Hello guests! For this time, I like to share an interesting story about "TABOOS". Did you know what is "Taboos" ??
A taboo is a vehement prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behaviour is either too sacred or too accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake, under threat of supernatural punishment.
Here are some example of the cultural taboos:
20 Cultural Taboos
1. In Thailand and in Arab countries never point your shoe/foot to another person. The shoe/foot is
the unclean part of your body.
2. In Thailand, don't touch the head of someone older than you, or, in general, don't touch the head
at all.
3. In many African countries
when talking to a tribal chief, make
sure that your head is not above his.
4. If you are a male, don't try to
shake hands with an orthodox Muslim
(covered) woman.
5. Don't walk into a Japanese
home with your shoes on.
6. Don't forget to say "takk for
maten" ("Thank you for the meal.")
in Scandinavia. It is a MUST!
7. Never eat while standing while in Indonesia
8. Never wear red to a funeral in China or write a
person’s name in red in Korea.
9. Never chew gum in public in Austria, Italy,
Germany, or Malaysia.
10. In India and many other countries, don’t eat
food with your left hand.
11. Don’t cut your grass on Sunday in Switzerland
So did you understand what is the meaning of "Taboos" ??
Futhermore, the cultural taboos also has a significance which is :
# They are an expression of interconnectedness of two inseparable dimension in the African worldview: the visible world and the invisible one. That interconnectedness can also be seen as interdependence whereby the quality of life of the ancestors and of people depended on each other's actions;
# They are an expression and a means of perpetuating what was considered as the most important features in African culture: preservation of life and well being of people.
# Life and its quality was seen as crucial and the society applied a variety of methods to preserve it and transmit it, including taboos;
Taboos showed the communal dimensions of one's actions. In the culture where one was defined by belonging to a community and where the community was far more important than its individual members, one's actions affected that community.
# Taboos were helping people to recognize their own importance – if one could affect the community, in this case, negatively, he was not unimportant. To a certain extend, the researcher would call taboos 'self-esteem-enhancing beliefs';
# Taboos helped people to realize that an improper behaviour would always have consequences for them, the community and the nature;
# Taboos were an expression of a quite sophisticated moral system ruling the life in the community and the life of an individual. Even though formulated as 'negative' principles stressing 'do not...' and teaching people about what was not acceptable in the community, by implication, they were also pointing out to the actions that were supposed to be done. By preventing people from doing wrong things, they were helping them to focus on what was encouraged in the community;
# Taboos were an expression of the 'natural law' – a general set of rules commonly understood by all human beings. Similarities among various tribes concerning prohibitions against such acts as incest, murder, stealing show the common ground of various taboos. Often formulated in a way that implied more than their original wording, they were helping people to exercise their common sense and moral responsibility in interpreting them and applying them to various situations;
# Taboos were used to convey moral values to especially to children. They could be described as 'teaching aids' when explaining some moral principles to them. When one lacked an intellectual ability to impart the importance of some moral principles, taboos were a useful way of transmitting the same value from a different perspective. Those values, worded as taboos, were expressed at various occasions such as circumcision, marriage negotiations and funeral rites. It was an effective system of preserving and transmitting moral values, keeping in mind that traditional African cultural was an oral one;
# In a society where there was no police, taboos served as a guardian of moral values. To a certain extend, they were better than modern law enforcing agencies, because, in most cases, breaking of a taboo was associated with an automatic punishment – one did not have to be caught to be punished;
# Through taboos one was made aware that an improper action, as defined by the society one was a member of, would result in negatively affecting the harmony of the person concerned, the family and the society at large. Transgressing it would also result in punishment. It was a way of teaching people that each action entails consequences. Such consequences/punishment was usually automatic, personal (creating feelings of fear and guilt), affecting, in one way or another the family and the community. That punishment could also be administered by the community;
# Taboos aimed at preserving harmony. However breaking them was not irreversible. As such taboos point out to wisdom of those who created them, who were aware of human frailty. There seems to have always been a way of avoiding the grave consequences of breaking of a taboo and of re-connecting harmony that was damaged. Taboos, hence, were not an end in themselves but rather a means of expressing fundamental values of harmony, peace and life. If it is was not enough to prevent people from breaking it or if broken unintentionally, the community had a way dealing with it in a way that was enhancing the quality of life.
