Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
G18 — A person wishes to be sacrificed.
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
OverviewA boy, woman, or, less commonly, a man asks others to leave him/her in the forest, burn him/her, scatter his/her remains, or drag his/her body to the site of a future vegetable garden. Cultivated plants grow in this place.
Berezkin category: Fertility and Agriculture
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 6, Origin and interpretation of culture elements, in particular related to agriculture, inadequate forms of subsistence and economic activity before the establishment of the present norms.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M44C | 94.90% | A young hero steals the older character's food. He is usually caught, but not punished, but invited into the house. |
| I125 | 91.08% | Hyades (sometimes, possibly, Pleiades or Orion) â jaw or severed head of a large animal or anthropomorphic creature. |
| G17 | 89.82% | Cultural or important food crops, partially cultivated plant species owe their origin to snakes, moray eels or crocodiles/caimans. |
| K183 | 89.18% | The character cuts open the bellies of aquatic creatures (birds of prey) or looks into their throats to find the swallowed person or part of their body. |
| G23A | 89.13% | Parts of the body and organs of living beings are transformed into various plants (teeth into corn, testicles into yams, etc.). |
| D5 | 89.10% | The original owner or inventor (but not the embodiment) of fire is a female character. |
| F9E1 | 88.95% | A woman's womb is dangerous because it contains a toothy or stinging animal (not just its mouth) or many such creatures. |
| C4 | 88.52% | During the flood or at the beginning of time, fruits, seeds, or other objects fall into the water one after another. As this happens, the water begins to recede, exposing the earth. |
| B55 | 88.38% | Fish grow on tree branches or tree leaves turn into fish. |
| G13C | 87.72% | Before the advent of cultivated or edible wild plants, people ate what is now considered unfit for consumption: (rotten) wood, bark, earth, stones, mushrooms. |
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: Society Islands: Tahiti, Borabora, Raiatea, Timor: Amarasi, Tetum, Meto, Atoni (incl Mollo), Kedang (Lomblen island), Leti Islands (Leti, Moa, Lakor), Flores, incl Mangarai (Western Flores), Nage, Keo, Riung, Ngada or Nad'a (Central Flores), Sika (Eastern Flores), Kayan, Bahau, Kenja, Aoheng, Punan (Bukat, Basap, Oloh Ot, etc); "Klemantan", Poles, Slovakians, Slovaks, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Malecite, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Ottawa, Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Eastern Cree, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Natchez (incl Avoyel), Alabama, Koasati, Creek, Seminole; Tuskegee; iconography of Kentucky Hopewell, Cherokee, Yana, Cuna; XVI century data on Eastern Panama, Waiwai, Wayana, Aparai, Wayapi, Emerillon, Puinave, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Kayabi, Iranxe, Nambikwara, Suya, Txukarramae, Kaingang, Xokleng, Papua-New Guinea Northern Lowland Papuan groups (Trans New Guinea and unclassified): Komba, Gimi, Susure, Orokaiva, Bogadjim, Ngain, Sentani, Bargam, Imonda, Nankina, Yupta Valley, Urawa Valley, Warupu (Barupu), Pondoma (Anam)
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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