Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

H32A — Lost abundance: the wronged wife.

43 Myths, legends and folktales

43 Unique narratives for motif H32A

32 Cultures & traditions where H32A is told

2 Sub-motifs of motif H32A

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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

A young woman is the embodiment of fertility; she comes to live with people, and food becomes readily available. The woman is wronged, she leaves, and the superabundance ends.

Berezkin category: Paradise Lost

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 4, Origin of death, diseases and hard life.

H32 has 2 other sub-motifs

H32a.  A young woman is the embodiment of fertility; she comes to live with people, and food becomes readily available. The woman is wronged, she leaves, and the superabundance ends.
H32b.  A girl and/or boy, who are the children of a deity, come to live with humans, leading to an abundance of food/resources. Due to the hurt they have caused, the children return to their own world, and human life becomes difficult or meagre.
H32C.  The woman's husband has a non-human nature and possesses magical knowledge and values. He is wronged, he leaves, and his knowledge and abilities can no longer be used by humans.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of H32’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
F10	96.71%	A woman has a second mouth (usually in her vagina) with sharp teeth. A man inserts or throws a stone, bone, stick, etc. into this mouth, knocking out the teeth or extracting toothy animals from it in this way.
K10E	95.70%	In the bird's habitat, the hero finds the people it has kidnapped and helps them return home.
I15	95.58%	Creatures without mouths. Usually, their mouths are cut open later.
K27D	95.57%	The test: to stay alive in a room full of predatory, poisonous and other dangerous creatures. See motif K27.
J13	95.45%	Not one woman or girl, but two sisters (or more than two, but only two play an important role in the narrative) wander and meet an unwanted deceiver instead of a desired husband or fiancé, or encounter dangerous creatures. See motif J12.
H20	95.10%	All the fish or (rarely) molluscs were concentrated in one place. A certain character allows them to escape or deliberately releases them into rivers or the sea. {In some cases, the theme of the spread of fish concentrated in a small container is difficult to separate from the theme of the spread of water. In any case, neither of these exist in Africa}.
M63	94.99%	Before reaching the part of the body that is most suitable for certain purposes, others are named or tried. (Cf. Motive F22: The enumeration is related to finding the partner's genitals).
L98	94.88%	The demon that carries off children and threatens heroes, people, etc., is the eagle owl; there is a race of owls that is hostile to humans.
F28D	93.82%	By masturbating with an artificial penis, a woman conceives children.
M84B	93.51%	An animal, bird or fish that is killed and eaten comes to life after its bones are thrown into the water. See M84 motif.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

32 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 32 traditions: Congo (Koongo, Bacongo; incl Vili, Fioti, (Ma)Yombe, MuKunyi), Ndombo, Luango (Loango), Zombo (Sambo), Laadi (Laari), (Ba)Fioti, Woyo (Kiwoyo), Ronga, Southern Solomons: southern part of Santa Ysabel (Bughotu), Guadalcanal, San Cristobal, Malaita, Ulawa, Central Vanuatu: Espiritu Santo, Araki, Aore, Maewo, Malekula, Vao, Efate (Vate), Nguna, Mae, Ambrim, Pentecost, Oba (=Aoba, East Ambae, Lepers'), Omba, Ontong Java, Nukumanu, Takuu, Nukuria, Ami, Yami, Thai of Vietnam, Tai Lue, Khao (Kho, Tai Don, White Tai), Tai Dam (Black Tai), Nung; Zhuang, Buyi; Shui, 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, Reindeer Koryak, Maritime Koryak (Alyutor), Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Tsetsaut, Tanana, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Heiltsuk (Bellabella), Oowekeeno, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Carrier, Wintu, Patwin, Nomlaki, Kawaiisu, Tepecano, Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Tzotzil, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Guajiro, Warao, Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan)

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