The Mythology and Folklore Database
B44E - Dialogue of the first ancestors.
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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
First ancestors (usually birds or animals) argue with each other about the length of time periods in the calendar or daily cycle, or about the desirability of the dominance of cold and dark or warm and light times. See motif B44.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
B44 has 7 other sub-motifsB44. The first ancestors (usually human-animals) argue about how long the year, winter, night, or other periods of time should last, and whether cold and darkness should be replaced by warmth and light. B44a. Characters argue about the number of discrete units of time that determine the duration of a certain period of time (most often winter or night). See motif B44. B44b. The number and/or nature of the alternation of fingers, claws, feathers, hairs, and stripes on animal skins determines the number of time intervals in the calendar or daily cycle. See motif B44. B44c. The characters argue about whether there should be darkness or light, cold or warmth on earth. See motif B44. B44d. Night and day alternate because the slain beast was black and white, spotted. B44e. First ancestors (usually birds or animals) argue with each other about the length of time periods in the calendar or daily cycle, or about the desirability of the dominance of cold and dark or warm and light times. See motif B44. B44f. In the dispute over whether the world should be bright, the fox is on the side of light (almost always against the bear). B44f1. In the dispute over whether the world should be light (warm), the bear is on the side of darkness (and cold); or the world is plunged into darkness because the bear hides the sun in his house. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B44's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| B44C | 98.93% | The characters argue about whether there should be darkness or light, cold or warmth on earth. See motif B44. |
| B44A | 97.94% | Characters argue about the number of discrete units of time that determine the duration of a certain period of time (most often winter or night). See motif B44. |
| K21 | 96.96% | A girl ends up in the sky and gets married there. |
| L33 | 96.86% | The stone rolls after the character, trying to crush him. |
| K27A | 96.78% | Test: spend the night in the cold (the antagonist tries to destroy the hero in this way). See motif K27. Compare motif M35: two zoomorphic characters compete to see which of them will sit out the night in the cold. |
| H19 | 96.74% | The raven hides game animals in a pen or cave or scares them away from hunters. See motif H18. |
| J61 | 96.27% | The character has the ability to move or hover in the air like a feather or a fluff. |
| L67 | 95.90% | Having dug an underground passage to a lying monstrous hoofed animal, a small animal gnaws the wool from the place on the skin where the heart beats; the hero thrusts a spear or arrow into this place. See motif L66. |
| B85 | 95.59% | The wind blows too strongly, it is forced to calm down. |
| F68 | 95.58% | A woman pretends to be dead or actually dies. Her (former) lover comes to her grave. She goes with him, trying to avoid exposure, puts on men's clothes, but is eventually recognised. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 37 traditions: Algeria Arabs, Timor: Amarasi, Tetum, Meto, Atoni (incl Mollo), Kedang (Lomblen island), Leti Islands (Leti, Moa, Lakor), Chin-Naga: Ao, Mao, Sema, Zeme, Kolren, Kom, Lhota, Rengma, Angami, Kabui, Tangkhul, Koirenf, Rawang, Dulong; Anong, Drung, 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), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Khakas, Shor, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Chipewyan, Tahltan, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), North Alaskan Inupiat, Copper, Netsilik, Iglulik, Haida, Tsimshian, Montagnais, Menominee, Miami, Illini, Yuchi, Comanche, Assiniboine, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Nez Perce, Klamath, Modoc, Atsugewi, Achomavi, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Jicarilla, Chiricahua, Puelche, Upper Chinook: Wasco, Wishram, Clackamas, Kathlamet