaked from the reptile gets inside her (usually when the contents of a snake egg accidentally flow between her legs). |
| B19 | 98.63% | Before nightfall, people could not make love in peace. |
| A22D | 98.06% | The burned character turns into a constellation or a dark spot on the Milky Way. |
| B114 | 98.06% | A woman or a man (usually old people) turn into anteaters (the origin of anteaters). |
| B24A | 98.06% | After a character surrounds a group of people with a circle of feathers or throws feathers into their dwellings, the people turn into wild pigs or peccaries. |
| B36B | 98.06% | Birds find their voices by pecking at a large reptile and smearing themselves with the fluids that flow out of its body. |
| C17 | 98.06% | The men of the community of the first ancestors destroy most of the people and/or themselves on a pyre or in a fire pit. |
| C2A | 98.06% | Two characters meet a woodpecker and receive an object from it, which causes the ground to catch fire upon contact. The stronger and smarter of the two characters escapes, while the weaker and stupider one is burned or burned to death. |
| C2B | 98.06% | The Sun and the Moon are caught in a fire. The strong and intelligent Sun escapes, while the weak and foolish Moon is burned or consumed, but the Sun revives it. |
| E28 | 98.06% | People shoot at the Moon, its blood spills onto the earth. |
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
16 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 16 traditions: Palau (Western Carolines), Mon, Palaung (De Ang, Deang), Yana, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Waiwai, Kaxuyana (Warikyana, Arikena), Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Wayana, Aparai, Maue (Mawe), Xipaya, Shipibo, Conibo, Setebo, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Caraja, Manao, Katawishi (Teffe lake); groups of uncertain affiliation mostly from Rio Jamunda, Palau
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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