Abstract
The word “taboo” comes from the Polynesian Tapu that Cook brought back from his lengthy voyages at the end of the eighteenth century. It is used to refer to something that is absolutely forbidden and sacred, often ritualized and sometimes linked to notions of impurity. Transgressions are not permitted and the taboo itself is tacitly accepted by all. The internalization of what is forbidden is such that it is impossible to even imagine that things might be different. Anyone who breaks the taboo runs the risk of being punished and even destroyed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Note
James Frazer, The Golden Baugh, II: Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, p. 136, cited by Sigmund Freud in Totem and Taboo: An Lnterpretation for Psychoanalysis of the Social Life of Primitive Peoples (1913) (Oxon: Routledge Classics, 2001), p. 33.
Copyright information
© 2014 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Muxel, A. (2014). Taboo. In: Politics in Private. Europe in Transition: The Nyu European Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137395597_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137395597_14
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48425-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-39559-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)