The Mythology and Folklore Database
M12 - The unlucky hunter.
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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
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.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K4 | 98.49% | 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). |
| B28 | 97.43% | 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. |
| J59 | 97.43% | 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). |
| J30 | 97.23% | Before the heroes defeat their antagonists or flee from them, they find or receive the remains or property of the victim. |
| L63 | 97.09% | The character eats food with the womb or anus. See motif F9A. |
| E14A | 96.87% | People kill demons, examine their bodies, make ritual costumes and masks, reproducing the appearance of the slain. |
| J58 | 96.66% | Characters shoot arrows (darts) that stick into each other and form a chain. They usually climb up the chain to the upper world. |
| J3 | 96.32% | A woman conceives a son or twins in a way that is incomprehensible to her; the reason is that when she sits on the ground, a male character (animal) creeps under the ground and fertilises her from below. |
| E3 | 96.30% | After the destruction of the previous world, new people (rarely: new earth) are made from the remains of the dead. |
| D4F | 96.21% | 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. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 32 traditions: Southeast Australia: Kamilaroi, Yualarai (Ualarai, Euahlayi), Milpulo (Mailpurgu), Wuradjeri (Wiradjurim, Wiradjeri, Wurundjeri, Yarra, Yarra Yarra), Wongaibon (Wonghibon), Noongahburrah (Narran, Narran River), Kurnai, and many others (see file 0.doc), Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Udeghe, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Chukchi, Tahltan, Koyukon, Micmac, Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Tonkawa, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Takelma, Karok, Klamath, Modoc, Yurok, Caddo, Achomavi, Yana, Warihio (Guarijío), Tarahumara, Yupa (Yukpa), Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Locono, Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Tenetehara, Machiguenga, Suruí, Gaviâo, Zoro, Arua, Cinta Larga, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Nambikwara, Paresi, Scythians, Scythe