The Mythology and Folklore Database
B48 - Predators become herbivores.
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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
Harmless and herbivorous animals were or could become dangerous predators.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 |
|---|---|---|
| B42C | 97.35% | In the cosmic hunting plot, the object of pursuit is a bear. See motifs B42 and B42P. |
| M53 | 96.85% | The character invites others to gather around him, focusing on an activity (usually dancing with their eyes closed or lowered), and then kills the crowd (usually one at a time). |
| K19B | 96.78% | The star man takes an earthly woman as his wife. |
| D4N | 96.31% | A boy or (among the Kutené) a woman cries, demanding the absent elements - summer, fire, rain. See motif D4A (demand for summer). |
| A38D | 96.14% | Because the Sun has harmed the character (ruined or burned his cloak, the fur on his skin, etc.), he catches it in a trap or kills it. |
| J19B | 95.89% | An evil spirit kills a woman by burning through her body. |
| C5B | 95.73% | After a global catastrophe or during the creation of the earth, animals run around, making the earth large, reporting on its condition, or are sent to find out how large the earth is. |
| A38C | 95.72% | The Sun exchanges a cape made of animal or bird skins with a boy or girl, or spoils it. As a result, the boy or girl raises their status or takes revenge on the Sun. |
| I22H | 95.67% | The character must jump over a gap (abyss) beneath his feet, which alternately widens and narrows, or a river whose banks converge and diverge. |
| L1A | 95.60% | A young woman turns into a bear (in Asia, a tigress) and attacks her close relatives or husband. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 38 traditions: Dinka, Atuot, Nuer, Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Bondo, Didayi (Gata'), Gutob (=Gadaba; cf Dravidian-speaking Gadaba), Bashkirs, Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Tutchone, Tagish, Tanana, North Alaskan Inupiat, Copper, Iglulik, Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Tlingit, Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Menominee, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Winnebago, Blackfoot, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Arapaho, Mandan, Arikara, Comanche, Assiniboine, Hidatsa, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Coeur D'Alene, Kalispel (Pend d'Oreille; incl Spokane), Caddo, Navajo, Jicarilla, Mescalero, Western Keres (Acoma, Laguna), Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor)