Linked Motifs

Motif	Name	Description
a12	Eclipses: monster’s attack	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
a12c	Eclipses: reptiles and fish	During an eclipse or at the sunset the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a reptile (a snake, a lizard, a dragon, a crocodile) or a fish
a2	Several suns	In a certain time in the past three or more suns were on the sky simultaneously
a2a	The sun is a source of distructive heat	The world was or will be (almost) burned when several suns had (will) appear(ed) simultaneously; or the only sun was too hot (or bright)
a2d	Suns of the other worlds	Different suns illuminate different worlds or will appear successively in the future
a3	Male sun and female moon	The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
b12	Rivers and snakes	The river bed follows the way of a snake, fish, dragon or crab; pieces of the snake’s body turn into rivers; a river is a snake
b2a	The female earth	The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman
b2b	The earth eats the dead	The earth devours bodies of the people when they die and are buried
b77	Primeval sky close to earth	Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up
c19	Acquisition of the sun	The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)
f22	Study of partner’s body	Person asks another person of the opposite sex about destination or place of her or his genitals. Usually it is made after putting questions about function of other body parts; or person tries to use for sex different parts of the partner's body or tests them before reaching the best place where the genitals should be put
g1	A kidnapped child	Valuables (earth, soil, sun, crops, fire, sacred knowledge, hunting luck) are got or returned when son or daughter is stolen from his or her parent
g18	Person wants to be sacrificed	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
g2	The return of Persephone	Person who is the incarnation of fertility and life first disappears and then (reriodically) returns
g23	Alive being turns into many objects	Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
g23a	Alive being turns into plants	Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different plants, mostly edible or cultivated
h12	The alive person comes to the land of the dead after somebody’s death	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
h12c	Orpheus: to return the dead wife	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
h16a	Rivers of blood	Rivers (lakes) of blood (also of puss, bones, sweat or water used for washing of corpses) are mentioned in narratives (in different context)
h32a	Superfertility lost: a maltreated wife	Supernatural woman comes to live with humans. Thanks to that, food becomes easily available. She is maltreated, goes away, temporal superfertility is lost forever
h47	Offended sky or earth	The sky (or the earth) is offended by people’s behavior in respect to it and reacts accordingly (e.g. rises higher than it was before)
h5	People and snakes	Reptiles or invertebrates possess the medicine of immortality; are contrasted with men as immortal with mortals and/or are responsible for originating of death; or a snake's bite inflicts the first death
i1	The thunderbirds	Creatures that produce rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or anthropomorphic beings with wings; or (rare) some or all birds are connected with thunder, lightning or rain though Thunder is not a bird
i13a	The horned serpent	Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head
i27	Chthonic canine	A dog is the lord, guard or guide of/to the land of the dead; or dogs live on the way to the land of the dead
i27b	Dog as a ferryman	A dog ferries person across a river that forms a border between the worlds
i28	Animals in the underworld	Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master
i3	Weapon of Thunder	The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
i69	Star dung	Shining sky objects or atmospheric phenomena are excrements of sky dwellers
i72	Stars are people	Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
i8e1	Four supports of the world	The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants)
k41	Thunder against a serpent	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
m11	The unclean food	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
m12	The unlucky hunter	Not to return home empty-handed, a hunter or (rare) a fisherman cuts off a piece of flesh from his body (usually from his calf) or (more rare) extracts his blood or entrails. Usually he brings his flesh or blood to other people pretending that is a good game or fish; or a woman cuts off a piece of flesh from her calf to feed her husband
m63	Body parts enumerated	Before finding a part of the body that is the best for some particular function, other parts are proven or enumerated
m9	Stuck in a tree hollow	Person who puts her or his head or hand into a tree hollow or (rare) other hole is stuck fast in it or falls into the hollow and dies or undergoes a metamorphosis

Similar traditions based on Cosmology and Etiology motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition: Tzotzil
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: Yupa (Yukpa)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Nahuan groups of Puebla and Huasteca after AD1900
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Chinantec, Mazatec
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Kekchi; Mopan
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Kogi (Cagaba), Sanha, Creols of Aritama Valley
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Bulgarians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Cora

Similar traditions based on Adventures and Tricks motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Xipaya (Shipaya)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition: Chukchi
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition: Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition: Amahuaca, Cashinahua, Sharanahua, Yaminahua, Yawanahua, Capanahua)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition: Bulgarians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition: Tahltan
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition: Rikbaktsa
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition: Caddo
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition: Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition: Ute