Taboo

A taboo is based on a tacitly practiced set of social rules or a culturally over-formed agreement that enjoins or forbids certain behaviors in an elementary way. Taboos are unquestioned, strict, unconditional, they are universal and ubiquitous, they are therefore part of a functioning human society. As social norms, taboos remain unspoken or are at most hinted at through indirect thematization (e.g. irony) or eloquent silence: in this respect, what is taboo is removed from any rational justification and criticism. It is precisely because of their tacit, implicit character that taboos differ from the explicit prohibitions with formal penalties from the realm of codified laws. Almost all living beings, objects or situations that come into the human field of vision can be tabooed. Taboos can refer to words, things (e.g. food taboo), actions (e.g. incest taboo), conflict issues, to plants and animals, to the use of resources (see tapu), to individuals or social groups.

The terms 'taboo' and political correctness have an intersection; they are not easily distinguishable.

Definitions

A definition of the concept of taboo was given by Sigmund Freud in his seminal work Totem and Taboo:

Accordingly, a taboo is something profoundly forbidden, but it also stands for something unspoken, even inexpressible, which can go far beyond a restriction imposed by reasonable forms of behavior (custom or law). Rather, we are dealing with barriers to shyness that stem from pre-rational, instinctive, and/or religious attitudes of disgust or even reverence: Caused by an attitude that perceives equally in a single taboo object two apparently opposite aspects, the extremely pure and sacred as well as the impure or that which is to be avoided. In any case, there is a fundamentally felt distancing that is culturally mediated - often out of concretely experienced collective experiences of danger (cf. edibles - non-edibles, rituals surrounding birth, marriage, illness, death and dying). Perhaps the closest thing to taboo behaviour is Jesus' saying Noli me tangere to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection (Gospel of John 20:17), translated as "Do not touch me" or "Do not touch me": Here it is about the purity of the otherworldly or also of that which is contaminated with dying, but at the same time also of that which is sanctified, on the one hand, and about the protection of the worldly from the numinosum, on the other. Taboo is always to be seen in the reciprocity of ambivalent references. Taboo behaviour corresponds to the culturally acquired techniques of bridging a tension between limitation and transgression that is perceived by society as a whole.

Those who live in a world of prohibitions whose meaning is rationally comprehensible (e.g. prohibition of euthanasia or preservation of the resting place of the dead) may find it difficult to accept as meaningful norms that stem from an unspoken, pre-rational realm, i.e. that are taboos. In fact, the object or living being endowed with "mana" is incomprehensible and unassailable. Presumably, it is centrally the human being, who is provided with the stigma of "dying" and "death", that causally triggers a general feeling of taboo - an attitude that secondarily extends to other living beings or things that appear to be alienating. Because of its resemblance to the still living, the corpse, which has suddenly become irrevocably different, is experienced in all cultures as the most taboo phenomenon of all, since its corporeality reveals remnants of its anthropomorphic existence, but at the same time already poses a threat through decay and transience. The deceased human being is taboo par excellence. Presumably, taboo sensibilities - just like the need for religiosity and regularity - correspond to a bulwark against an existentially perceived chaos: taboos are supposed to offer magical protection against any intrusion into existing and life-sustaining order. Dying and mortality reveal existential endangerment; being dead is the taboo par excellence. The dead himself, since he cannot be heard, is also not addressable, audible, visible, touchable. According to pre-rational logic, it is therefore also "impossible" to address death, to see it, to hear it, to touch it, or in any other way to haptically recognize the "other world". Unauthorized contact with the deceased would be tantamount to an encroachment into the world of the "wholly other" and "numinous" (Rudolf Otto), the sacred, the otherworldly, etc., i.e. into an otherworld which has an overpowering influence on the world of the living, but which people are not normally allowed to touch: Possibly uncontrollable magically acting powers must remain banished. Analogous to a strictly ritualized behavior towards the deceased, it is therefore the taboos of speech, sight, action and touch that adhere to the most diverse life themes, if they only convey the smell of a disturbance of the culturally specific rhythm of life.

Taboo Behavior

Characteristic of taboo behavior are the following features:

1. Taboo precautions are triggered by a spectrum of perceptions that can range from awe and timidity to fear, panic, and disgust.
2. Because of this very existentially experienced experience, taboos are closely related to physicality and sensory perception. Accordingly, folkloristic/ethnological research distinguishes between taboos of speech, sight, touch and action.
3. Taboos are based on socially - predominantly non-verbally - agreed behaviour and also only function in the synergetic experience of a reference group.
4. Taboos restrict the radius of action of individuals in a society affected by corresponding behavioural norms - in both "logical" and "illogical" ways.
5. Taboos "work" through collectively felt (belief) energies. The object provided with "mana", whether living being or object, has a magical effect: taboo behaviour is experienced as protective and defensive magic at the same time.

"Taboo" and "mana", both terms from the Polynesian language area, are two reference values that, like action and re-action, cannot be separated from each other: "Mana" is the stigma (of a living being, an object, a condition) that takes on a life of its own and triggers distancing behavior; "taboo" is the corresponding distancing.

Taboo behavior in society as a whole manifests itself in correlation with deeper layers of belief that arise from more fearful, magical, animistic, or demonic notions: Taboo acts are subject to tacit understandings that intervene more deeply in general behavior than linguistically sanctioned codes of conduct of law and officially mediated religion. Beyond codified law, taboos guarantee an almost maximum agreement on a certain level of the behaviour and actions of a social group; nevertheless, they enable a few who "watch over" the observance of taboos, so to speak, to exert enormous influence: these are usually persons endowed with special charismatic competence, often specially appointed or consecrated, sacrosanct and in any case familiar with the effects of rituals (sorcerers, medicine men, priestesses, attending physicians, chief physicians, empresses, heads of state, etc.). etc.). Taboos stabilize the power structure of a society by manipulating its members with the existentially felt fear of punishment. Taboos are ubiquitous: in fact, no society exists without taboos.