The Mythology and Folklore Database
G12B - Cultivated plants – a gift from the stars.




30 Myths, Legends and Folktales
30 Unique Narratives for Motif G12B
15 Cultures & Traditions where G12B is told
0 Mythemes Indexed
3 Sub-Motifs of Motif G12B


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 Motif Summary  -   Motifs with Simlar Dispersals  -    Map of Myth Distribution   -   List of Traditions  -   Myths



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

Cultivated plants – a gift from a male star or female star.

Berezkin category: Fertility and Agriculture

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 6, Origin and interpretation of culture elements, in particular related to agriculture, inadequate forms of subsistence and economic activity before the establishment of the present norms


G12 has 3 other sub-motifs


G12.  A huge tree bearing various fruits and/or containing water in its trunk grows out of a human body or is a transformed human being.
G12a.  Cultivated plants arise from drops of blood or flow like blood from cuts on the body of a human or animal.
G12b.  Cultivated plants – a gift from a male star or female star.
G12c.  The fox or coyote ascends to the sky and, upon returning, spreads plants across the earth that previously only existed in the sky.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
A22D99.71%The burned character turns into a constellation or a dark spot on the Milky Way.
B11499.71%A woman or a man (usually old people) turn into anteaters (the origin of anteaters).
B24A99.71%After a character surrounds a group of people with a circle of feathers or throws feathers into their dwellings, the people turn into wild pigs or peccaries.
B36B99.71%Birds find their voices by pecking at a large reptile and smearing themselves with the fluids that flow out of its body.
C1799.71%The men of the community of the first ancestors destroy most of the people and/or themselves on a pyre or in a fire pit.
C2A99.71%Two characters meet a woodpecker and receive an object from it, which causes the ground to catch fire upon contact. The stronger and smarter of the two characters escapes, while the weaker and stupider one is burned or burned to death.
C2B99.71%The Sun and the Moon are caught in a fire. The strong and intelligent Sun escapes, while the weak and foolish Moon is burned or consumed, but the Sun revives it.
E2899.71%People shoot at the Moon, its blood spills onto the earth.
F43B99.71%Leaving the men, the women of the community of the first ancestors hide in a hole underground.
F46A99.71%Men (human-animals) discover a woman at the top of a tree and copulate with her there.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 15 traditions: Batak (Toba, Dairi), Kayan, Bahau, Kenja, Aoheng, Punan (Bukat, Basap, Oloh Ot, etc); "Klemantan", Trio, Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Kamayura, Caraja, Tapirape, Cayapo (incl. Kubenkranken, Pau d’Arco, Shikrin or Xikrin), Craho, Apinaye (Apinage, Apinaje), Shavante, Mataco, Chorote, Toba (incl Pilagá), Caduveo, Mbaya


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