The Mythology and Folklore Database
G13 - People ate rotten wood.
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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
Before the advent of cultivated plants, people ate rotten or soft wood (ceiba – Ceiba L., balsa – Ochroma (Bombax) Sw.); some people eat rotten wood.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
G13 has 3 other sub-motifsG13. Before the advent of cultivated plants, people ate rotten or soft wood (ceiba – Ceiba L., balsa – Ochroma (Bombax) Sw.); some people eat rotten wood. G13a. Before the advent of cultivated plants (fire, hunting skills), people ate earth, clay, and stones. G13b. Before the advent of cultivated plants, people ate mushrooms. Creatures of a non-human nature feed on mushrooms. Mushrooms are imaginary, inferior food. G13c. Before the advent of cultivated or edible wild plants, people ate what is now considered unfit for consumption: (rotten) wood, bark, earth, stones, mushrooms. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of G13's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| F40A | 99.32% | A male character, androgynous, with a monstrous penis, single-handedly possesses all women, rules over them or leads away the first women. |
| D7 | 99.12% | The frog or toad possesses the first fire, steals it from its original owner, and tries to extinguish it or save it from dying out. See motif D4. |
| F13 | 98.94% | The genitals of humans or monkeys acquire their current shape and colour as a result of copulation with a girl who had a toothy womb or no vagina. |
| I83 | 98.53% | Birds (especially vultures and eagles) lived or live in the sky, usually on one of several tiers of the upper world. |
| A27 | 98.41% | The light and/or heat of the sun and/or moon is contained in their crowns, necklaces or clothing (made of feathers or animal teeth). |
| K13A | 98.32% | The character's leg (rarely: both legs) is cut off, bitten off, torn off, or damaged. The character ascends to the sky: to the moon; becomes the moon; turns into a star or constellation; becomes the sun; blood flowing from the leg colours the sky. |
| H37 | 98.12% | A magical item that makes hunting or fishing easy and reliable falls into the hands of a character who is unable to control it or abuses it. |
| J28A | 97.93% | When asking how one of his parents died, the hero receives a series of false answers. He often exposes himself to the same dangers, but remains alive, proving the falsity of the proposed versions. |
| M8D | 97.88% | Birds break through the hard cover on the character's body to reach his entrails. |
| G13C | 97.88% | Before the advent of cultivated or edible wild plants, people ate what is now considered unfit for consumption: (rotten) wood, bark, earth, stones, mushrooms. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Central Vanuatu: Espiritu Santo, Araki, Aore, Maewo, Malekula, Vao, Efate (Vate), Nguna, Mae, Ambrim, Pentecost, Oba (=Aoba, East Ambae, Lepers'), Omba, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Plains Ojibwa, Chilkotin, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Aguaruna, Huambiza, Witoto, Ocaina, Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Craho, Apinaye (Apinage, Apinaje)