Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) against words, objects, actions, discussions, or people that are considered undesirable by a group, culture, or society. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent. Some taboo activities or customs are prohibited under law and transgressions may lead to severe penalties. Other taboos result in embarrassment, shame and rudeness.
Etymology
Common etymology traces the word back to the Tongan language tabu (or tapu) meaning "under prohibition". This view traces the word back to the year 1777 and an English explorer, Captain James Cook, visiting a place he named "the Friendly Islands" (now Tonga). Describing 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.... When any thing is forbidden to be eat, or made use of, they say, that it is taboo."
Other sources indicate the word can also be derived from the Fijian language word tabu.
Examples
Taboos can include dietary restrictions (halal and kosher diets, religious vegetarianism, and the prohibition of cannibalism), restrictions on sexual activities, gender roles and interpersonal relationships (sex outside of marriage, adultery, intermarriage, miscegenation, homosexuality, incest, bestiality (animal-human sex, pedophilia, necrophilia and paraphilias), restrictions of bodily functions (burping, flatulence, defecation, urination, masturbation, nosepicking, and spitting), restrictions on state of genitalia such as circumcision or sexual reassignment, indecent exposure of body parts, pornography and nudity esp. in the US), illicit drugs, substance abuse, alcoholism, bodily pain, medical surgery, satanism (devil worship), restrictions on the use of profanity or offensive language (also known as obscenity) and vulgarity, and other topics/subjects that provoke emotional angst or may disturb people to discomfort. Some taboos originated by acts of authority, be it legal, social and religious, over a period of time.
Origin
There are varying explanations for the origin of taboos. While some explanations are cultural anthropological, and explain taboos using history and cultural experiences, other explanations are psychoanalytical and explain taboos as an unconscious phenomenon passing through generations.
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