Ataboo is asocial group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive,sacred or allowed only for certain people.[1][2] Such prohibitions are present in virtually all societies.[1] Taboos may be prohibited explicitly, for example within alegal system orreligion, or implicitly, for example bysocial norms orconventions followed by a particular culture or organization.
Taboos are often meant to protect the individual, but there are other reasons for their development. An ecological or medical background is apparent in many, including some that are seen as religious or spiritual in origin. Taboos can help use a resource more efficiently, but when applied to only a subsection of thecommunity they can also serve to suppress said subsection of the community. A taboo acknowledged by a particular group ortribe as part of their ways aids in the cohesion of the group, helps that particular group to stand out and maintain its identity in the face of others and therefore creates a feeling of "belonging".[3]
The meaning of the wordtaboo has been somewhat expanded in thesocial sciences to strong prohibitions relating to any area of human activity or custom that is sacred or forbidden based onmoral judgment, religious beliefs, or culturalnorms.[3]
The English termtaboo comes fromtapu inOceanic languages, particularlyPolynesian languages, with such meanings as "prohibited" or "forbidden". That roottapu is reflected, among others, byTongan orMāoritapu, and byHawaiiankapu. Its English use dates to 1777 when the British explorerJames Cook visitedTonga, and referred to theTongans' use of the termtaboo for "any thing that is forbidden to be eaten, or made use of".[4] Having invited some of the Tongan aristocracy to dinner aboard his ship, 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.[5]
The term was translated to him as "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed".[6]Tapu is usually treated as a unitary, non-compound word inherited fromProto-Polynesian *tapu.[7][8][9] It also exists in otherOceanic languages outside Polynesian, such asFijiantabu,[10] orHiw (Vanuatu)toq.[11]
Those words descend from an etymon *tabu in the ancestralProto-Oceanic language, whose meaning wasreconstructed as "forbidden, off limits; sacred, due to a sentiment of awe before spiritual forces".[11]
In its current use in Tongan, the wordtapu 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" asTongatapu, here meaning "Sacred South" rather than "Forbidden South".
Sigmund Freud speculated thatincest andpatricide were the only twouniversal taboos that formed the basis of civilization.[12] Through an analysis of the language surroundingthese laws, it can be seen how the policy makers, and society as a whole, find these acts to be immoral.[13][14][15]
Common taboos involve restrictions or ritual regulation of killing and hunting; sex and sexual relationships; reproduction; thedead and their graves; as well as food and dining (primarilycannibalism anddietary laws such asvegetarianism,kashrut, andhalal) or religious (treif andharam). InMadagascar, a strong code of taboos, known asfady, constantly change and are formed from new experiences. Each region, village or tribe may have its ownfady.
Albert Schweitzer wrote a chapter about taboos of the people of Gabon. As an example, it was considered a misfortune for twins to be born, and they would be subject to many rules not incumbent on other people.[16]
According toJoseph Campbell, taboos are used in religion and mythology totest a person's ability to withhold from violating a prohibition given to them.[17][18] Should one fail the test and violate a taboo, they will be subsequently punished or face the consequences of their actions.[17] Taboos are not societal prohibitions (such as incest); rather, the use oftaboo in these stories relates to its original meaning of "prohibition": for example, a character could be prohibited from looking, eating, and speaking oruttering a certain word.
An example of an eating taboo in Greek mythology could be found in the tale of theabduction of Persephone.Hades, who had fallen in love withPersephone and wished to make her his queen, burst through a cleft in the earth and abducted Persephone as she was gathering flowers in a field.[19] WhenDemeter, Persephone's mother, finds out of her daughter's abduction, she forbids the earth to produce (or she neglects the earth) and, in the depth of her despair, causes nothing to grow.Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the otherdeities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone.[20] It was explained to Demeter that Persephone would be released, so long as she did not taste the food of the dead. Hades complies with the request to return Persephone to Demeter, but first, he tricks Persephone, forcing her to break the eating taboo by giving her somepomegranate seeds to eat.[21] In other interpretations, Persephone is seen eating the pomegranate seeds as a result of temptation or hunger. In the end, Hermes is sent to retrieve her but, because she had tasted the food of the underworld, she was obliged to spend a third of each year (the winter months) there, and the remaining part of the year with the gods above.[22] With the later writers Ovid and Hyginus, Persephone's time in the underworld becomes half the year.[23]
The most notablelooking taboo in Greek myth can be found in the story ofOrpheus and Eurydice.Orpheus, the son ofApollo, was well-renowned as a legendary musician whose music could move anything and everything, living or not, in the world. While walking among her people in tall grass at her wedding,Eurydice was set upon by asatyr. In her efforts to escape the satyr, Eurydice fell into a nest of vipers and suffered a fatal bite on her heel. Her body was discovered by Orpheus who, overcome with grief, played such sad and mournful songs that all the humans,nymphs, andgods learnt about his sorrow and grief and wept with him. On the gods' advice, Orpheus traveled to theUnderworld wherein his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should guide her out and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. As he reached the upper world, Orpheus looked back toward Eurydice in his eagerness to reunite with her, tragically forgetting about the looking taboo given to him by Hades, and since Eurydice had not crossed into the upper world, she vanishes back into the Underworld, this time forever.
A speaking taboo in Greek myth can be found in the story ofAnchises, the father of theTrojanwarriorAeneas.Aphrodite had fallen in love with the mortal Anchises after Zeus persuadedEros to shoot her with an arrow to cause these emergent feelings.[24] One interpretation recounts that Aphrodite pretended to be aPhrygian princess and seduced him, only to later reveal herself as a goddess and inform Anchises that she will bear him a son named Aeneas and warns him not to tell anyone that he lay with a goddess. Anchises does not heed this speaking taboo and later brags about his encounter with Aphrodite, and as a result, he is struck in the foot with athunderbolt by Zeus. Thereafter, he is lame in that foot so that Aeneas has to carry him from the flames of Troy.[25]
Another, albeit lesser-known, speaking taboo in Greek myth can be found in the story ofActaeon. Actaeon, whilst on a hunting trip in the woods, mistakenly and haplessly happened upon the bathingArtemis.[26][27] When Artemis realized that Actaeon had seen her undressed, thus desecrating herchastity, she punished him for his luckless profanation of her virginity's mystery by forbidding him from speech.[28][29] Whether it be due to forgetfulness or outright resistance, Actaeon defied his speaking taboo and called forhis hunting dogs.[28][29] Due to his failure in abiding by his speaking taboo, Artemis turned Actaeon into a stag and turned his dogs upon him. Actaeon was torn apart and ravaged by his loyal dogs who did not recognize their former master.
Possibly the most famous eating taboo (if not taboo, in general) is in the story ofAdam and Eve in theAbrahamic religions. In theJudeo-Christian telling, found inGenesis 3,Adam andEve are placed in theGarden of Eden by God and are told not to eat from a tree lest they die,[30] but Eve is promptly tempted by aserpent (often identified asSatan in disguise) to eat from theTree of the knowledge of good and evil because they will surely not die,[31] rather, they might become "likeGod".[32] Eve violates the eating taboo and eats from theforbidden fruit of the tree, shortly giving some fruit to her companion, Adam.[33] After eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve are aware of their nakedness and cover themselves with fig leaves and hide from God.[34] God realizes that they are hiding and interrogates them about having eaten from the tree whereupon Adam assigns the blame to Eve and Eve assigns it to the serpent.[35] As a result, God condemns Eve with pain in childbirth and subordination to her husband, he condemns Adam to have to labor on the earth for his food and be reduced into the earth at death, and in the Christian tradition, he condemns all of humanity for thisoriginal sin.[36][37] God then expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden lest they eat from theTree of Life and become immortal "like Him".[38]
InIslam, the story ofAdam and Eve is quite different, though it contains an eating taboo: theQuran mentions thatAdam (Arabic:آدم), as the successive authority of earth by decree of Allah, is placed in a paradisal garden (notJannah nor theGarden of Eden)[39] therein along withhis wife (unnamed in the Quran, though theHadith gives her the name Ḥawwā’, Arabic:حواء);[40][41] such a paradise this garden was, that they would never go hungry nor unclothed,[42] nor would they ever thirst or be exposed to the sun's heat.[43] Allah took a promise from Adam:[44]
˹Allah said,˺ “O Adam! Live with your wife in Paradise and eat from wherever you please, but do not approach this tree, or else you will be wrongdoers.”
Iblis, angered at his expulsion from Jannah for refusing to bow to Adam at his inception, decided to trick Adam and his wife into being shunned by Allah, just as he was. Allah had warned Adam and his wife about Iblis, telling them that he was a "clear enemy".[45][46] Iblisswore in the name of Allah that he was their sincere advisor, revealed unto Adam and his wife each other's nakedness, and convinced them to eat from the forbidden tree so that they may never taste death.[47][48] After eating from the tree (thus breaking the eating taboo), Allah removes Adam and his wife from their paradisal garden, telling them that mankind will be condemned with some being enemies with others on the earth wherein they will be provided habitation and provision, for a while,[49][50] and “There you will live, there you will die, and from there you will be resurrected.”[Quran7:25]
In theGnostic telling of this story, the taboo is a plot by thearchons to keep Adam in a state of ignorance by preventing him from eating the fruit, which allows him to attaingnosis after the serpent, who is viewed as representative of thedivine world, convinces him and Eve to eat it.[51]
Alooking taboo can be found in the Judeo-Christian telling of the story ofLot found within theBook of Genesis. InGenesis 19, twoangels in the form of men arrived inSodom at eventide and were invited by Lot to spend the night at his home. The men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and demanded Lot that he bring his two guests out so that they might "know" them; instead, Lot offered up his two daughters, who had not "known" man, but they refused. As dawn was breaking, Lot's visiting angels urged him to get his family and flee, so as to avoid being caught in the impending disaster for the iniquity of the city. The command was given, "Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, lest you be swept away."[52]: 465 Whilst fleeing,Lot's wife broke the looking taboo by turning to look back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and was turned into a pillar of salt as punishment for disobeying the angels' warning.[53][52]: 466
Communist andmaterialist theorists have argued that taboos can be used to reveal the histories of societies when other records are lacking.[54]Marvin Harris explains taboos as a consequence of ecologic and economic conditions.[55]
Incest itself has been pulled both ways, with some seeking to normalize consensual adult relationships regardless of the degree ofkinship[58] (notably in Europe)[59][60] and others expanding the degrees of prohibited contact (notably in theUnited States).[61] Although the termtaboo usually implies negative connotations, it is sometimes associated with enticing propositions in proverbs such asforbidden fruit is the sweetest.[62]
In medicine, professionals who practice in ethical and moralgrey areas, or fields subject tosocial stigma such aslate termination of pregnancy, may refrain from public discussion of their practice. Among other reasons, this taboo may come from concern that comments may be taken out of the appropriate context and used to make ill-informed policy decisions that would lead to (otherwise preventable)maternal death.[63][64]
^Roffee, James A. (2014). "The Synthetic Necessary Truth Behind New Labour's Criminalisation of Incest".Social & Legal Studies.23:113–130.doi:10.1177/0964663913502068.S2CID145292798.
^Roffee, J. A. (2014). "No Consensus on Incest? Criminalisation and Compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights".Human Rights Law Review.14 (3):541–572.doi:10.1093/hrlr/ngu023.
^Schweitzer, Albert.African Notebook 1958. Indiana University Press
^abHyman, Stanley Edgar (1949). "Myth, Ritual, and Nonsense".The Kenyon Review.11 (3). Kenyon College: 456.JSTOR4333071.
^TheHomeric Hymn to Demeter,411–412, has Persephone tell Demeter: "he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will." Gantz, p. 65 describes this as a "trick".
^Callimachus gives no site: a glen in the foothills ofMount Cithaeron near BoeotianOrchomenus, is the site according toEuripides,Bacchae 1290–92, a spring sanctuary nearPlataea is specified elsewhere.
^Ladygina-Kots, Nadezhda Nikolaevna. "Infant Ape and Human Child: (Instincts, Emotions, Play, Habits)." Journal of Russian & East European Psychology 38.1 (2000): 5–78.
Collins, C. John (2014)."Adam and Eve in the Old Testament". In Reeves, Michael R. E.; Madueme, Hans (eds.).Adam, the Fall, and Original Sin: Theological, Biblical, and Scientific Perspectives. Baker Academic.ISBN9781441246417.
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