Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F43 — Disappearance of women.
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 women of the community of the first ancestors kill or abandon the men.
Berezkin category: Gender and sex
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.
F43 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedF43. The women of the community of the first ancestors kill or abandon the men.
F43a. In the community of the first ancestors, women kill, attempt to kill, or transform men.
F43b. Leaving the men, the women of the community of the first ancestors hide in a hole underground.
F43c. The husbands of the first women, Amazons or single women are small animals - usually flying foxes.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L36 | 98.77% | 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. |
| C9A | 98.46% | During the flood or when crossing a river, those who drowned or were saved turn into aquatic or amphibious animals. |
| B36A | 98.33% | Two zoomorphic characters adorn each other, after which one is satisfied with the result and the other is not. |
| B36 | 98.24% | Birds, fish, and four-legged animals deliberately or accidentally smear themselves with colouring substances or divide parts of another's body among themselves, thereby acquiring their current appearance. |
| H24F | 97.90% | The character has the ability to put a large amount of meat or fish into a bag or container that is easy to carry. |
| F44 | 97.87% | In the community of the first ancestors, women and men quarrel, leave, kill, maim each other, etc. |
| J36 | 97.78% | The turtle drags the hero's parents under water. |
| F42 | 97.42% | Feeling wronged, men leave their wives or sisters. |
| F47B | 97.30% | In order to create new people (new women) to replace those who have been destroyed, the character leaves something (feathers or pieces of flesh) in each empty hut (in the hearth, in the hammock, in the village), from which new people (new women) appear. |
| M35 | 97.30% | Two zoomorphic characters compete to see which of them will spend the whole night in the cold and stay alive. By morning, one of them dies. Cf. K27A motif (the cold test does not involve a two-animal competition). |
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: Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Dinka, Atuot, Nuer, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Armenians, Tillamook, Lower Chinook (Chinook proper), Yana, Southern Paiute, Navajo, Kaxuyana (Warikyana, Arikena), Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Wayana, Aparai, Wayapi, Emerillon, Desana, Siriano; Tatuyo, Bara, Tuyuca, Kabiyari, Yukuna (Yucuna), Tariana, Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Mundurucu, Curuaia, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Rikbaktsa, Caraja, Apinaye (Apinage, Apinaje), Suya, Txukarramae, Shavante, Manao, Katawishi (Teffe lake); groups of uncertain affiliation mostly from Rio Jamunda, Matses (Mayoruna)
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