Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
E25 — Arachne (spider weaver).
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 the art of weaving from a spider or from a person who later becomes a spider; the spider makes fabrics for humans.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| K19C | 98.54% | A man brings home a small creature with which he makes love at night. The man's mother, sister or wife finds the creature in his bed or purse. |
| L44A | 97.61% | The demon demands that the man hiding in the shelter give him parts of his body. The man gives the demon parts of the body of a dead animal. The demon does not understand the deception and dies, giving parts of his own body in return. |
| L7A | 97.50% | A character who sticks to another creature and refuses to let go, first sticking to a human, then to an animal, or first sticking to an animal, then to a bird. |
| M11A | 97.20% | The character gives others the fish extracted from his body. |
| F4 | 97.12% | In the days of the first ancestors, children were conceived not through sexual intercourse, but in vessels, piles of earth, lumps of clay, etc. |
| L36 | 97.11% | At the moment when the husband climbs or descends from a tree, his wife (or her brother) kills or maims him or turns into a demon that pursues him. |
| M43 | 97.04% | To kill or catch a monster, he sees a figure made of wood or clay or a living person. Most often, a monster's claws or sharp leg get stuck when they pierce a tree. |
| C37 | 96.94% | The sloth causes a global catastrophe or saves people from it. |
| K27H | 96.94% | The hero must carve an image of the character's head, which he never shows. It usually adorns a wooden bench. |
| B28A | 96.93% | 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. |
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
27 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 27 traditions: Maka (Makaa), Baya, Kaka, Akan, Ashanti, Akwapim; Ga (Accra), Kra, Twi (Chwi, Chi), Batak (Toba, Dairi), Kachin (Singpho), Chak, Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Gagauz, Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Nivkh, Navajo, Kogi (Cagaba), Sanha, Creols of Aritama Valley, Guajiro, Cuiva, Wayana, Aparai, Juruna, Ashaninca (Campa), Amahuaca, Cashinahua, Sharanahua, Yaminahua, Yawanahua, Capanahua), Tacana, Ese’ejja, Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Suruí, Gaviâo, Zoro, Arua, Cinta Larga, Makka, Ayoreo, Chamacoco (Ishir), Mataco, Toba (incl Pilagá), Greece
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