Universals · a ranked ledger
The most shared stories of humankind
Of the 64 canonical motif families in the atlas, these are the 30 carried by the greatest number of traditions. “Shared” here means spread, not volume: a family ranks by how many of the corpus’s 106 distinct traditions attest it at least once, never by how many times it is told. A story whispered once in forty lands outranks one shouted a thousand times in five.
An honest caution before the ledger: spread is not importance. A family carried by forty traditions is not thereby deeper or truer than one carried by six — it may only be easier to recognize, or favored by what our corpus happens to contain. The occurrence counts stand in the margin as glosses, not as verdicts.
✦ isolation-proven marks families whose conserved partnerships re-formed among the held-out isolated lineages — peoples with little or no historical contact with the Old World training corpus — in the preregistered isolated-lineage test (200 reproduced pairings; see the findings). For these families, “they borrowed it” is not an available explanation. 28 of the 30 families below carry the mark.
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106 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- +94 more
-
106 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- +94 more
-
106 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- +94 more
-
104 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- +92 more
-
104 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- +92 more
-
104 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- +92 more
-
103 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- +91 more
-
102 of 106 traditions
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- bavili
- +90 more
-
102 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- +90 more
-
101 of 106 traditions
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- +89 more
-
101 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- +89 more
-
100 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- +88 more
-
100 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- +88 more
-
99 of 106 traditions
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- +87 more
-
99 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- +87 more
-
98 of 106 traditions
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- +86 more
-
97 of 106 traditions
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- bavili
- biblical
- buddhist
- +85 more
-
97 of 106 traditions
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- bavili
- +85 more
-
96 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- +84 more
-
96 of 106 traditions
- aboriginal australian
- african akan
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- bavili
- +84 more
-
95 of 106 traditions
- african akan
- african bantu
- ainu
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- bavili
- biblical
- +83 more
-
95 of 106 traditions
- african akan
- african bantu
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- biblical
- +83 more
-
91 of 106 traditions
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- biblical
- buddhist
- +79 more
-
86 of 106 traditions
- african akan
- african bantu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- bavili
- biblical
- +74 more
-
86 of 106 traditions
- african bantu
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- arctic inuit
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- biblical
- buddhist
- buryat mongol
- caucasian
- +74 more
-
81 of 106 traditions
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- bavili
- biblical
- buddhist
- +69 more
-
76 of 106 traditions
- african bantu
- afro caribbean
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- basque
- biblical
- buddhist
- buryat mongol
- +64 more
-
61 of 106 traditions
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- biblical
- buddhist
- celtic
- celtic irish
- +49 more
-
57 of 106 traditions
- afro caribbean
- ainu
- akan
- amazonian
- andamanese
- arctic inuit
- arthurian
- australian aboriginal
- biblical
- buddhist
- burmese
- celtic irish
- +45 more
-
55 of 106 traditions
- african akan
- amazonian
- arctic inuit
- armenian
- australian aboriginal
- bavili
- buddhist
- buryat mongol
- celtic
- celtic irish
- christian apocrypha
- confucian
- +43 more
Each family name opens its page in the descent, down through sub-families and motifs to the quoted passages themselves. The `comparative` category — scholarly cross-tradition commentary, not a lineage — is excluded from every count on this page. The mirror of this ledger is what each culture alone remembers.