Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K37A — Recognising a man.
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 character must identify his son or husband among many identical people or animals. See motif K37.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
K37 has 5 other sub-motifs
RelatedK37. In order to return or obtain a wife, son or husband (in Africa also a domestic animal or object), a person must identify her or him among several identical people or animals (objects).
K37a. The character must identify his son or husband among many identical people or animals. See motif K37.
K37b. A man must identify his chosen one blindfolded. He does this by touch, knowing that one of her fingers is damaged or missing.
K37c. The character must identify an animal or object among several identical ones. See motif K37.
K37d. The character recognises the presence of another by noticing traces of their teeth or nails on fruit or leaves.
K37e. The clairvoyant cannot identify the person who revealed the secret, because that person does so while hiding among objects that are never found together in everyday life.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K38F4 | 97.14% | Flames burst from the mouth and/or nostrils of a monstrous character hostile to the hero; his breath is fire. |
| K64 | 97.05% | Finding himself in the dwelling of the master of the herds or the owner of wild animals, the character fears that the master will kill him. To escape to freedom, he clings to the underside of one of the animals leaving the pen or cave. |
| K27X5 | 96.77% | When setting out in search of a woman or miraculous objects, a person consistently encounters characters of a non-human (often demonic) nature who help him. The characters are similar, but usually each subsequent one is older (younger) than the other. |
| M38D2 | 96.73% | Several characters (usually three), which are small objects, go traveling and must cross the river. This fails. |
| K156A | 96.73% | People suspect that the young man is a girl in disguise. Tests are proposed to determine this, but the girl manages to avoid exposure (for a long time). |
| L19B3 | 96.67% | A creature with 12 heads is mentioned – either singly or at the end of a series of creatures with fewer heads. |
| M78C | 96.65% | A tiny little man emerges from a severed finger. |
| L37C1 | 96.59% | The happiness (misfortune, hardship, etc.) of each person is represented by specific characters with whom they interact. |
| M112B | 96.56% | Animals that do not see the sun (moles, shrews, earthworms) refuse to build the road with everyone else and are punished for it. |
| M91C4 | 96.56% | A person removes the pot from the fire, its contents continue to boil, or the person prepares food in advance, puts it in a pot or pit. Another believes that the pot cooks without fire or incredibly fast (or that a stick, if it hits the ground or the pot, creates food), buys a pot (stick). |
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
55 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 55 traditions: Shone (Shona, =Mashona, =Karanga), Makoni (Shoni dialect), Remba (=Hungwe, Wahungwe); Zezuru, Rozwi, Ndau (Vandau), Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Ireland, England, British, Bretons, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Sicily, Sicilians, France, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Poles, Slovakians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Setu, Finns, Vepsians, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Persians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Mingrelians (Megrelians), Laz, Georgians, Kalmyk, Gagauz, Kirghiz, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Chuvash, Udmurt, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Shor, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Udeghe, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Santee, Mandan, Omaha, Ponca, Oto, Arikara, Pawnee, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Crow, Lisu, Lolo (incl. Bai), Achang, Yi, Axi, Nasu, Jino, Taungyo, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Lutsi (Ludza), Terek Cossacks, Russian Federation
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