Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
E24 — Knees and elbows.
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
OverviewJoints appeared in humans after the first ancestor (or several first ancestors) fell from a height, breaking their arms and legs.
Berezkin category: The origins of people and culture
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 5, Origin of human beings, ethnic groups, etiology of human anatomy, strange body configuration, ways of behavior, marriages before the establishment of the present norms.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| A15 | 96.59% | An eclipse or the appearance of spots on the lunar disc is explained by the fact that the moon or sun turns onto the wrong path or the paths of the luminaries intersect. See motif A14. |
| I82C | 93.64% | Venus or an unidentified star in the eastern and/or western sky â the wife of the Moon. See motif I82b. |
| J58C | 91.29% | A chain of arrows forms a bridge across a water barrier. |
| F8 | 86.92% | In the beginning (.55.60.67.73.) women and men lived separately from each other, then came together. Cf. motif F45 (Amazons). |
| H11 | 84.72% | People are mortal or defective because they respond to the call (or pronounce the name) of a creature that brings death, or do not hear the call (do not pronounce the name; do not respond to the call, do not notice) of a creature that promises immortality (power). |
| J56A | 84.33% | Heroic brothers are transformed into pots or frying pans, but only the elder is able to sit in the fire long enough. |
| H4 | 83.57% | Those who change their skin (bark, clothing) are immortal (forever young). (Cf. motif K56a5a: Skinning oneself to become young: To become a young beauty, an old or ugly woman asks to have her skin skinned off). |
| I82C1 | 83.40% | The Moon has two wives (usually the Morning Star and the Evening Star). With the caring one, he grows fat, with the other, he starves and grows thin. |
| H4A | 83.02% | People no longer rejuvenate (usually, they do not change their skin), because they were disturbed at the moment of renewal or were not recognised as the same person after renewal. See motif H4. |
| I41 | 82.69% | A rainbow is a reptile (usually a snake), less often a fish or snake-like, usually dangerous, object (snake tongue, scorpion tail). |
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
6 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 6 traditions: Dogon, Hadza, Tikopia, Bellona, Rennell, partly Aneytium, Futuna (=Erronan, not to be mixed with Futuna in Western Polynesia), Vaeaka-Taumato, incl Matema, Nifeloli, Nukapu, Nupani, Pileni, Chugach, Trio, Cariri
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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