Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F82 — Incest with mother-in-law, T417.
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 son-in-law resorts to trickery to sleep with his mother-in-law, or the mother-in-law with her son-in-law. Usually, the son-in-law insists that his mother-in-law, rather than his wife, accompany him on a hunt.
Berezkin category: Gender and sex
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior.
F82 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedF82. The son-in-law resorts to trickery to sleep with his mother-in-law, or the mother-in-law with her son-in-law. Usually, the son-in-law insists that his mother-in-law, rather than his wife, accompany him on a hunt.
F82a. In order to lure a forbidden marriage partner into their hammock, the character cries out in the voices of birds and animals or interprets their voices in their own way.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K42 | 97.54% | A young bird woman energetically searches among a group of men for one she likes, takes him by force and makes him her husband; she turns into a monster, pursues and kills men, but is ultimately killed herself. |
| C6F | 97.48% | The characters attempt to retrieve a living creature or part of its body that has sunk to the bottom of the water. See motif C6. |
| F51A | 97.07% | After incest is discovered, the sister openly demands her brother as her husband, turns into a monster, and kills people. |
| K11A | 97.02% | Plucked feathers of a (huge) bird turn into actual birds (or their plumage) or humans emerge from them. |
| J58B | 96.77% | With the help of a chain of arrows, the sky or the sun is pulled down or pushed up, or a hole is made in the sky. |
| F56 | 96.63% | Upon seeing the vagina of his mother, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, niece, or mother-in-law, a man or boy thinks about incest or commits it. |
| J22A | 96.42% | Two men or a brother and sister emerge from a single body or embryo cut in half, or the second emerges from a part of the body or from the secretions of the first. Cf. motif M37. |
| M52 | 96.39% | The character (by deception) kills an ungulates. He asks another to refresh the carcass, looks for a knife to do it, or a fire to fry the meat. The other freshens the carcass, gives fire or a knife, but takes or tries to take all the meat for himself. |
| K58A | 96.16% | The character brings water for irrigation or a fish river to the place where the girl agrees to meet him, and does not bring water if she refuses. (The parallel between the myths of Peru and Oregon was first noted in Lehmann-Nitsche 1935a; 1936). |
| M103 | 96.16% | One character asks another how her (his) children acquired valuable qualities (became beautiful, obedient, etc.). The other replies that children must be baked in ashes, kept in fire, burned, etc. The first character does so, and her or his children die or are maimed. |
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
34 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 34 traditions: Ngbakka, Mbum (incl Mbai), Mundang, Fali, Tupuri, Maya (=Bali), Nyong, Arnhem Land: Enindhilyagwa (Groote Eilandt), KuTiwi, Yulengor, Mara, Oenpelli, Murngin, Roper River, Maung, Murinbata, Murngin (Duwal), Millingimbi, Goulburn Island, Ngulugwongga, Yirrkalla, Voctoria River Downs, Alawa, Anu, Kunwinjku, Chukchi, Blackfoot, Arapaho, Teton (incl Oglala), Iowa, Gros Ventre, Crow, Pomo, Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Achomavi, Yana, Chumash, Yokuts, Kawaiisu, Owens Valley Paiute, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Southern Paiute, Chemehuevi, Jicarilla, Chiricahua, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Rikbaktsa, Iranxe, Paresi, Lisu, Lolo (incl. Bai), Achang, Yi, Axi, Nasu, Jino, Taungyo, Northeastern Yakuts (Sakha): Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma Basins, Matses (Mayoruna)
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