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Berezkin Yu. The Spread of Motifs Characteristic of Oral Narratives Featuring Zoomorphic Characters in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Circum-Pacific World: The Problem of Dating

Yu. Berezkin
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the RAS
St. Petersburg, Russia
ORCID: 0000-0001-6001-7339
E-mail: berezkin1@gmail.com

 

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ABSTRACT. The paper seeks to determine a terminus ante quem for the spread of narratives with zoomorphic actors that are similar to Eurasian and North African animal tales but are attested beyond the territory where this system of folklore genres was known. Unlike archaeological and genetic data, folklore materials lack an internal chronology. For this reason, the timing of the spread of particular plots and images can be determined only by using resources from other disciplines. Such resources are not available for the Western Eurasia region; however, they are available for the traditions of sub-Saharan Africa and the Circum-Pacific world. Motifs that are widespread across Indo-Pacific Asia and the Americas must have been known in Asia before 15 kya (the time of the peopling of the New World), while motifs attested across Indo-Pacific Asia and sub-Saharan Africa must have been known 50– 45 kya (the time of the “out-of-Africa” episode in human history). The distribution of intercontinental parallels shows that narratives similar to Eurasian — North African animal tales were present across Indo-Pacific Asia during the peopling of the New World. Chains of similar texts connect the American Arctic with East and Southeast Asia. Parallels to North American Indian stories also appear in Oceania. For example, tales about the raven and the loon decorating each other could have been brought to America by Siberian ancestors of the Eskimo. There is a gap in the distribution of these stories between North and South America, found in Central America. This pattern is typical for motifs brought to the New World during its initial colonization. The idea that trickster tales with animal actors appeared in the African homeland is less certain. It is supported only by a few parallels between Africa and Australia. These include stories about a bird tricking another bird into breaking eggs and stories about two animals, not birds, who agree to decorate themselves.

 

KEYWORDS: out-of-Africa, peopling of the New World, animal tales, folklore genres, Eskimo origins, comparative mythology

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2026-1(31)-210-227
UDC 39 (=352.41) (470.621)

 

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