Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

F97 — Forbidden fruit: people become sexually mature, C621.

58 Myths, legends and folktales

58 Unique narratives for motif F97

40 Cultures & traditions where F97 is told

2 Sub-motifs of motif F97

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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

Overview

After eating certain foods, people become sexually mature and/or lose their body hair or skin. Cf. motif H56 (people become mortal).

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.

F97 has 2 other sub-motifs

F97.  After eating certain foods, people become sexually mature and/or lose their body hair or skin. Cf. motif H56 (people become mortal).
F97a.  The snake is to blame for others eating food forbidden by the deity. For this, it is deprived of the limbs it once had. {The Efik variant may not be related to the biblical one, but the South Asian ones are most likely related.
F97a5.  Being responsible for breaking food tabou by humans, snake lost its limbs as a punishment

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of F97’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
A4	90.74%	The Sun is a woman (the Moon is usually a man, sometimes also a woman, see motif A6; highlighted in bold italics in the list of ethnic groups below).
K98	88.18%	An animal or (less commonly) a woman who gave birth to a hero or helped him turns into a house and property.
L37B2	87.69%	From the conversation of snakes or crows, a person learns the cause of another's illness: a snake has crawled inside him. The person expels the snake and the sick person recovers.
I60	86.42%	The Milky Way - a seam, a crack between the two halves of the sky.
A44	86.27%	A character fleeing from pursuit, wronged or suffering on earth, asks the Moon to take him to her, or climbs up to the moon himself using a ladder or rope that has descended from there.
M90A4	86.09%	A tree is described on which jewelry or ornaments hang instead of fruits; individual parts of the tree are made of <i>different</i> metals or (semi) precious stones.
A6	85.71%	The sun and moon are considered female characters (including cases – Tuscarora, Oneida, when the gender is not directly specified, but both arise from the body of a female character).
D4AA	84.93%	Moths try to steal the fire that humans possess.
N28D	84.52%	In a list of things that do not exist in the world, a lid or covering for the sea, ocean or river are mentioned
K76C	83.53%	The son (rarely – daughter) or foster child of a married couple emerges from a pumpkin (rarely: watermelon, nut) or is found inside it.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

40 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 40 traditions: Old and New Testament, Saudi Arabia, Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Arabs of Egypt, Kikuyu, Chuka, Embu, Emberre, Mwimbe, Luba (Baluba, Luba-Katanga, Shaba), (Ba)Holoholo, Tumbwe, Bena-Piana, Tabwa, Benabena-Mitumba, Zela, Bene-Marungu, Fang (Pangwe), Eton, Bafia, Batanga, Benga, Bube (Bubi), Buheba, Yaunde (Ewondo), Yebekolo, Koko, Bulu, Beti (Beti-Bulu), Sekiani, Eghap, Gilbert Islands, Nauru, Banaba (Ocean island), Fataluku, Toraja (Toradja), To Mori, Baree (=Eastern Toraja), Wa (incl Kawa), Bulang, SW Arunachal Pradesh: Sherdukpen, Tawang (Monpas), Aka (Hrusso), Miji, Kachin (Singpho), Chak, Gondi (mostly Northern Gondi), Maria, Muria, and other South-Central Dravidians: Binjhwar, Bacop, Bhattra, Bom, Jhoria (=Jhodia), Gadaba (in Koraput, neighbors of Munda-speaking Gadaba), Duruwa (Parji), Mehtar; Pardhan, Dards (Kalash, Kho, Kohistani, Shina, Pashai), Hungarians, Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Khakas, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Western Tungus (Evenki), Western Siberia Tungus (Evenki): Sym River, Ket River, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Lacandon, Kodiak, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Ilimpii Tungus/Evenki, Yerbogachen Tungus/Evenki, Tungus/Evenki of Nercha - Chita area, China, Russian Federation

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