Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F47 — People made of pieces of flesh.
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
OverviewPieces of a creature cut into many parts or a lump of living flesh are scattered or dispersed. After that, people emerge from them. Cf. motifs E38A and K98.
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.
F47 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedF47. Pieces of a creature cut into many parts or a lump of living flesh are scattered or dispersed. After that, people emerge from them. Cf. motifs E38A and K98.
F47a. Men use each part of the body of a single woman for copulation, or each man takes a part of her body cut into pieces.
F47b. 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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| E38C | 98.61% | The first humans were mute and began to speak after being struck by something, made to laugh, etc. |
| D2A | 98.21% | A woman gives birth to a son who is the embodiment of fire or the sun and dies from burns. |
| H36G | 94.00% | God sends a messenger to the people to tell them to eat infrequently (once a day, once every three days, etc.). The messenger says that one should eat often – at least two or three times a day. |
| F18D | 92.51% | Female genitals were enormous in size. |
| E17 | 92.16% | People get the idea of ornamentation of vessels, baskets, bodies, etc., or of a sign system after someone manages to see a pattern on the body of a zoomorphic or supernatural creature or make an imprint of it. |
| H24G | 91.54% | A woman returned from the other world or obtained there disappears when a man opens the vessel in which she is kept prematurely. |
| F45A | 91.07% | A woman or female animal conceives by deliberately exposing her genitals to the wind. |
| C8 | 91.00% | At the beginning of time or as a result of a catastrophe, the only human couple is a brother and sister (less often a mother and son, father and daughters). They marry and give birth to people. |
| F20A | 90.62% | At first, people mated as dogs do now, but then it became as it is now. |
| A2 | 90.47% | There was a time when several, i.e. more than two, suns shone in the sky at the same time. |
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
21 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 21 traditions: Yao, Makua, Trans-New Guinea and unclassified Papuan groups of Irian Jaya: Mejprat, Arandai-Bintuni, Inanwatan-Berau, Papua of Gelvink (Cenderawasih) Bay, Kamoró, Marind Anim, Sawi, Mafore; Korowai; Kwerba; Momina, Eipo, Yale, Awyu, Kayan, Bahau, Kenja, Aoheng, Punan (Bukat, Basap, Oloh Ot, etc); "Klemantan", Northern Naga: Konyak, Lungshang, Wancho, Nokte, Moclum, Lunshan, Chang, Maring, Naga of Myanmar, Rawang, Dulong; Anong, Drung, Kachin (Singpho), Chak, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Meo (Hmong) of Thailand, Laos and Northern Vietnam, Li , Lavrung, Jiarong; Qiang (incl rGyalrong), Namuci (Namuyi), Naxi; Pumi (Primi), Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Assiniboine, Kaxuyana (Warikyana, Arikena), Wayapi, Emerillon, Craho, Shavante, Cariri, Chamacoco (Ishir), China
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