The Mythology and Folklore Database
B28 - The travelling transformer.
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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
Travelling from one locality to another, the character successively transforms people into birds and animals, into stones, sanctuaries (or transforms monstrous animals into ordinary ones), establishes cultural norms, determines the biological characteristics of creatures, the appearance of the locality, etc.Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature
B28 has 6 other sub-motifsB28. Travelling from one locality to another, the character successively transforms people into birds and animals, into stones, sanctuaries (or transforms monstrous animals into ordinary ones), establishes cultural norms, determines the biological characteristics of creatures, the appearance of the locality, etc. B28a. A character pinned to the ground by a rod, transported somewhere to the edge of the world and associated with an object that continues to influence people. B28b. The inhabitants of the area where the hero finds himself are afraid of creatures that are tools, utensils, and plants that are now harmless. The hero easily defeats these creatures and usually transforms them into what they are now. B28c. Lice grab a person and drag him into the sea. B28d. Not understanding who they are dealing with, the characters respond to the wandering Transformer that they are preparing weapons to kill so-and-so or a hiding place to escape from so-and-so. The Transformer kills them himself or turns them into animals. B28d1. Not understanding who he is facing, the man promises to kill the Transformer. The Transformer turns his weapon into deer antlers and him into a deer. B28e. The Moon (alone or together with the Sun) transforms the original "incorrect" world into the one in which people now live. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B28's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| D4F | 98.85% | Once in the fire, the beaver (in North America) or fish (in South America) scatters and/or carries the fire away from its original owners. See motif D4A. |
| J30 | 97.45% | Before the heroes defeat their antagonists or flee from them, they find or receive the remains or property of the victim. |
| M12 | 97.43% | Unable, unwilling or unable to obtain game (fish), the hunter (fisherman) cuts flesh from his own body, removes his own entrails and collects his blood. He usually offers this to others under the guise of animal meat or fish. Alternatively, a woman cuts flesh from her own leg to feed her husband. |
| K4 | 97.10% | The character climbs a tree or rock to get a bird, bird eggs, or chicks, climbs into a bird's nest, comes into conflict with another character, and/or cannot climb down. See motifs K1, K2A. Traditions in which the nest destroyer is a woman are highlighted in italics; bold italics indicate those in which the character falls into the trap not through the fault of another person, but by accident, or, having climbed up to destroy the nest, does not fall into the trap at all, although he quarrels with his companion; an asterisk* marks those in which the character remains in the trap (undergoes a metamorphosis). |
| K87A | 96.55% | A forest woman receives or kidnaps a little boy and raises him to be her lover. |
| M8A | 96.49% | Animals, and more often birds, find it difficult to break through a rock from the outside or inside, make a hole in the tree, in the body of an absorber creature, tear fetters, etc., to help a character or get out of the confined space by yourself. The list <b><i>includes</i></b> groups whose texts deal with the exit of the first ancestors to earth from a confined space. |
| K11A1 | 96.46% | Pieces of flesh or feathers from a monstrous/unusual bird turn into present-day birds (or their plumage). |
| J12 | 96.35% | A girl or two sisters wander, usually in search of a suitable groom or husband who has left or lives far away. Along the way or upon reaching their destination, they encounter false suitors. (Traditions in which two heroines travel rather than one are highlighted in bold (motif j13). |
| J59 | 96.26% | To reach the sky, one must shoot an arrow that will pierce the vault of heaven. See motif J58; see motif J59A: a man flies after or on an arrow (without the motif of an arrow piercing the vault of heaven). |
| E14A | 95.79% | People kill demons, examine their bodies, make ritual costumes and masks, reproducing the appearance of the slain. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 69 traditions: Chinese folklore: Anhui, Jiangxi and data without precise provinience (incl Hakka, Min Dong), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Tutchone, Upper Kuskokwim (Kolchan), Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Eastern Cree, Pawnee, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lillooet, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Comox, Pentlatch, Sechelt (incl Sisiatl), Squamish, Halcomelem, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Twana (Skokomish), Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Quinault, Tillamook, Kalapuya, Takelma, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Lower Chinook (Chinook proper), Shasta; Chimariko, Klamath, Modoc, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Panamint, Ute, Southern Paiute, Chemehuevi, Gulf Nahuatl, Paya (Pech), Sumu, Misquito, Paez, Guambia, Pijao; Ilama culture, Sibundoy: Kamsa, Ingano (Inga), Sicuani, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan), Siona, Secoya, Coreguaje, Mai Huna (Coto, Orejon), Kofan, Chayahuita , Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Cubeo, Xipaya, Northern Peru: Costa (Spanish speaking communities from Ecuadorian border till Ancash and Huanuco departments included; Moche pre-Columbian iconography; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries), Northern Peru: Sierra (Kechua-speaking communities, Cajamarca, Ancash, Huanuco and San Martin departments; Chavin pre-Columbian iconography; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries), Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Aimara, Amuesha, Ashaninca (Campa), Machiguenga, Cashibo, Moseten, Chimane, Siriono, Mojo, Baure, Itonama, Kanichana, Chiquito, Manasi, Ese’ejja, Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Calapalo, Kayabi, Paresi, Caraja, Tapirape, Russian Federation, Halkomelem (Snaymuk)