Tzeltal



Tradition title rus: 
Цельталь
Areal ID: 
14.1.5.2
Tradition analysis result motif count all: 
61.00
Tradition analysis result motif count cosmo: 
45.00
Motifs: 

Motif

a1


Name_eng: 
The old sun
Description: 

Another sun, usually less benevolent and/or powerful, existed before the present one




Motif

a3


Name_eng: 
Male sun and female moon
Description: 

The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male




Motif

a9


Name_eng: 
The moon defends people
Description: 

Female moon does not permit her husband or son to destroy people




Motif

a11a


Name_eng: 
Eyes of the Sun and the Moon: coolness and night
Description: 

Visible sun and/or moon are the Sun's and/or the Moon's eyes. If these eyes were not injured, light and heat would be more intense




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

a24


Name_eng: 
The first sunrise
Description: 

In the beginning it is dark. When the Sun first appears on the sky, primeval beings or part of them perish or turn into animals, spirits, stones




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

a32a


Name_eng: 
The Moon rabbit
Description: 

Rabbit or hare are seen in the moon




Motif

b22


Name_eng: 
Offended person destroys the tree
Description: 

People who have climbed up a tree do not share food with a person who remained below. He or she revenges on them destroying the tree. The events have cosmic dimensions




Motif

b23


Name_eng: 
Prohibited fire and smoke
Description: 

God prohibits making fire for cooking and punishes breakers of this taboo




Motif

b25


Name_eng: 
Pigs fall from a tree
Description: 

Persons climb a tree or liana and fall turning into wild pigs and other game animals




Motif

b30b


Name_eng: 
Murdered person turns into game animals
Description: 

Different game animals emerge from remains of a murdered person




Motif

b39


Name_eng: 
Narrow waist of an insect
Description: 

Insect-person knows the source of food (cultivated plants) and water but does not share his knowledge. To make him speak, ancestors tie a rope around his waist and pull it till the waist becomes narrow (origin of narrow place between breast and belly of insects)




Motif

b41


Name_eng: 
The talking dog
Description: 

Because the dog was spreading some information, altercated with its masters, was talking in a wrong time, etc. it lost the ability to speak




Motif

b41a


Name_eng: 
Animal reveals master’s secrets
Description: 

The dog or other domestic animal speaks aloud about those details of its masters' life that they would prefer to conceal. He is punished by depriving his ability to speak




Motif

b62


Name_eng: 
Buzzard husband
Description: 

Man thinks that buzzard or hawk has better life than he. They exchange clothes. The bird lives with the man's wife as her husband, the man usually does not enjoy his bird life




Motif

c2


Name_eng: 
Deluge and conflagration combined
Description: 

Inhabitans of the Middle World are (partly) destroyed (or will be destoyed) once by fire or draught, another time by a flood or the world is destroyed with a flood of fire or boiling water




Motif

c5a


Name_eng: 
Bird-scouts
Description: 

Birds or humans later changed to birds are sent to explore the earth (is it dry, are any survivals, to investigate why smoke rises to the sky, etc.) or to bring some soil to make the land that would be good for living




Motif

c8


Name_eng: 
The couple of close relations originates the mankind
Description: 

In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister, mother and son, or father and daughters are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents




Motif

c19


Name_eng: 
Acquisition of the sun
Description: 

The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)




Motif

f35


Name_eng: 
Feeding with the paramour’s meat
Description: 

Person feeds another with the meat of his or her sexual partner who cooks or eats it without knowing whose meat it is




Motif

g3


Name_eng: 
A rock of crops
Description: 

Cultivated plants or fertile soil to plant them are hidden inside a rock. Birds or Thunders get them destroying the rock




Motif

g4


Name_eng: 
A food mountain
Description: 

Cultivated plants are found above or inside a mountain




Motif

g9


Name_eng: 
Restored forest
Description: 

People fell trees to make a garden. In the morning, the forest is intact again




Motif

g16


Name_eng: 
Ants find cultivated plants
Description: 

Ants are the first who find cultivated plants (corn or manioc) which are concealed from the others in particular place




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

h18


Name_eng: 
Hoarded game released
Description: 

Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world




Motif

i4b


Name_eng: 
Thunder in trouble: fights with his enemy
Description: 

A man helps Thunder who fights with his enemy




Motif

i45c


Name_eng: 
Not to count stars
Description: 

Person who counts stars will suffer diseases and misfortunes




Motif

i48


Name_eng: 
Confined to the underworld
Description: 

Certain person loses his or her freedom, is confined to a far away place (often, to the underworld) and acquires cosmic dimensions: supports the earth or the sky and/or his or her movements produce earthquakes or (rare) storms




Motif

i78


Name_eng: 
The square earth
Description: 

The earth is square, the sky is usually round




Motif

i80


Name_eng: 
Thunder’s apprentice
Description: 

Person who got into the place of a deity responsible for atmospheric phenomena breaks certain taboo or instructions producing excessive thunderstorm, rain, snowfall or wind




Motif

i80a


Name_eng: 
The youngest Thunder
Description: 

Man meets Thunders and becomes one of them




Motif

k8a


Name_eng: 
Jonah: swallowed by monster
Description: 

Person gets into the belly of water being or into the belly of giant creature which appearance and living place remain vague. He kills the monster from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)




Motif

k41


Name_eng: 
Thunder against a serpent
Description: 

Thunder or giant bird fights against a reptile, big water animal or other big and strong creature who lives in water or under the earth




Motif

l5c


Name_eng: 
Rolling head is a dangerous monster
Description: 

Rolling head is a dangerous mobster (pursues celestial bodies, people etc.)




Motif

l17b


Name_eng: 
Two faces
Description: 

Person or creature has another face (another mouth) on the back of his (her, its) head




Motif

l21


Name_eng: 
Cannibal’s attention diverted
Description: 

A cannibal under a tree plans to eat up a man who has climbed the tree. The man throws down and afar his pray or some object and escapes while the cannibal rushes to this object or is eating the pray




Motif

l40


Name_eng: 
Reflection and shadow
Description: 

Person discovers (rare:still fails to discover) another getting to see his or her shadow or reflection in water




Motif

l70


Name_eng: 
Fruit falls and kills
Description: 

Person or animal is killed or injured with a heavy object dropped from a tree (or rock, etc.). The person or the animal knows that the objects will fall but has falls ideas about its character and weight




Motif

m8a


Name_eng: 
Birds peck a rock to release prisoners
Description: 

Birds and sometimes also animals work hard to break from the outside or from the inside a rock, a tree truck, bonds, etc. to release some beings or themselves from confinement in a small enclosure or trap




Motif

m29g


Name_eng: 
Trickster-hare or rabbit
Description: 

In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit




Motif

m29k1 Not used in statistics


Name_eng: 
The turtle (toad, frog) is a tricky failure
Description: 

A turtle (tortoise, toad, frog) behaves foolishly creating serious problems for himself




Motif

m30


Name_eng: 
Trickster falls down
Description: 

Person or creature who has no wings or is unable to fly on a long distance attempts to ascend to the sky or to fly far away but falls down or, deprived of his wings, remains in a place from which he is unable to return




Motif

m47


Name_eng: 
Head put to bottoms
Description: 

Punishing a person or animal or restoring his or its body after its disin­teg­ration, a powerful being intentionally or by chance puts head to bottoms




Motif

m56a


Name_eng: 
Alligator’s secret
Description: 

A man or an animal beats alligator but it remains unharmed and says that he would be killed if stricken in one special place on his body. The next time the same person strikes alligator this way and kills it




Motif

m115


Name_eng: 
The eaten up wolf
Description: 

Using a trick, (animal)-person kills a dangerous animal. Kinsmen and friends of the killed animal get to know about it and come to avenge its death. The person has narrow escape




Motif

l7


Name_eng: 
Chasing an animal by mistake
Description: 

Instead of chasing a person, a bush spirit, a monster or a dangerous animal follows by mistake an object or animal that moves nearby




Motif

i37f


Name_eng: 
Fungi are ears
Description: 

Fungi or mushrooms are named “ears”




Motif

m29w


Name_eng: 
Jaguar (ocelote, puma) is a failure
Description: 

Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the jaguar (ocelote, puma) suffers a reverse, is injured or dies




Motif

h12c


Name_eng: 
Orpheus: to return the dead wife
Description: 

Husband follows his dead wife to the other world but is unable to bring her back or succeeds to do it but loses her once again




Motif

i59b4


Name_eng: 
Milky Way is snow or rime
Description: 

Milky Way is associated with a snow, hoarfrost, cold




Motif

f35a


Name_eng: 
Feeding with the kin’s meat
Description: 

Person does not know that he or she eats or cooks the meat of the member of his or her household (blood relation, more rare a spouse or servant) or serves it to his or her friends, or uses her or his bones for everyday needs, or slowly kills him ort her




Motif

i20


Name_eng: 
The undeground dwarfs
Description: 

Race of dwarfs lives under the ground (deep under the earth or in hills and rocks) or at the horizon where the earth and the sky meet




Motif

i20c


Name_eng: 
Dwarfs live in the underworld
Description: 

Dwarfs live in the underworld that somewhat reminds the world of humans. If the dwarfs and the humans meet, it is deep under the earther




Motif

i20c2


Name_eng: 
Dwarfs live at the horizon
Description: 

The denizens of the country at the horizon (where the sky and the earth meet) are dwarfs




Motif

a8b


Name_eng: 
The Sun in the land of the dead
Description: 

When the Sun descends below the horizon, it shines to the anthropomorphic denizens of the netherworld (the dead, dwarfs, etc.)




Motif

m11


Name_eng: 
The unclean food
Description: 

Person feeds others a food that is extracted from his, hers or somebody else’ body or is polluted by body extractions not informing about the source of the food




Motif

a14a


Name_eng: 
The conflict between the Sun and the Moon
Description: 

The Sun and the Moon are or were enemies, either permanently or in particular situations




Motif

c9


Name_eng: 
Warning about the coming flood
Description: 

God, animal, some person warns one of the people about the catastrophy (usuallly the flood) that will become soon and in which most of the people must perish




Motif

c8aa


Name_eng: 
Brother and sister beget the people
Description: 

In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents





Similar traditions based on Cosmology and Etiology motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 6 Tradition: Tzotzil
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Nahuan groups of Puebla and Huasteca after AD1900
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Sayula Popoluca (=Veracruz Mixe), Sierra Popoluca, Veracruz Zoque
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Tojolabal, Chuj, Jacalteca, Kanjobal, Mocho (incl Tuzantec), Acatec
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Zoque; Izapa iconography (I millennium BC)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Quiche, Achí, Cakchiquel, Pocomchi, Pocomam
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Huastec (Teenek)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Chol; pre-Columbian Mayan iconography
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Barasana, Taibano, Macuna

Similar traditions based on Adventures and Tricks motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 7 Tradition:
Tzotzil
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 5 Tradition:
Chinantec, Mazatec
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 5 Tradition:
Chol; pre-Columbian Mayan iconography
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Zoque; Izapa iconography (I millennium BC)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Tzutujil
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Cherokee
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Xipaya (Shipaya)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Quiche, Achí, Cakchiquel, Pocomchi, Pocomam
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Tepehua, Totonac
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Mixtec, Trique, Cuicatec; Amuzgo