Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
J37 — A bird carries away the antagonist.
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
OverviewTransforming into a powerful bird or creating one, the hero lifts his opponent into the air and carries him away.
Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| D8 | 94.78% | The first fire (or summer) is stolen from a large predator – a lion or leopard in Africa, a tiger in Asia, a bear in northern Asia and North America, and a jaguar in South America. |
| E15 | 94.66% | People learn how to build boats and row from birds; a bird or part of its body serves as a model for building a boat. |
| M75D | 93.99% | A man bereaves vultures of their hunting weapons or amulets |
| F9E1 | 93.98% | A woman's womb is dangerous because it contains a toothy or stinging animal (not just its mouth) or many such creatures. |
| B54 | 92.81% | Wood chips, branches or pieces of bark that have fallen or been thrown into the water turn into fish and aquatic animals. |
| K87 | 92.10% | A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rarely another non-human creature). The husband takes care of her, but the marriage ends with the murder of the husband, the woman, their offspring, the woman's relatives, the transformation of the woman herself into an animal, leading to hostility between humans and animals, etc. |
| L135 | 91.91% | A person leaves home and finds himself in unfamiliar places. His journey is marked by encounters with various strange creatures. In the end, he either returns home or leaves the earth for another world. (With an abundance of episodes, the story often either breaks off or does not contain the initial episodes explaining the reason for the hero's departure from home). |
| L22 | 91.87% | Having broken some taboo, seen an unusual object or a strange character, people fall into a deep sleep; at night, while asleep, they are killed or maimed. |
| F35 | 90.56% | A character offers another person the meat of his sexual partner, and the other person, unaware, eats or cooks it. |
| F46 | 90.50% | At the beginning of time, two or more men (human-animals) had only one woman. |
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
39 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 39 traditions: Udeghe, Chukchi, Aleuts, Central Yupik, Chugach, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Tillamook, Tewa (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe; Hano), Tiwa (Taos, Picuris; Sandia, Isleta), Towa (Jemez), Sicuani, Makiritare (Yecuana), Piaroa, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Siona, Secoya, Coreguaje, Chayahuita , Karijona, Desana, Siriano; Tatuyo, Bara, Tuyuca, Kabiyari, Yukuna (Yucuna), Baniwa (incl. Wakuenai), Bare, Piapoco, Curripaco, Siusi, Guarikena , Mura (Pirahã), Maue (Mawe), Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Tenetehara, Moseten, Chimane, Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Parintintin; Villa Bella (tribal affiliation unknown), Mundurucu, Curuaia, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Rikbaktsa, Paresi, Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Yamana (Yaghan), Alacaluf, Kodiak
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