The Br'er Rabbit tar-baby story is a 4,000-year-old folklore variant from Paleolithic Europe

While popularized by Joel Chandler Harris in his 'Uncle Remus' stories, the motif of a trickster trapped by a sticky doll is a global phenomenon. Phylogenetic analysis by folklorist Julien d'Huy suggests that the 'tar-baby' story belongs to a family of myths that spread from Europe to Africa and the Americas thousands of years ago. There are over 40 known variants, including versions found in the Buddhist 'Jataka' tales and indigenous South American folklore.