Abstract
Even though the flood myths of brother and sister marriage type in East Asia and India had the narrative elements in common, the myths of each region added some different motifs and episodes. In this paper, I investigated these different regional aspects and their cultural meanings. For this, I divided East Asia and India into four regions, that is, China, Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Ryukyu Islands and India. I examined what the driving force of mythical narrative was in each region. In china, the center of narrative was ‘Asking the will of heaven and sign’ for brother and sister marriage and ‘the birth of a foreign body’ for the recreation of mankind. In the continental Southeast Asia, It's similar to China in appearance but these motifs and episodes were weakened compared to China. The motif of ‘Acquisition of fire’ led the mythical narrative in the Insular Southeast Asia, and those of ‘Acquisition of fire’ and ‘the step-by-step birth of a foreign body’ led in Taiwan. In Ryukyu Islands, the episodes of ‘Understanding the way of sexual activity’ and ‘the step-by-step birth of a foreign body’ played key role in narrative. On the other hand, the episode of ‘the creation of earth and its stability’ played key role in India.
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