Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F13 — The red penis of primates.
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
OverviewThe genitals of humans or monkeys acquire their current shape and colour as a result of copulation with a girl who had a toothy womb or no vagina.
Berezkin category: Gender and sex
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| D7 | 99.80% | The frog or toad possesses the first fire, steals it from its original owner, and tries to extinguish it or save it from dying out. See motif D4. |
| I83 | 99.68% | Birds (especially vultures and eagles) lived or live in the sky, usually on one of several tiers of the upper world. |
| M8D | 99.38% | Birds break through the hard cover on the character's body to reach his entrails. |
| K13A | 99.01% | The character's leg (rarely: both legs) is cut off, bitten off, torn off, or damaged. The character ascends to the sky: to the moon; becomes the moon; turns into a star or constellation; becomes the sun; blood flowing from the leg colours the sky. |
| G13 | 98.94% | Before the advent of cultivated plants, people ate rotten or soft wood (ceiba â Ceiba L., balsa â Ochroma (Bombax) Sw.); some people eat rotten wood. |
| J28A | 98.79% | When asking how one of his parents died, the hero receives a series of false answers. He often exposes himself to the same dangers, but remains alive, proving the falsity of the proposed versions. |
| A27 | 98.40% | The light and/or heat of the sun and/or moon is contained in their crowns, necklaces or clothing (made of feathers or animal teeth). |
| H35 | 98.37% | Human teeth are made of fragile material. Usually, the motif explains the aetiology of toothache. |
| F40A | 98.36% | A male character, androgynous, with a monstrous penis, single-handedly possesses all women, rules over them or leads away the first women. |
| J15B | 98.32% | While travelling, a woman finds herself in the house of a frog or toad. See motif J15. |
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
8 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 8 traditions: Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Sicuani, Makiritare (Yecuana), Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Wayapi, Emerillon, Caraja, Tapirape
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
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