The Mythology and Folklore Database
F97 - Forbidden fruit: people become sexually mature, C621.
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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
After eating certain foods, people become sexually mature and/or lose their body hair or skin. Cf. motif H56 (people become mortal).Berezkin category: Gender and sex
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 5, Origin of human beings, ethnic groups, etiology of human anatomy, strange body configuration, ways of behavior, marriages before the establishment of the present norms
F97 has 2 other sub-motifsF97. After eating certain foods, people become sexually mature and/or lose their body hair or skin. Cf. motif H56 (people become mortal). F97a. The snake is to blame for others eating food forbidden by the deity. For this, it is deprived of the limbs it once had. {The Efik variant may not be related to the biblical one, but the South Asian ones are most likely related. F97a5. Being responsible for breaking food tabou by humans, snake lost its limbs as a punishment Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of F97's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| A4 | 90.74% | The Sun is a woman (the Moon is usually a man, sometimes also a woman, see motif A6; highlighted in bold italics in the list of ethnic groups below). |
| K98 | 88.18% | An animal or (less commonly) a woman who gave birth to a hero or helped him turns into a house and property. |
| L37B2 | 87.69% | From the conversation of snakes or crows, a person learns the cause of another's illness: a snake has crawled inside him. The person expels the snake and the sick person recovers. |
| I60 | 86.42% | The Milky Way - a seam, a crack between the two halves of the sky. |
| A44 | 86.27% | A character fleeing from pursuit, wronged or suffering on earth, asks the Moon to take him to her, or climbs up to the moon himself using a ladder or rope that has descended from there. |
| M90A4 | 86.09% | A tree is described on which jewelry or ornaments hang instead of fruits; individual parts of the tree are made of <i>different</i> metals or (semi) precious stones. |
| A6 | 85.71% | The sun and moon are considered female characters (including cases – Tuscarora, Oneida, when the gender is not directly specified, but both arise from the body of a female character). |
| D4AA | 84.93% | Moths try to steal the fire that humans possess. |
| N28D | 84.52% | In a list of things that do not exist in the world, a lid or covering for the sea, ocean or river are mentioned |
| K76C | 83.53% | The son (rarely – daughter) or foster child of a married couple emerges from a pumpkin (rarely: watermelon, nut) or is found inside it. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 20 traditions: Algeria Arabs, Kikuyu, Chuka, Embu, Emberre, Mwimbe, Fang (Pangwe), Eton, Bafia, Batanga, Benga, Bube (Bubi), Buheba, Yaunde (Ewondo), Yebekolo, Koko, Bulu, Beti (Beti-Bulu), Sekiani, Eghap, Cross-River: Efik, Ibibio, Anaang (Anang), Ikom, Abua, Gilbert Islands, Nauru, Banaba (Ocean island), Fataluku, Toraja (Toradja), To Mori, Baree (=Eastern Toraja), 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, Kashmiri, Early Chinese written sources, Hungarians, 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), Khakas, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Lacandon, Kodiak