Taboos

Taboo is a concept that originated in a very specific cultural meaning and became generalized in popular English. Popularly it means forbidden and to be avoided—by custom, or because of some danger, or under some general supernatural sanction, or by explicit divine order. But in anthropology, it has much more specific meaning. Based in the universal idea that all things have an inherent mystical power of some sort, taboo means the avoidance of a specific behavior for fear of harm by a dangerous power, or of dangerous pollution caused by the intermixing of incompatible powers. Taboo circumscribes some kind of supernatural threat that is usually simply termed “danger.” Some tabooed acts might have horrendous society-wide consequences; examples are incest, culturally defined but universally forbidden, or severe forms of sacrilege. But most taboos are sanctioned by some specific consequence, most commonly infection by some powerful mystical force, which can cause psychological or physical sickness, or some reversal of personal fortune, to the offender or to those close to him. Such infection may be termed pollution, or contamination, or defilement; it renders the offender impure or unclean, and such impurity or uncleanness is contagious, so the offender should be somehow isolated until the contagion has dissipated or a cleansing ritual of some sort has been performed. Examples of widespread taboos include entry by members of one sex into areas or activities restricted to the other; entry into certain adult activities by children, or into sacred areas or activities by uninitiated or otherwise profane persons; entry of objects associated with wildness or violence and death, such as weather gear, weapons, or butchering instruments, into areas demarcated for peace, socialization, healing, or sacred activities, such as the home, hospital, or temple; performance of acts involving tying or cutting or closing, or symbolic representations of any of these, by pregnant women; committing incest; physical contact with people with various sorts of bodily lesions, or with menstruating women, or with corpses; exposure of the adult genitals; and various magical activities. In such senses, taboos are culturally universal, and the concept has important implications not only for ritual behavior but for social and political organization.

The term was first introduced into European and American awareness by Captain James Cook after his Polynesian voyages and investigations of1768–1779. It was recognized as having universal parallels by James George Frazer in the ninth edition of The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1875–1889. In Polynesian languages the term meant forbidden, as in a simple injunction, but it also meant sacred, and it involved a ritual prohibition enforced by a specific kind of supernatural sanction. In Polynesia and Melanesia it was defined in terms of mana, a communicable power innate in all things. Mana occurs in varying types and degrees of intensity, and in certain concentrations its different forms should be kept apart, lest some misfortune occur from their intermixing. Most mana is positive, like that of chiefs or benevolent spirits, but it can be overpowering to ordinary unprotected people, resulting in sickness or even death. It is similar to the concept of the sacred, which should be approached and handled only by sacralized priests; contact by ordinary people can pollute the sacred and endanger the offender. But mana can also be negative, even evil, like that in demonic spirits or corpses, or the malicious magic of sorcerers, and it is contagious, from initial to secondary contact, and a contagious person is isolated until the appropriate cleansing rite has been [Page 2154]performed. Early ethnologists of Polynesian belief and custom gave three prominent examples of taboo acts by ordinary people: touching chiefs, corpses, or newborn babies, but it should not be assumed that the resultant afflictions are identical. The English word “taboo” derives from the Melanesian and Polynesian variants tapu, tabu, or kapu, meaning having a dangerous quantity or type of mana, but like mana, the nature of taboo varies considerably throughout Melanesia and Polynesia.

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