The Mythology and Folklore Database
L9 - Cutting and stabbing body parts.
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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 character's body parts resemble cutting or stabbing weapons.Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects
L9 has 7 other sub-motifsL9. The character's body parts resemble cutting or stabbing weapons. L9a. The character's leg is crippled (intentionally or accidentally) or originally pointed. He uses the pointed bone for hunting, fishing or killing people. L9b. The sharp elbows or (rarely) knees of the character resemble knives or awls. L9c. The character kills others with a sharp protrusion on his chest. L9d. The character has sharp nails or knife-like hands, which he uses to kill people. L9e. The anthropomorphic character has a nose resembling a copper or iron beak. L9f. A person with a nose or teeth made of gold or silver is a sign of their demonic nature. L9g. A man's hair or beard of an unusual colour is a sign of his demonic nature. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of L9's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K20 | 91.24% | Looking at the sky at night, a man or woman expresses a desire to marry a star or the Moon (kuchin: to possess a star as an object). See motifs K19a, K19b. |
| L61 | 89.87% | The character eats himself, guts himself, or kills himself in order to be eaten. |
| I1 | 87.90% | Creatures that cause or embody rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or winged anthropomorphic characters. {Traditions in which birds are associated with thunderstorms and rain, but Thunder itself is not a bird, are marked with an asterisk (*). |
| I6 | 87.63% | A person encounters a huge bird carrying clouds, rain, snow, thunderstorms, etc. |
| I2 | 87.50% | Lightning bolts fly from the eyes or mouth {specified} of a creature embodying a thunderstorm. See motif I1. |
| J17 | 87.14% | Instead of lice in the character's hair, there are other creatures, or he pretends that such creatures live in his hair. |
| B18 | 86.33% | Daylight, warmth, sun or moon are stored in a vessel, under a vessel, under a cover, in a bag, etc. |
| L9D | 85.93% | The character has sharp nails or knife-like hands, which he uses to kill people. |
| K87 | 85.91% | A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rarely another non-human creature). The husband takes care of her, but the marriage ends with the murder of the husband, the woman, their offspring, the woman's relatives, the transformation of the woman herself into an animal, leading to hostility between humans and animals, etc. |
| D9 | 84.21% | The raven or other large dark-coloured bird of prey is the owner, embodiment, spouse, provider or thief of fire, the sun or daylight. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 78 traditions: Zande (Azande, incl Nzakara), Hadza, Melanesians and Papuans of Central Solomons: Vella la Vella (Bilua language), Shortland islands (Mono language), San Cristobal, Saint Georgia, Eddystone, Vangunu, Batak (Toba, Dairi), Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Semang, Senoi, Garo (Atchik), Kachari (Bodo, incl. Lalung), Dimasa, Tripuri, Riang (of Tripura), Khami, Riga, Mori, Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ingush, Laks, Georgians, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Southern Selkups, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Athna, Koyukon, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Caribou, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, East Greenland (Angmassalik, Kulusuk), Tsimshian, Micmac, Naskapi, Montagnais, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Winnebago, Blackfoot, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Arapaho, Teton (incl Oglala), Iowa, Arikara, Tonkawa, Gros Ventre, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Crow, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Twana (Skokomish), Quileute, Chemakum (Hoh), Quinault, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Caddo, Pomo, Yana, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Sanema, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Yagua, Xipaya, Tupinamba, Tenetehara, Culina, Paumarí, Arauá, Apurina, Cuniba, Suruí, Gaviâo, Zoro, Arua, Cinta Larga, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Calapalo, Trumai, Rikbaktsa, Paresi, Craho, Apinaye (Apinage, Apinaje), Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Chamacoco (Ishir), Mataco, Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Chorote, Chechens, Greenland