Society Islands: Tahiti, Borabora, Raiatea



Tradition title rus: 
О-ва Общества: Таити, Борабора (к СЗ от Таити), Раиатеа (на ЮВ от Борабора)
Areal ID: 
7.2.3.1
Tradition analysis result motif count all: 
44.00
Tradition analysis result motif count cosmo: 
35.00
Motifs: 

Motif

a3


Name_eng: 
Male sun and female moon
Description: 

The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male




Motif

a12


Name_eng: 
Eclipses: monster’s attack
Description: 

Some creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, summer and winter, lunar phases) or irregularly (solar and lunar eclipses, eschatological events) attack the luminaries or shade their light




Motif

a14


Name_eng: 
Eclipses: relations between the Sun and the Moon
Description: 

Coming together of the Sun and the Moon is the reason of their eclipses




Motif

a16


Name_eng: 
Dangers along the Sun’s way
Description: 

Every night the Sun passes by creatures or objects which try to destroy them




Motif

a32


Name_eng: 
Figure on lunar disc
Description: 

A figure or an imprint of some being or object are seen in the Moon. (For statistical analysis motifs A32A – A32J are also included into A32)




Motif

a32d


Name_eng: 
Man in the Moon
Description: 

Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon




Motif

a32e


Name_eng: 
Person with an object in hands
Description: 

Person who holds some object in his or her hands is seen in the moon (rare: in the sun)




Motif

a32h


Name_eng: 
The Moon plant
Description: 

A tree or bush is seen in the moon




Motif

a36


Name_eng: 
The immortal Moon
Description: 

The Moon, unlike people, revives or rejuvenates every month; or those who live in the Moon are immortal; or the Moon makes decision if people should die forever or regularly revive




Motif

a38


Name_eng: 
The Sun caught in snare
Description: 

Person prepares a snare, loop, noose, etc. to catch the Sun and/or the Sun is caught in a snare, tied by a rope, etc.




Motif

b2a


Name_eng: 
The female earth
Description: 

The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman




Motif

b2d


Name_eng: 
Marriage of the sky and the earth
Description: 

The male Sky (the Sun, the Thunder, the creator of the sky) marries the female Earth (or its female creator) or the female Sky marries the male Earth




Motif

b2e


Name_eng: 
The male earth
Description: 

The earth or the world as a whole is a male person (alone or together with a female person)




Motif

b4


Name_eng: 
The fished out earth
Description: 

Islands or continent are fished out of the ocean or pulled to their present place by rope




Motif

b5b


Name_eng: 
The universal mother
Description: 

Woman (alone or with her companion) gives birth to or creates not only people but also different creatures and objects




Motif

b77


Name_eng: 
Primeval sky close to earth
Description: 

Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up




Motif

b77a


Name_eng: 
Giant pushed the sky up
Description: 

One or several (animal)-persons push sky up to its present height




Motif

b79


Name_eng: 
Cosmic egg
Description: 

From the primeval egg, eggs, or egg-like ball emerge the earth, the sky, sky bodies, different animals (all or part of the items of this list)




Motif

c25b


Name_eng: 
A spinner in the Moon
Description: 

In the sky, on the Moon (rare: on the Sun), i.e. somewhere outside of our world certain person is spinning, weaving, plaiting, or embroidering




Motif

f86


Name_eng: 
Conditional signal
Description: 

Person summons with a certain signal a non-human being (usually his or her sexual partner or his or her protégé). Another person spies, uses the same signal or pronounces the same words and kills the being who comes to him (or uses this being sexually himself)




Motif

g8


Name_eng: 
Restored tree
Description: 

A deep notch in the tree (or in the sky support) is magically restored as soon as persons or creatures who cut or gnaw it stop working




Motif

g8a


Name_eng: 
Cutting tree to make a canoe
Description: 

To make some object (usually a canoe), person cuts a tree, goes away, returns, finds the tree intact. Usually another person who was restoring the tree by magic fells it down himself and makes a canoe for the hero




Motif

h6a


Name_eng: 
People and plants
Description: 

Mortal humans are contrasted with (almost) immortal trees that shed their bark, become green again after winter sleep or propagate by sprouts




Motif

h12


Name_eng: 
The alive person comes to the land of the dead after somebody’s death
Description: 

The alive person comes to the land of the dead to bring back somebody who has recently died (besides stories about shamans who journey to the other world to bring back the soul of a sick person) or, having no particular aim, goes there in company of somebody who had recently died or following his or her tracks




Motif

h13


Name_eng: 
Dead person is returned and revives
Description: 

Person comes to the land of the dead and brings back somebody who has recently died or brings his remains. The dead one becomes alive and lives normal life (for some time)




Motif

h34a


Name_eng: 
Controversy over conditions of life
Description: 

Person has a series of suggestions how to make the world easy for living and free of hard work and death. His companion successively rejects them. Their dialogue forever defines conditions of human life




Motif

i8g


Name_eng: 
Atlas
Description: 

One giant supports the earth or the sky




Motif

i37f


Name_eng: 
Fungi are ears
Description: 

Fungi or mushrooms are named “ears”




Motif

i43a


Name_eng: 
The celestial monster
Description: 

Giant reptilian monster (serpent, more rare fish, chain of fish) extends in the sky and/or supports the sky being associated with Milky Way or the rainbow




Motif

i43b


Name_eng: 
Milky Way is a serpent or fish
Description: 

Milky Way is a reptile, fish, or chain of fish




Motif

i72


Name_eng: 
Stars are people
Description: 

Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)




Motif

i82b


Name_eng: 
Venus is female
Description: 

Morning and/or Evening Star is a female personage




Motif

j4


Name_eng: 
Revenge for the death of the male relatives
Description: 

Heroes avenge the murder or captivity of the male relatives: (grand)father, uncles, or the elder relatives in general, the loss of the males being the most traumatic




Motif

k19a


Name_eng: 
Star-wife
Description: 

A man maries a star-woman




Motif

k25


Name_eng: 
Magic wife
Description: 

A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world




Motif

m81


Name_eng: 
Blind persons
Description: 

A man travels and comes to two or several blind (usually old) persons




Motif

g21


Name_eng: 
Coconut palm from a human head
Description: 

Coconut palm grows out of the human head




Motif

g13a


Name_eng: 
People ate dirt
Description: 

Before acquisition of cultivated plants (fire, hunting skills) people ate dirt, mud or stones




Motif

g18


Name_eng: 
Person wants to be sacrificed
Description: 

A person asks people to abandon him or her in the forest, to burn or drag him or her around the future garden plot, to burn her in her house, etc. People fulfill the person's wish and find cultivated plants growing on the place




Motif

a38a


Name_eng: 
Snare of pubic hair
Description: 

The Sun is caught into snare made of the pubic hair of hero's female relative




Motif

i72a


Name_eng: 
Stars are children of the Sun and the Moon
Description: 

Stars are children of the Moon and/or the Sun




Motif

g13c


Name_eng: 
Bad food of the pre-agricultural epoch
Description: 

Before the cultivated plants or edible wild plants become known, people ate (decomposed) wood, bark, mud, stones, fungi




Motif

j5


Name_eng: 
Brothers as victims
Description: 

Two or several brothers or friends are killed by antagonists. One of them is the father of the young hero who avenges their death or all of them are his uncles




Motif

j1


Name_eng: 
The vengeful heroes
Description: 

Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they





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