taboo

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noun

A refusal to allow: ban, disallowance, forbiddance, inhibition, interdiction, prohibition, proscription. See allow/prevent.

adjective

Not allowed: forbidden, impermissible, verboten. See allow/prevent.

verb

To refuse to allow: ban, debar, disallow, enjoin, forbid, inhibit, interdict, outlaw, prohibit, proscribe. See allow/prevent.

Definition: not allowed, permitted
Antonyms: acceptable, allowed, mentionable, ok

n

Definition: something not allowed, permitted
Antonyms: allowance, mentionable

If it's taboo, maybe we shouldn't discuss it. But we find it the world over, each culture having its own particular version. The English language acquired its taboo in the eighteenth century, from people who would seem least likely to have it, the inhabitants of the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga. The English explorer Captain James Cook, visiting Tonga in 1773 and 1777, received such a welcome that he called these the Friendly Islands. But he also noted that they observed strict prohibitions. In his account of his 1777 visit, Cook wrote: "Not one of them would sit down, or eat a bit of any thing.... On expressing my surprise at this, they were all taboo, as they said; which word has a very comprehensive meaning; but, in general, signifies that a thing is forbidden.... When any thing is forbidden to be eat, or made use of, they say, that it is taboo."

It was too good a word to leave to the Tongans. Thanks to the Friendly Islanders, English acquired a word to characterize anything prohibited not by the laws of nature but by the laws of custom or religion. And the word allowed us a certain scientific detachment; we could discuss taboos without violating them. Scholars observed that there were two kinds of taboo, things to be avoided because they were too sacred and things to be avoided because they were too profane. Many languages have such taboos; the name of God may be too sacred to mention, while the names of certain body parts may be too vulgar. And taboos, we discover as we study them, may change over time. In present-day America, the taboo against discussion and depiction of sex has diminished, while the taboo against derogatory names for groups has increased.

Taboos can be extreme. Until recently, the entire Dyirbal language, spoken in Australia, was taboo in the presence of certain relatives: a parent-in-law or child-in-law of the opposite sex or a cross cousin of the opposite sex. Under those circumstances, speakers of Dyirbal had to use a "mother-in-law language" similar to Dyirbal but with an entirely different vocabulary.

Tongan, from which we got the first taboos, is spoken today by about 100,000 people in Tonga, the last remaining Polynesian kingdom. Like Tahitian and Hawaiian, Tongan is in the Oceanic subbranch of the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian language family.

The only other word from Tongan that has found its way into English is kava (1810), the name of a plant whose root makes a drug and a drink also known as kava. The beverage is said to have a mildly psychedelic effect. "Unlike most herbs you don't wonder if it's working," says a Texas company, Better Living Products, which sells kava powder: "Almost immediately one feels a slight numbing in the mouth followed by a feeling of relaxation and stress reduction. These benefits occur without intoxication or hang over."

The word taboo was borrowed by Captain Cook, in 1769, from the Polynesian language spoken in the Hawaiian Islands. A report of his voyage was published in 1884 but the word appeared earlier in Europe in the narratives of expeditions by Adam J. von Krusenstern, 1802, and by Otto von Kotzebue, 1817. They reported on the number and variety of prohibitions the word taboo refers to. Cook further specified that taboo was applied to anything forbidden to the touch. British anthropology took over the term, subsequently reworked by the German schools on the psychologies of various peoples, and the French schools of sociology. Freud later made use of this work to define taboo as an adjective with opposite meanings—simultaneously sacred and consecrated, as well as dangerous, forbidden, impure. Taboo was the name for prohibitions that were self-imposed along with their sanctions in the event of transgression, and which lacked meaning or any obvious referent. Anyone who violated a taboo was also taboo, which illustrates the taboo's power of contagion.

The term taboo appears in a short text of Freud's entitled "The Significance of Sequences of Vowels" (1911d), which discusses the names of God in Hebrew. "Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence," the second chapter of Totem and Taboo (1912-13a), was published in 1912. This work continues an earlier investigation into obsessional neurosis, the analogy between its symptoms and religious rites, and the psychology of religion ("Obsessive Actions and Religious Rites," 1907b). Freud also published "The Antithetical Meaning of Primal Words" (1910e), with taboo being one such example. Thus Freud's studies on taboo are limited in scope, inserted into a broader investigation that was to be further elaborated in Freud's larger works on collecitve psychology, especially The Future of an Illusion (1927c), Civilization and Its Discontents (1930a [1929]), and Moses and Monotheism (1939a [1934-38]).

Freud associated taboo with ambivalence from the start. As early as the preface to Totem and Taboo, he writes that "the analysis of taboos is put forward as an assured and exhaustive attempt at the solution of the problem" (1912-13a, p. xiv) (as opposed to the totem), whose differences with taboo he goes on to point out. "The difference is related to the fact that taboos still exist among us. . . . They do not differ in their psychological nature from Kant's 'categorical imperative,' which operates in a compulsive fashion and rejects any conscious motives" (p. xiv). However Freud introduces fresh complications into this idea by postulating for the first time, in the chapter "Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence," the existence of a primal ambivalence of emotions which the taboo's prohibitions express. Freud then relates their existence to totemism: "The most ancient and important taboo prohibitions are the two basic laws of totemism: not to kill the totem animal and to avoid sexual intercourse with members of the totem clan of the opposite sex" (p. 31-32). Still this ambivalence becomes apparent as totemism only after the murder of the primal father, in the first acts of mourning and the transition to the totemic clan. The hypothesis of life and death drives could be used to make the taboo autonomous, which Freud does not do. Therefore, the taboo's existence is secondary, and follows upon that of the totem: given the thesis of totemism and the persistence of unconscious wishes, the "must not" is really a form of "must no longer." "The basis of taboo is a prohibited action, the performing of which a strong inclination exists in the unconscious. . . . There is no need to prohibit what no one desires to do" (p. 32). The analogy with obsessional neurosis enabled Freud to clarify the dynamics of conflict and the topographical structure that gives rise to the existence of taboos: "I will now sum up the respects in which light has been thrown on the nature of taboo by comparing it with the obsessional prohibitions of neurotics. Taboo is a primaeval prohibition forcibly imposed (by some authority) from outside, and directed against the most powerful longings to which human beings are subject. The desire to violate it persists in their unconscious; those who obey the taboo have an ambivalent attitude to what the taboo prohibits. The magical power that is attributed to taboo is based on the capacity for arousing temptation; and it acts like a contagion because examples are contagious and because the prohibited desire in the unconscious shifts from one thing to another. The fact that the violation of a taboo can be atoned for by a renunciation shows that renunciation lies at the basis of obedience to taboo" (pp. 34-35). Therefore, "taboo conscience is probably the earliest form in which the phenomenon of conscience is met with" (p. 67).

The analysis of taboos touches on a number of themes. As psychic formations actualizing a dynamic of unconscious conflict amongst drive-impulses, they make use of primary processes; the propagation of this dynamism based on representations of contiguity and similarity—touch for the Unconscious—is clear and further elucidates the contagion, the "mana" of taboo as well as "delusions of touching." At the same time these psychic formations attribute hatred and dangerousness to taboo objects and enable us to analyze projection. Moreover the conviction the taboo entails, owing to its dependence on the Unconscious, points toward animism, magic, and the omnipotence of thought—in short, to a study of narcissism. And the analogy, almost the identity, between the forms and dynamics of individual rites and rituals and those associated with taboos makes them a key element in the connection Freud creates between individual and collective psychology. The primal conflict of ambivalence that taboo allows us to postulate relates it to the hypothesis of the life and death drives, and the troubles encountered by moral conscience: anxiety, guilt, the superego, as well as their genesis via the primal murder. Even if Totem and Taboo "exhausts the problem" of taboo, Freud's later work modified our viewpoint of it. Freud's proposed analysis of the feminine in "The Taboo of Virginity" (1918a) transforms the concept of taboo. Whereas the ambivalence of those subject to the taboo was in general the cause for prohibitions and prescriptions; in the case of the young girl to be deflowered, it is the real danger she represents (penis envy, revenge) that makes her taboo for others.

When anthropologists rejected the universalist perspective Freud invoked, the concept of taboo became subject to criticism. The structuralist viewpoint interpreted all taboos for each society as a single global symbolic system of classification, organization, and interpretation of the real, independently of any possibility for dynamic change—a claim taken up by the structuralist movement in psychoanalysis. The renewal of studies into dynamic change in the exact sciences may renew interest in Freud's works on this subject.

Bibliography

Frazer, James G. (1951). The golden bough; a study in comparative religion. London: Macmillan. (Original work published 1890-1915)

Freud, Sigmund. (1907b). Obsessive actions and religious practices. SE, 9: 115-127.

——. (1910e). The antithetical meaning of primal words. SE, 11: 153-161.

——. (1911d). The significance of sequences of vowels. SE, 12: 341.

——. (1912-13a). Totem and taboo. SE, 13: 1-161.

——. (1918a [1917]). The taboo of virginity. SE, 11: 191-208.

—MICHÈLE PORTE

A food taboo is a prohibition against consuming certain foods. The word "taboo" (also spelled "tabu") is Polynesian and means 'sacred' or 'forbidden'; it has a quasi-magical or religious overtone. The term was introduced in the anthropological literature in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the field of food and nutrition, food taboos are not necessarily connected with magical-religious practices, and some nutritionists prefer to speak of "food avoidance." In this article these terms are used interchangeably.

Food is a culturally specific concept. In general, anything can function as food if it is not immediately toxic. But what is edible in one culture may not be in another. The concept of food is determined by three factors: biology, geography, and culture. Certain plants and animals are not consumed because they are indigestible. Geography also plays a role. For example, dairy products are not part of the food culture of the humid tropical regions since the geographical conditions for keeping cattle are unfavorable. Milk is often a taboo food in such cultures. Insects are not considered food in Europe and most of the United States despite attempts to introduce them in the late twentieth century. This is because there are few edible insects in regions with temperate climates. In Mexico, by contrast, insects are packaged in plastic sachets, cans, or jars for sale. Cultural reasons for food taboos often have a geographical basis—unknown or exotic foods will be rejected as unfit for consumption.

It is of interest to note that food avoidance most frequently relates to animal meat, since in most cultures human beings have an emotional relationship with animals they have to kill to eat. One of the few taboos of a food of vegetable origin is the prohibition against alcohol for Muslims and some Christian denominations.

Food may establish a cultural identity of an ethnic group, religion, or nation. Food taboos in a society function also as a means to show differences between various groups and strengthen their cultural identity. Refraining from eating pork is not only a question of religious identity but is likewise an indication of whether or not one belongs to the Jewish or Muslim cultural community. In order to better understand the range of food taboos, it is useful to distinguish between permanent and temporary food taboos or food avoidances.

Permanent Food Taboos

Foods that are permanent taboos or avoidances are always prohibited for a specific group. The classic example of a permanent food taboo is the prohibition against pork by Jews and Muslims. The Jewish prohibition against pork is found in Leviticus 11:1. Some anthropologists point out that food taboos are based on the failure of these foods to fit into the usual systems of classification. Foods that do not fit into these classifications are unsuitable for consumption, or unclean. According to the Qurʾan (2, 168), Muslims should not only avoid pork, but also blood, non-ritually slaughtered animals, and cadavers and alcohol. In the case of both Jewish and Muslim food taboos, the foods themselves are considered unclean. A different concept of food avoidance is found in Hinduism. Hindus abstain from eating beef because cows are considered sacred. Various arguments have been used to explain the origins of such food taboos or food avoidance including religion, culture, and hygiene.

Marvin Harris has rightly pointed out that when people reject certain foods, there must be a logical and economical reason for doing so. The pig is an animal of sedentary farmers and unfit for a pastoral way of life because pigs cannot be herded over long distances without suffering a high rate of mortality. Herdsmen generally despise the lifestyle of sedentary farming communities.

In Western society cats and dogs are not consumed because of the emotional relationships developed with these pets. Increasingly pets are being "humanized" in such a way that eating them is seen as an act of anthropophagy or cannibalism. The feeling of closeness to certain animals can also be found in the savannah regions of West Africa. Certain West African clans consider dogs clan animals, based on the fact that they have been beneficial to the clan in the past; as clan animals they are unfit for consumption. Hippocrates (460–377 B.C.E.) regarded dog meat favorably as a light meal, but in later antiquity, dogs were considered unclean and unfit to eat. This is still the case in the Mediterranean area and the Middle East. By contrast, dog meat is popular in China and the mountainous regions of the Philippines. From a nutritional point of view, dog meat is an excellent source of animal protein, and dogs do not require the grazing area demanded by cattle or other large ruminants.

Temporary Food Taboos or Avoidances

Some foods are avoided for certain periods of time. These restrictions often apply to women and relate to the reproduction cycle.

The times of temporary food avoidances related to particular periods of the life cycle include:

• Pregnancy
• Birth
• Lactation
• Infancy
• Initiation
• Periods of illness or sickness

From a nutritional point of view, temporary food avoidances are of great importance as they concern vulnerable groups: pregnant women, breast-feeding women, and infants and children during the period of weaning and growth. Food regulations and avoidances during these periods often deprive the individual of nutritionally valuable foods such as meat, fish, eggs, or vegetables. In a number of African countries pregnant women avoid green vegetables. They also do not consume fish. When asked why, women say the unborn child might develop a head shaped like that of a fish. Some of these avoidances may seem odd from a scientific point of view, but there is often an unnoticed logic behind it. In the first place, women are aware of the critical period and know that much has to be done to ensure the successful delivery of a healthy child. Observing the rules of avoidance will give her the strength of knowing that everything possible has been done for the benefit of the child.

In Central Africa nutritionists observed that young children did not eat eggs. They were worried that a nutritious food was not available for this vulnerable group. The village elders gave a convincing explanation of why eggs should be avoided by children. In the past the wise ancestors were much concerned about young children roaming around the villages searching for eggs and even chasing the brood hens away from their eggs. In order to avoid a depletion of the poultry stock, the elderly decided that eggs were harmful to young children and should be avoided.

A different form of temporary food avoidances involves the rules of fasting. In medieval Christianity the most important period of fasting was Lent (the period from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday), during which meat and animal products were forbidden. There were also other days (Ember Days, Fridays, etc.) on which people were required to abstain from eating meat. The Reformation broke the tradition of fasting to a large extent. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has a wide and complicated system of dietary rules and fasting, as does the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the Muslim world, Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim year, means strict fasting, even from beverages, from sunrise to sunset (Sakr).

Do Food Taboos Change and Disappear?

Food taboos may seem rather stable, but they are often under pressure because the society is changing. Migration is a powerful factor in the process of changing food culture. In Europe and North America, most Muslim migrants from the Middle East and South Asia try to maintain their food habits, but some cannot fully resist the food culture of their new home country. A substantial number of Muslims begin drinking beer, wine, and even stronger spirits. Women tend to be less inclined to give up the avoidance of alcohol. The fear of pollution from pork often remains strong, however. In some European countries Muslims refrain from eating in factory canteens out of fear that meals may be polluted with pork fat or pork meat. In contrast, many Jewish Europeans and Americans eat pork from time to time, or even on a regular basis.

Nutrition and health education have reduced the temporary food avoidances of the vulnerable groups in a great number of countries. In the humid tropical countries of Africa and Asia, where the raising of dairy animals is unfavorable, the rejection of milk as a food is diminishing. Despite the occurrence of lactose intolerance among the population, the use of milk and milk products has extended since colonial times. Primary lactose intolerance occurs from an apparent decrease in the intestinal enzyme lactase and can occur between the ages of two and five years. This condition is present in about 75 percent of the world population. However, small but significant quantities of milk consumed throughout the day can be tolerated among ethnic groups known to be lactose intolerant. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, milk products and a little fresh milk are available for the upper and middle classes. This availability seems to have increased due to dairy exports from Western countries and dairy food aid during the 1950s through the 1970s. In a country without a dairy tradition such as Indonesia, the importation of canned sweetened condensed milk can be traced back to around 1883. In the high lands of Java, the Dutch introduced dairy farming on a small scale in the nineteenth century. From the colonists, a modest use of milk spread gradually among the emerging Indonesian upper and middle classes.

In the United States and other countries with Anglo-Saxon traditions, horsemeat is not part of the food culture. This is in contrast to continental Europe, in particular France, where horsemeat is a well-known and appreciated food. The history of horsemeat gives insight into how attitudes toward food avoidance change over the course of time. In Europe it started with a decree by Pope Gregory III (d. 714) that the Christian communities of Germany and the Low Countries refrain from eating horsemeat because the horse played an important role in pagan rituals. The purpose of the decree was that the Christian community should distinguish itself from the pagans by avoiding a typical pagan symbol, horsemeat. Gradually the consumption of horseflesh disappeared. The meat was considered to be unfit for consumption. In the nineteenth century the attitude toward horsemeat changed dramatically. Food emergencies connected with war and promotion of horsemeat as a food were the driving forces for change. During the Napoleonic Wars, hungry soldiers were forced to eat their horses. To their surprise, the meat was fit to eat and even had a reasonably good taste. French pharmacists promoted the idea that horsemeat was suitable for consumption, and from a scientific point of view no threat at all to health. Discarded workhorses became a source of good and cheap meat for the growing working classes in urban France. The concept of horsemeat as food spread to other European countries, but not to the United Kingdom, where the horse remained a noble animal, and the idea of eating horsemeat was viewed with disgust.

In periods of emergency, dietary rules including food avoidances can be temporarily ended. The West African Fulani pastoralists avoid the consumption of fish. During the dry season the herdsmen have to move with their cattle from the northern savannahs to the land along the Niger River in the south. Because of the seasonal food shortage, herdsmen are more or less forced to turn to eating fish. In rural areas with a dry and a rainy season, people will collect in the period of seasonal food shortage the so-called hungry foods. Hungry foods are mainly wild foods, often not very attractive and tasty and as such normally avoided. They are consumed only in an emergency.

Bibliography

Brothwell, Don, and Patricia Brothwell. Food in Antiquity. London: Thames and Hudson, 1969.

De Garine, Igor. "The Socio-cultural Aspects of Nutrition." Ecology of Nutrition 1 (1972): 143–163.

Den Hartog, Adel P. "Acceptance of Milk Products in Southeast Asia. The Case of Indonesia as a Traditional Nondairying Region." In Asian Food. The Global and the Local, edited by Katarzyna Cwiertka and Boudewijn Walraven. Richmond, Va.: Curzon Press, 2002.

Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboos. London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1966.

Gade, Daniel W. "Horsemeat as Human Food in France." Ecology of Food and Nutrition 5 (1976): 1–11.

Grivetti, Louis E., and R. M. Pangborn. "Origin of Selected Old Testament Dietary Prohibitions." Journal of the American Dietatic Association 65 (1974): 634–638.

Harris, Marvin. Good to Eat. Riddles of Food and Culture. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.

Kilara, A., and K. K. Iya. "Food and Dietary Habits of the Hindu." Food Technology 46 (1992): 94–104.

Sakr, A. H. "Fasting in Islam." Journal of the American Dietetic Association 67 (1971): 17–21.

Shack, William A. "Anthropology and the Diet of Man." In Diet of Man, Needs and Wants, edited by John Yudkin. London: Applied Sciences Publishers, 1978.

Simoons, Frederick J. Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to Present. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.

—Adel P. den Hartog

A Polynesian word meaning "prohibited" and signifying a prohibition enforced by religious or magical power, which has come to be applied to similar usages among primitive peoples all over the world. It also has parallels in the religious codes of sophisticated societies, as in the early Hebrew term Kherem ("set apart" or prohibited), and in the highly developed social etiquette of modern society.

Taboo, or prohibition, was enforced in the cases of sacred things and unclean things. In the first instance, the taboo was placed on the object because of the possession by it of inherent mysterious power. But taboo might be imposed by a chief or priest. It would be used for the protection of important individuals, the safeguarding of the weak, women, children, and slaves from the magical influence of more highly-placed individuals, against danger incurred by handling or coming in contact with corpses, or eating certain foods, and the securing of human beings against the power of supernatural agencies, or the depredations of thieves.

Taboo could be sanctioned by social use or instinct. The violation of a taboo made the offender taboo; taboos, like various kinds of social uncleanliness, were transmissible, but the taboo could be thrown off by magical or purificatory ceremonies. It might last for a short period, or be imposed for eternity.

It may be said that the practice of taboo was instituted through human instinct for human convenience. This applies of course merely to the most simple type of taboo. It was, for example, forbidden to reap or steal the patch of corn dedicated to an agricultural deity, for the simple reason that his wrath would be incurred by so doing. Similarly it was taboo to devour the flesh of the totem animal of the tribe, except in special circumstances with the object of achieving communion with him. It was taboo to interfere in any manner with the affairs of the shamans or medicine men, also a type of the imposed taboo for the convenience of a certain caste. It was prohibited to marry a woman of the same totem as oneself, because all the members of a totemic band are supposed to be consanguineous; such a union might incur the wrath of the patron deity. A very strict taboo was put upon the witnessing of certain ritual instruments belonging to some primitive tribes, but this only applied to women and uninitiated men. It was considered a degradation for women to behold sacred implements.

If taboo does not spring directly from the system known as totemism, it was strongly influenced by it—that is, many intricate taboos arose from the totemic system. There was also the taboo of the sorcerer; it in effect was merely a spell placed upon a certain object, which makes it become useless to others. Taboo, or its remains, can still be found even in modernized communities. From its use the feeling of reverence for ancient institutions and those who represent them is undoubtedly derived.

Sources:

Frazer, James G. The Golden Bough. Vol. 3 of Taboo and the Perils of the Soul. New York: Macmillan, 1935.

Ganzfried, Rabbi Solomon. Code of Jewish Law (Kitzur Schulchan Aruch). New York: Hebrew Publishing, 1927.

Mead, Margaret. Inquiry Into the Question of Cultural Stability in Polynesia. New York: Columbia University, 1928. Reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1981.

Webster, Hutton. Taboo: A Sociological Study. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1942. Reprint, London: Octagon, 1981.

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

Quotes:

"The type of fig leaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes." - Freda Adler

"We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation." - William Hazlitt

"I think the greatest taboos in America are faith and failure." - Michael Malone

"Whenever a taboo is broken, something good happens, something vitalizing. Taboos after all are only hangovers, the product of diseased minds, you might say, of fearsome people who hadn't the courage to live and who under the guise of morality and religion have imposed these things upon us." - Henry Miller

"To make our idea of morality center on forbidden acts is to defile the imagination and to introduce into our judgments of our fellow-men a secret element of gusto." - Robert Louis Stevenson

A descriptive term for words, objects, actions, or people that are forbidden by a group or culture. The expression comes from the religion of islanders of the South Pacific.

• Kinship, Marriage, and Other Customs - taboo: culture-specific prohibition of certain behavior, word, or object
• Attitudes and Behavior - taboo: prohibition or superstition established through accepted social custom
• German, Greek, and Other Languages - taboo: Polynesian. prohibited act
• Perversions, Fetishes, and Titillations - taboo: (adj) forbidden due to indecency or bad taste
• Opposition, Disagreement, and Attack - taboo: (adj) forbidden; banned as evil; (n) prohibition
• Rites, Practices, Spells, and Symbols - taboo: often ritualized fear or prohibition of specific object or practice

This article is about the modern English term. For the specifically Polynesian religious concept, see Tapu (Polynesian culture). For other uses, see Taboo (disambiguation).

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A taboo is a vehement prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred or too accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake, under threat of supernatural punishment.^[1][2] Such prohibitions are present in virtually all societies.^[1] The word has been somewhat expanded in the social sciences to include strong prohibitions relating to any area of human activity or custom that is sacred or forbidden based on moral judgment and religious beliefs.^{[citation needed]} "Breaking a taboo" is usually considered objectionable by society in general, not merely a subset of a culture.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Examples 3 Function 4 Modernity 5 See also 6 References

Etymology

The term "taboo" comes from the Tongan tabu, related to the Maori tapu. Its English use dates to 1777 when the British explorer James Cook visited Tonga. Describing the cultural practices of the Tongans, he wrote:

Not one of them would sit down, or eat a bit of any thing.... On expressing my surprise at this, they were all taboo, as they said; which word has a very comprehensive meaning; but, in general, signifies that a thing is forbidden.^[3]

and

When any thing is forbidden to be eaten, or made use of, they say, that it is taboo.^[4]

The term was translated to him as "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed".^[5] Tabu itself has been derived from Tongan ta ("mark") and bu ("especially").^[6][7] and Fijian tabu ("prohibited", "disallowed", "forbidden").^[8] In its current use on Tonga, the word tapu means "sacred" or "holy", often in the sense of being restricted or protected by custom or law. On the main island, the word is often appended to the end of "Tonga" as Tongatapu, here meaning "Sacred South" rather than "Forbidden South".

Examples

Sigmund Freud posited that incest and patricide were the only two universal taboos and formed the basis of civilization.^[9] However, although cannibalism, in-group murder, and incest are taboo in the majority of societies, modern research has found exceptions for each and no taboo is presently known to be universal.^{[citation needed]}

Common taboos include restrictions or ritual regulation of killing and hunting; sex and sexual relationships (primarily incest, pedophilia, necrophilia, intermarriage, miscegenation, adultery, homosexuality, fornication, and bestiality); reproduction (abortion, infanticide); the deceased and their graves; food and dining (primarily cannibalism and dietary laws such as vegetarianism, kashrut, and halal); and bodily functions (primarily menstrual cycles, but also defecation and urination).

Taboos often extend to cover discussion of taboo topics, resulting in euphemisms and replacement of taboo words.^{[citation needed]}

Function

Taboos may serve many functions^{[clarification needed]} and often remain in effect after their original reason has disappeared.^{[citation needed]}

Communist and materialist theorists have argued that taboos can be used to reveal the histories of societies when other records are lacking.^[10] Marvin Harris particularly endeavored to explain taboos as a consequence of ecologic and economic conditions.^{[specify][citation needed]}

Modernity

The rise of rationalism and science has reduced the potency of many former taboos in modern cultures.^{[citation needed]} In the United States and Europe, people openly discuss and explore previously taboo subjects such as sexuality and abortion. Increasing understanding has led medical disorders such as epilepsy, birth defects, and sexually transmitted diseases to be treated more analytically and less judgmentally than in the past.^{[citation needed]}

However, changing social customs and standards also create new taboos, such as bans on slavery; conflation of ephebophilia with pedophilia;^[11] prohibitions on alcohol, tobacco, or psychopharmaceutical consumption (particularly among pregnant women); and the employment of politically correct euphemisms to – at times quite unsuccessfully – mitigate various forms of discrimination.

Incest itself has been pulled both ways, with some seeking to normalize consensual adult relationships regardless of the degree of kinship^[12] (notably in Europe^[13][14]) and others expanding the degrees of prohibited contact (notably in the United States^[15]).

Contemporary multicultural societies have established a number of taboos rooted in the perceived injustice and deleterious effects of modern history, particularly neocolonialism. Tribalisms (for example, ethnocentrism and nationalism) and prejudices (racism, sexism, religious extremism, weightism) are opposed at times reflexively despite the potentially high cost of diverse societies in terms of trust and solidarity.^[16]

See also

Censorship Deviance Etiquette Euphemism Faux pas Mores Norm (sociology) Obscenity Prejudice Prohibition Public morality Sacrilege Sacred Social stigma Stigmatic-eligibilic paraphilia

ʻAi Noa Geis Great Taboo Haraam Herem Incest taboo Prohibited degree of kinship Kala pani Kapu Menstrual taboo Taboo food and drink Cat meat Cattle Dietary laws Entomophagy Halal Horse meat Kosher (Kashrut) Kutti pi Pork Scottish pork taboo Siqqitiq Unclean animals

Taboo on the dead Tapu Vestal Virgin Word taboo Minced oath Mother-in-law languages Names of God Naming taboos Political correctness Seven dirty words Taboo against naming the dead Taboo on rulers

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Encyclopædia Britannica Online. "Taboo." Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Accessed 21 Mar. 2012
2. ^ Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, 11th Edition. "Taboo."
3. ^ Cook & King 1821, p. 348
4. ^ Cook & King 1821, p. 462
5. ^ (Cook & King 1821)
6. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary. "Taboo."
7. ^ "Online dictionary". Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/taboo. Retrieved 2007-06-05. 
8. ^ Dixon, Robert M. W. (1988). A Grammar of Boumaa Fijian. p. 368. ISBN 978-0-226-15429-9. http://books.google.com/?id=Y7v2Beyc5YgC&pg=PA368&dq=tabu+meaning+Fijian. 
9. ^ Freud, Sigmund. Totem and Taboo.
10. ^ Marta Dyczok; Oxana Gaman-Golutvina (2009). Media, Democracy and Freedom: The Post-Communist Experience. Peter Lang. p. 209. ISBN 978-3-0343-0311-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=meUcrEBRpgMC. 
11. ^ S. Berlin, Frederick. "Interview with Frederick S. Berlin, M.D., Ph.D.". Office of Media Relations. http://web.archive.org/web/20110623130406/http://www.usccb.org/comm/kit6.shtml. Retrieved 2008-06-27. 
12. ^ Johann Hari (2002-01-09). "Forbidden love". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4331603,00.html. Retrieved 2008-04-11. 
13. ^ Hipp, Dietmar (2008-03-11). "German High Court Takes a Look at Incest". Der Spiegel. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,540831,00.html. Retrieved 2008-04-12. 
14. ^ DONALDSON JAMES, SUSAN. "Professor Accused of Incest With Daughter". ABC Nightline. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/switzerland-considers-legalizing-consensual-incest-columbia-professor-accused/story?id=12395499. Retrieved 29 November 2011. 
15. ^ Joanna Grossman, Should the law be kinder to kissin' cousins?
16. ^ Putnam, Robert D. "E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first Century -- The 2006 Johan Skytte Prize". Scandinavian Political Studies. 30 (2), June 2007.

• Cook, James; King, James (1821). A voyage to the Pacific Ocean: undertaken by command of His Majesty, for making discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere : performed under the direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore : in the years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780 : being a copious, comprehensive, and satisfactory abridgement of the voyage. http://books.google.com/books?id=F0M-AAAAYAAJ.  Printed for Champante and Whitrow ... and M. Watson; 1793.
• Cook, James (1728–1779). The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook Round the World. 5. London: A&E Spottiswoode. http://books.google.com/?id=h6UFAAAAMAAJ. 

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - tabu
adj. - forbudt, tabubelagt
v. tr. - forbyde

Nederlands (Dutch)
taboe, verbod, verboden, tot taboe verklaren, verbieden

Français (French)
n. - (gén) tabou, (Anthrop) tabou
adj. - tabou
v. tr. - rendre tabou

Deutsch (German)
n. - Tabu
adj. - tabu
v. - für tabu erklären, ausstoßen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ., μτφ.) ταμπού, οτιδήποτε ιερό και απαραβίαστο
adj. - απαγορευμένος, "ταμπού"
v. - απαγορεύω, κάνω "ταμπού"

Italiano (Italian)
tabù

Português (Portuguese)
n. - tabu (m), interdição (f), proibição (f)
adj. - interdito, proibido, sagrado
v. - proibir, interdizer, declarar como tabu

Русский (Russian)
Табу, запрет, запретный

Español (Spanish)
n. - tabú
adj. - declarado tabú, prohibido, proscrito, no aceptado
v. tr. - declarar tabú, prohibir, proscribir

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tabu
adj. - tabu, tabuförklarad, förbjuden
v. - tabuförklara, förbjuda

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
禁忌, 避讳, 禁止使用, 禁止接近, 禁忌的, 忌讳的, 禁止的, 禁止

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 禁忌, 避諱, 禁止使用, 禁止接近
adj. - 禁忌的, 忌諱的, 禁止的
v. tr. - 禁忌, 禁止, 避諱

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 접근 금지, 금기
adj. - 금기의, 금지해야 할
v. tr. - 피하다, 추방하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - タブー, 禁忌, 禁制
v. - タブーにする
adj. - タブーの, 禁制の

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ألحرام - ألمحرم - ألرجس (صفه) معزول - محرم (فعل) يعزل - يحرم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮טאבו, חרם, איסור, הקדש‬
adj. - ‮אסור במגע, קדוש, אסור בשימוש, אסור בביטוי‬
v. tr. - ‮החרים, אסר על מגע, שימוש וכו', הקדיש‬

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