The Mythology and Folklore Database
B48A - Pieces of foreign flesh.
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Source Data from Berezkin's Analytics Catalogue, if using this data please acknowledge and link to it here:
Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of Motif
The bodies of animals, birds or fish contain internal organs or muscles that were originally parts of the bodies of other animals, birds, fish or monsters. Cf. motif B36C.Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar
B48 has 4 other sub-motifsB48. Harmless and herbivorous animals were or could become dangerous predators. B48a. The bodies of animals, birds or fish contain internal organs or muscles that were originally parts of the bodies of other animals, birds, fish or monsters. Cf. motif B36C. B48b. The bodies of animals that are now hunted contain a piece of human flesh that has remained since these animals had an anthropomorphic appearance. B48c. In the head of the pike there are (visible) tools used by people. B48d. People or objects swallowed by a pike become part of its body (bones in its head, liver). Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B48's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M162A | 97.83% | The character pretends to eat his own genitals. Another believes him and castrates himself. |
| K63 | 96.66% | A man comes to people who hunt humans or catch fish-people. For them, these are wild animals or fish. |
| B68 | 96.62% | The giant hazel grouse became small – it was usually torn into pieces, which turned into the current hazel grouse. |
| K44B | 96.62% | The hero or heroine returns after a long absence. Seeing (usually from the roof of the house) his or her parents (mother, husband) languishing in poverty, he or she throws food at them, extinguishes the fire, pushes them, etc. At first, they usually do not understand what is going on. |
| M39A | 96.46% | fool lives with his brother (and mother), is sent on business, does ridiculous things (all or part of the above): releases animals from the trap, kills (trapped) mother ; cuts off the pet's legs or skins; takes the fontanel on the baby's skull for a boil and squeezes it out; tears a large piece of cloth and ties the pieces to swaying reeds; hearing the murmur of water, throws food into the water; puts the plague in the water; wants to salt the water and pours all the salt into the river. (There are other common episodes as well). |
| C6J | 96.34% | In the same narrative, the story of the creation of man and the attempt to prevent it follows immediately after the story of obtaining earth from the bottom of the sea or from the underworld. |
| I22B1 | 96.04% | Some migratory birds (shamans in the form of birds) die on the border of our world. |
| B42MN | 95.99% | Only one character (rather than several) chases an animal (elk or bear) across the sky, associated with one of the circumpolar constellations, but not with the Pleiades or Orion. (In the Kalevala tradition, there is no identification with stars). |
| K8C2 | 95.85% | The mouse is swallowed by a large land animal and comes out by cutting it open from the inside. |
| I56 | 95.52% | Moving between worlds, the same living person is visible to some and invisible to others. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 18 traditions: Bushmen (all groups), SW Arunachal Pradesh: Sherdukpen, Tawang (Monpas), Aka (Hrusso), Miji, Garo (Atchik), Kachari (Bodo, incl. Lalung), Dimasa, Tripuri, Riang (of Tripura), Khami, Riga, Mori, Finns, Karelians, Western Sami, Swedes, Russians: Central part of ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500 (Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk provinces; in case of absence in other areas also Russians in Vyatka, Perm, Kazan provinces), Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Khakas, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Southern Selkups, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Negidal, Yughs