Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F46 — One for all.
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
OverviewAt the beginning of time, two or more men (human-animals) had only one woman.
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.
F46 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedF46. At the beginning of time, two or more men (human-animals) had only one woman.
F46a. Men (human-animals) discover a woman at the top of a tree and copulate with her there.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M70A | 99.00% | A character on whom an old woman defecates or whose face blows the winds pierces her from below with a sharp object. See M70 motif. |
| L135 | 98.92% | A person leaves home and finds himself in unfamiliar places. His journey is marked by encounters with various strange creatures. In the end, he either returns home or leaves the earth for another world. (With an abundance of episodes, the story often either breaks off or does not contain the initial episodes explaining the reason for the hero's departure from home). |
| H29 | 98.87% | A woman mates with an animal. The people of a hostile tribe originate from or derive their culture from the descendants of this union, from the relatives of the animal or from the children of the woman's brothers. |
| D8 | 95.67% | The first fire (or summer) is stolen from a large predator â a lion or leopard in Africa, a tiger in Asia, a bear in northern Asia and North America, and a jaguar in South America. |
| M70 | 94.31% | The oldest character poisons the youngest with his intestinal gases. |
| B36 | 93.46% | 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. |
| M75 | 92.00% | The character attracts and catches corpse eaters (usually birds) and as a result obtains valuables or returns something valuable (fire, woman, animals, etc.). |
| K87 | 91.88% | A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rarely another non-human creature). The husband takes care of her, but the marriage ends with the murder of the husband, the woman, their offspring, the woman's relatives, the transformation of the woman herself into an animal, leading to hostility between humans and animals, etc. |
| F95 | 91.60% | Two companions or brothers live together. One has a wife, whom he hides. The other suspects her existence, destroys her, or tries to get a wife for himself. |
| M6 | 91.56% | A young man or girl spends night in the forest. The forest partridge (Tinamus sp.) provides him or her a fire, a shelter and/or a hammock but takes them away and flies away itself when the person does something wrong |
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
22 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 22 traditions: Truk, Eastern Fayu, Losap, Pulap, Puluwat, Mortlock (incl. Satawan), Aleuts, Central Yupik, Koyukon, Tanana, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Navajo, Hopi, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Kaxuyana (Warikyana, Arikena), Hixkariyana, Wayana, Aparai, Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Umotina (Umutina), Craho, Shavante, Sherente, Cariri, Makka, Ayoreo, Chamacoco (Ishir), Mataco
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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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