Saturday, April 1, 2023

A is for Anus (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!

Yeah, I went there.

NSFW bodily functions ahead, ahoy! Although nothing sexual.


Here is the thing: Way more folktales feature anuses than you'd think. And many of them are very amusing.

(Let's not think about what this post will do to my search statistics.)

How the birds got their colors (Mocoví)

This story... keeps on giving. It begins with Fox getting into some sort of a fight, and accidentally landing butt-first on a tree branch. Because of this his anus becomes too big, and anything he swallows falls right out. To fix the issue, Fox asks the bees to plug up the hole with clay - a fix that is a little too successful, because now nothing comes out at all. When Fox begins to bloat, he asks Woodpecker to break the clay seal, and all the birds gather to watch the operation. The moment Woodpecker breaks through, things make an... explosive exit - splattering all the birds with the colors and patterns they wear to this day.

The parts of the body have an argument (Portugal)

Some of you may be familiar with the story of the argument between different parts of the body (also known in folktale terms as ATU 293: Debate of the Belly and the Members). It appears among Aesop's fables. In the well-known version, body parts all argue for their own supreme usefulness, and dismiss the stomach as lazy. But when the stomach stops digesting, all the other body parts start failing, until they admit the stomach is, indeed, useful. Moral A: Don't dismiss any member of a team without knowing their hidden talents. Moral B: Don't be angry at the ruling classes for being seemingly useless? Depends on what century the story was told in.
Anyway, there is another variant of this folktale type from Portugal where, instead of the stomach, the outlier body part everyone makes fun of is the anus. Everyone claims its useless. To teach them a lesson, anus decides to pucker up. With disastrous consequences, known to anyone struggling with severe constipation. Eventually, the body parts beg forgiveness and decide to vote anus MVP. Moral A: One a**hole can effectively ruin things for everyone. Moral B (worded by the folk tellers themselves): "In order to be a leader, it's not enough to think, you also need to be able to take a decent s**t."

The monster that devoured people (Kota people, India)

You thought man-eating monsters were bad? Meet Ponac, a terrifying creature from the stories of the Kota people. In the olden days, people didn't only have snakes, tigers, and elephants to worry about, they also had Ponac, who hunted humans, and devoured them whole - through his anus. He devoured ten to fifteen of them before a hero heard about what was going on, and set out to fight the creature with a sickle and a knife. When Ponac made an appearance, the hero held the sickle over his head and the knife pointing down to his feet, and thus he was crammed (their words, not mine) whole through the monster's anus. Once inside, he cut everything to pieces, and thus destroyed the creature. The village headman rewarded him with two wives.
Talk about true heroism.

Tafakula and the thieves (Tonga)

Tafakula is a deity in Tongan mythology with a very special... feature. In one story, some gods from Samoa visit an island under Tafakula's protection at night, with the intention of stealing one of the smaller islands from the lake on the larger island (islands within islands, people). As they are carrying the island away towards the east, Tafakula is notified by a subordinate deity of the theft. He stops the thieves in a spectacular fashion: he bends over and turns his anus towards them. Because his anus is "bright like the sun", the Samoans think they are seeing the sunrise, and drop their loot as they flee from the radiance. The discarded island can still be seen today.

Welcome to this year's A to Z Challenge! 

Don't forget to leave links to your blogs in the comments so I can visit ;)

31 comments:

  1. Now that is one part of the body I wouldn't have expected to be a hero or a villian!

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  2. Well that was a great read over breakfast! I particularly liked the first story about the birds but the idea of cutting up Ponac from the inside does hold a sort of fascination. Can't wait for B.

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  3. LOL. I liked how the birds got their colours :-)

    Ronel visiting for A:
    My Languishing TBR: A
    Accomplished Athena

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  4. Trust you to start the month at the end! This is hilarious, and surprisingly full of wit and wisdom. Or is that your input?
    Jemima

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  5. Oh yeah, this series is going to be an absolute delight! That fox must have been eating a really interesting diet in order to produce such a wide range of colors.

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  6. LOL this is going to be a fun one to read!

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  7. I can't wait to see where you take this idea through all the letters!
    DB McNicol - Small Delights, Simple Pleasures, and
    Significant Memories
    My Snap Memories - My life in Black & White

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  8. I’ll never view the letter A the same ever again! Fun read!

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  9. Who knew there was such a plethora of 'Any-lore' on the MVPart. I do agree with Moral B and good to know 'Mooning' has origins in folklore. Fun read!!! Thanks for all you do as co-host.
    CollectInTexasGal

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  10. Well done and interesting. Thanks for sharing.

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  11. My brothers in law, Cecil told us the story about the body parts have an argument & that always stuck with me to this day. I could never retell it as good as he did but still fun memory of sitting around a campfire at Garner State Park.

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  12. It is interesting how humans all over the world, regardless of culture, seem to have a fascination about certain body parts. I'm watching the birds in my backyard right now and I will not ever think of their markings in the same way again. Here's my link for today: https://ramblinwitham.blogspot.com/2023/04/azaleas-and-art-atozchallenge.html

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  13. Well that is a fun kick off - LOL. I love folktales and wouldn't have even thought to about this particular body part playing a role in any. Cheers!

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  14. Amusing start to the challenge. Great tales, and I love the morals.

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  15. Would never have guessed this as a folk tale topic, but your post has proved me wrong. Good luck with your A to Z.

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  16. Ha! I did not expect such interesting and funny stories about anuses. I especially appreciate the spattered bird patterns and how the moral of the story changes with the century it's told in.

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  17. Good Luck with the A-Z this year! Zulu Delta

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  18. You never cease to amaze me with the amount of research and knowledge you have a folktales. Looking forward to the rest.

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  19. Well, that was a fun read! Americans keep their anuses pretty puckered up, so I'm pretty sure these stories won't make it into our reading curriculum :) Wonder what would happen if I complimented a co-worker by telling her that her anus was bright like the sun? :)

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  20. Now this was unexpected, never thought anus would feature in any folktales! I'm guessing constipation is not a new phenomenon :) thank you for a great collection!

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  21. Well, you're off to a flying start, Zalka! Love the humor and raw energy of the stories and of your storytelling. I'm looking forward to your month of Body Folktales. Cheers! J

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  22. Lovely to see you at day 1. Though I may be delayed (day job), I do plan on visiting as many wonderful blog as I can. So many great themes! https://www.denisedekker.com/

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  23. Let us know how you search ratings go - I one posted about Lush - a cosmetics company who eschew plastic packaging and who had a "nude" day when their staff wore only (very large) aprons and the word nude caused a huge spike in hits lol.
    Great start to your A to Z - start at the bottom and work your way up...
    Visiting from how-would-you-know.com

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  24. Well done, here's to a fablis AtoZ Blogging Challenge.

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  25. I've heard the saying "He thinks the sun rises out of his backside," but I like Tafakula's version of it!

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  26. Well! I got a laugh out of this....

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  27. Well, that’s an interesting post! Yes, I do know the story about the belly. So did Shakespeare, who used it in his play “Coriolanus” in which the aristocratic Menenius tells it to the Citizens, who are angry and frustrated at the behaviour of the patricians.

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  28. LOL you sure found quite a few good B folktales! This is a fun theme.

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  29. I love this site! And especially this years theme for the A-Z Challenge. Witty, well written, and hilarious. This is one time I truly can say I laughed out loud. Will have to read your past post as well.

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  30. 😅😅😅

    I'm SO glad I came back to read this one!

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  31. OMG! That was an awesome start! So many tales that kept me laughing all through the post. The fox tale was my favorite.

    Visiting from: https://steampunkcowunicorn.wordpress.com/2023/04/02/a-is-for-abask/

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