Why are there taboos

Also, during the first four days of menstrual cycle, a woman is considered impure and is not even allowed to enter temples. Menstrual blood is considered to be impure and girls are not supposed to enter kitchen also. Homosexuality in Islam is a big sin and is a crime under Islamic law. According to Sharia, homosexuality is a vile form of fornication punishable by death.

According to Jewish dietary law found in the Torah, all food must be kosher. A Jew must only marry a Jew. Violation of such practices be it marrying a non-Jew would be considered a violation of Halakah and taboo.

There is a number of cultural taboos prevailing in and around the world. A list of them is given below,. Food and drink taboo is a restriction on consumption of various kinds of food and drink. Hence, these are few of the plethoras of taboos that exist in our society.

These are age-old practices which are still being practiced in the society. Shouldn't we be open-mind and free to discuss all topics because ignorance leads people to do wrong things? The traditional role of a taboo is prohibition of an action , not of discussion, but the two are often mixed when the term is used loosely, see e. Gao's study of English "taboo" words.

Volume 3 of a classical comparative study of mythology and religion, Frazer's Golden Bough , is called Taboo and the Perils of the Soul , and freely available online. Freud's Totem and Taboo is now considered discredited by antropologists, although some modern authors see residual value in it.

Ellis authored an essay The Function of Taboos , where he argues that taboos play an adaptive evolutionary role and are found even in animal communities:. That taboo is strictly analogous to human taboos; it is an adopted custom. It is not found everywhere among birds.

When men first visit Virgin islands of the southern seas there are birds who do not regard human beings as taboo. The taboo is introduced later when human beings have become destructive to the bird society. It is, of course, completely unnecessary to be aware of the reason for the taboo, and if birds ever acquired speculative minds they would invent reasons.

That is, as we know, exactly what human societies do. We know that they will allow us the same or nearly the same degree of freedom and privilege that they claim for themselves. The individual in whom the taboos necessary for such organization are not either automatic or self-imposed is an anti-social individual, and his elimination would be for our benefit Old taboos can only be replaced by new taboos If they are thus to become of the nature of taboos they must be few in number, indisputable in value, and so urgent that they are felt to be on the way to become instinctive.

Jewish dietary laws apply to everyone in the community, so that no exceptions for children, women or old folk are permitted, as long as a human life is not endangered. The protection of human life, however, overrides all dietary discipline and for priests and dealings with priests additional dietary rules apply. Gluttony and drunkenness are, of course, also forbidden to Jews.

Different workers have different opinions on what constitutes a "food taboo". Generally speaking, a taboo prohibits someone from doing something, e. Taboos represent "unwritten social rules that regulate human behaviour" [ 14 ] and define the "in-group" [ 20 ]. According to Barfield [ 40 ] there may be as many as reasons for particular avoidances amongst them not wanting to look like a food item, special place of food item in myth or history, food item perceived as dirty, predatory, humanlike etc.

If the avoidance of a certain food item provides the food avoider with an immediate result, for instance absence of an allergic reaction, we can assign a proximate cause to the food item in question.

However, if the consequences of a food taboo are not immediately visible and may take months, years, or even generations to manifest themselves, we have to speak of ultimate causes.

For researchers of food taboos, the often unsurmountable difficulty is that proximate and ultimate causes of food taboos may overlap [ 17 ] and, in fact, cannot always be separated.

It can be seen from these remarks that a discussion of food taboos is possible in a variety of ways with a variety of foci. By using the examples given above in this paper, the author wishes to highlight certain reasons, which seem to have been involved in the establishment of food taboos in those cultures examined but may have been at the root of food taboos in other cultures as well.

Discussing the examples in this way, a kind of classification results that might well be generally applicable to societies not part of this investigation , in which food taboos exist.

Any interpretation of food taboos has to consider the region they operate in, the era or circumstances they came into existence, or, in other words, the food history of a people [ 7 , 8 , 41 , 42 ].

Desert locusts, having been common and sustained ancient Israelites in a dry land, are not taboo, but why should other insects be taboo? Rational explanations are not always possible and what to one group is strictly taboo, to another may be perfectly acceptable [ 43 ].

Some food taboos evolved in connection with attempts to steer or control man's destiny [ 44 ] and attempts to put some "order" into the occurrence of and reason s behind food taboos must realize that food taboo categories are not clear-cut. Food taboos, based on religious beliefs for example, may have a health-related root and taboos restricting certain foods to men may be an expression of male dominance or differences in skills between the sexes.

Taking a look at the ubiquity of food taboos, we notice that sometimes taboos affect all sections of the population at all times: Jewish dietary laws [ 45 ] and the basic Hindu regulation of "no meat, no fish, no eggs" are cases in point. Occasionally, ubiquitous food taboos become suspended or are enforced periodically as with the Friday for the Catholic Christians, when no meat but fish only is to be consumed and the pre-Easter weeks of lent, when meat of warm-blooded animals should not be eaten.

The annual Yom Kippur with its total ban of food and liquid intake as a periodical food taboo event cf. Frequently, food taboos affect males or females, leaders or subjects, children or widows and widowers differently; in other words they are distributed unevenly. Food taboos, as we have seen in the examples of the Orang Asli in Malaysia [ 24 ], mid-west state Nigerians [ 30 ], or parts of the Congo [ 46 ], may change throughout a person's lifetime with age in a predictable manner, as accepted and expected by society.

Food taboos frequently accompany 'coming-of-age' or initiation ceremonies [ 47 ]; they can also be prescribed at times of drought, flooding or lunar and solar eclipses, and many more events. Thus, one of the aims of food taboos is to highlight particular happenings, making them memorable. In fact, the vast majority of all food taboos come under this group of "specific events" and one of its various sub-categories. Food taboos at menstruation, during and after pregnancies, on the sickbed in times of illness, in times of mourning, in preparation for a wedding, or before combat are commonly encountered [ 48 ].

Persons of Asian descent traditionally perceive health in connection with the bodily balance of 'hot and cold' and, thus, when under the influence of disease or pregnancy, would avoid food items considered 'hot', which may even include iron tablets [ 49 ]. When a particular taboo is regarded as God-given, as a form of instruction or command from the "Supreme" and thus play a role in the cultural or religious belief system [ 14 ], then it is usually seen as part of a 'package' to protect the believers, to safeguard them against evil [ 20 — 23 ].

To doubt, even to ask any questions about the reasons behind the taboo is seen as blasphemous. Likewise, in tribes with totem beliefs, it follows that it has to be taboo to eat the totem animal, as otherwise it could take revenge and adversely affect the whole tribe [ 42 ]. However, irrespective of the God-given rules or advice, people must have noticed changes in the behaviour of persons that consumed certain food items. For instance, food items involved in IgE-mediated allergies like, for instance, shrimp: [ 50 ] should have been easily identifiable and then could first have led to their avoidance and, secondly, to a total ban of them.

Eating to regulate emotions has been listed as one of the five classes of "emotion-induced changes of eating" by Macht [ 51 ] and IgE-mediated atopic diseases are known to be associated with depression [ 52 ] and suicide rate [ 53 ]. An increase of unsaturated fatty acids in the diet has been found to be correlated with decreased violent behaviour [ 54 ] and an exposure to sunflower seeds [ 55 ] and colorants derived from the fungus Monascus ruber [ 56 ] can cause asthma attacks.

Finally, low glycaemic meals have been reported to improve memory and ability to sustain attention [ 57 ], features that might not have gone unnoticed by our forebears in earlier times and could have led to the avoidance or recommendation not to consume certain food items.

As scientists we are obliged to probe, to scrutinize, to question and although many food taboos do not appear to have a health-related, 'rational' explanation, some clearly have become established, because of the aim to protect the health of an individual and this would equally apply to Modena's recently suggested "anti-taboo" concept in choosing food denominations: [ 58 ]. Taboos of the Hindu related to collecting fruits and breaking plants after sunset go back to times when no artificial lighting was available and, therefore, it must have been outright dangerous to pick fruits at night.

Consequently, it would make perfect sense to taboo the collecting of fruit after dark. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps, and maybe death, whether rightly or wrongly, were frequently considered to be some of the after-effects of ingesting certain foods [ 41 ]. In some cases the threat to a person's health may be obvious and demonstrable with modern medical, chemical, and other analytical techniques, but of course it was not always like this.

Amazon and coastal fishermen, for example, declare mostly carnivorous, especially piscivorous, fishes taboo: we know now that their place high in the food pyramid renders them particular rich in contaminants and toxins [ 17 ]. Alcohol, another example, is an addictive poison and as such is taboo for children of most societies. Snakes and other venomous or dangerous creatures had better be left alone as the risk of procuring them for food can outweigh their nutritional value.

A utilitarian reason to despise swine, as it competes with humans for food and water in dry lands, has been put forward by Harris [ 7 ], but pork is taboo to many people, because pigs tend to harbour masses of sickness-causing parasites. Moreover, it is claimed that pig meat contains substances, which have been linked to high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, rheumatism, arthritis, boils, asthma and eczema.

Apparently, soldiers fighting in North Africa during World War II began to increasingly suffer from toxic ulcera of the legs as long as there was pork in their diet.

When their food was pork-free, the ulcera disappeared [ 59 ]. Declaring certain foods taboo because they are thought to make a person sick, is also the basis for the many food taboos affecting pregnant women.

Largely linked with the realms of mind and 'psyche', the taboos of not eating cryptic fish amongst the Trobriand Islanders or watermelon and other fruits amongst the Onabasulu are actually meant to protect the health of the pregnant woman and her offspring and thought to ease the process of birth-giving, even if modern nutritionists completely disagree. Likewise, the rule of the Orang Asli that young people can only cope with small animals like snails, mice and rats as food, because their spirits are also small and for that reason are not likely to do much harm to a small child's spirit, is designed to protect human life.

Yet, it is often pregnant and lactating women in various parts of the world that are forced to abstain from especially nutritious and beneficial foods Mexico: [ 60 ]; Indonesia: [ 61 ]; Korea: Lee H. Although it is not clear why and how exactly these restrictions came to be accepted see below , pregnant women do not always adhere to them.

Amongst the Lese-women of the Ituri forest of Africa, women cope with these restrictions by either secretly discounting them or by eating prophylactic plants that supposedly prevent the consequences of eating the tabooed foods [ 62 ]. Flaunting taboos has also been reported by Alvard [ 63 ], who then suggested that food taboos would be of little value to nature conservation but see the evidence to the contrary by Colding and Folke [ 14 ].

The fact that women throughout the world with few exceptions display a slightly but significantly reduced calorific intake around the time of ovulation has been noted for a long time and formed the topic of a recent review by Fessler [ 64 ]. He used the term "periovulatory nadir" for the phenomenon and concluded that it was linked to increased locomotor activity, interest in wanderlust, "a desire to meet new people particularly men ".

Regrettably, it is not known if specific food items are being avoided, perhaps even subconsciously, at the time of the periovulatory nadir. As hinted upon earlier and demonstrated in several studies, most notably [ 14 — 19 ], food taboos frequently seem to have an ecological background, which according to Harris [ 7 ] is based on utilitarian principles. On the one hand, they may lead to a fuller utilization of a resource and on the other they can lead to its protection.

If North West American Inuit and Nootka Indians both hunt and eat the whale, it makes good ecological sense when the Tlingit Indians of the same region regard the giant sea mammal as taboo and look for food on land [ 65 ]. Some ecological consequence can also be ascribed to the custom amongst the Ka'aor Indians of the northern Maranhao Brazil of allowing only menstruating women, pubescent girls, and parents of newborns to consume the meat of tortoises [ 66 ] and the fact that amongst the indigenous people of Ratanakiri Cambodia different food taboos operate even between neighbouring villages [ 67 ].

In the same vein, if women and children, as in the Orang Asli, eat only small animals while older people also consume bigger species, a measure like this would distribute ecological pressure more evenly across a greater number of consumable species. This can lead to a situation, in which females are only permitted plants and insects as food, while the menfolk are free to ingest meat, egg, and fish [ 7 ]. The regulations amongst the Canadian Netsilik [ 68 ] that sea-mammal and terrestrial mammal must never be eaten on the same day and amongst Jews that milk and milk-containing foods cannot be consumed together with meat, have an ecological ring.

Clearly, sustainability of a resource is served by the taboo not to eat the young and its parent and by the Hindu custom of not totally finishing a plate, so that there is always some plant material left over for Nature e.

To safeguard a resource for a time of crisis may be the reason, why certain fishes of the Amazon are not normally eaten, but spared [ 69 ].

Declaring a food item taboo for one section of the population, can of course, lead to a monopoly of the food in question by the remainder of the population [ 7 ]. For purely egoistic reasons men may declare meat and other, to them, delicacies taboo "for others". That this is the main reason for some food taboos affecting mainly women and children, is suspected by [ 30 ].

Traditional healers in Nigeria sometimes attribute childhood ailments to breaking the food norms [ 70 ] and in Senegal women and children, but not men, must avoid poultry products.

That this can lead to a shortage of adequate supplies of essential nutrients especially in the most vulnerable group of the rural population is self-understood [ 71 ]. The fact that in many societies alcohol-drinking women are poorly respected while for men alcohol consumption is regarded as normal , in essence, seems little different from the Australian aboriginal practice that native honey a rare and sweet delicacy is seen as something fit only for the old and wise men.

Amongst the Bolivian Siriono, there are "hundreds of food taboos", but they apply only very loosely to the elderly, who can break the taboos. This ensures their welfare and survival when no longer able to hunt for the 'right food' [ 72 ]. Empathy, i. In many societies, pet animals enjoy a greater degree of protection and are more likely to be given "taboo" status than individuals that are unfamiliar and "unrelated".

It is almost as if "humanness" rubs off and the pet becomes regarded as an "honorary human". Hindu religious thought with its belief of re-incarnation even goes a step further and basically does not distinguish between human and animal with regard to their souls — only the packaging is seen to differ. It follows that by eating an animal, a Hindu could indeed, to put it bluntly, be eating a deceased relative.

And that -with few exceptions where endocannibalism was the accepted practice and parts of a human corpse were ritually consumed as in certain tribes of Papua Niugini- is almost everywhere a taboo [ 73 — 75 ]. Finally, it ought to be mentioned that any food taboo, acknowledged by a particular group of people as part of its ways, aids in the cohesion of this group, helps that group stand out amongst others, assists that group to maintain its identity and creates a feeling of "belonging".

Thus, food taboos can strengthen the confidence of a group by functioning as a demonstration of the uniqueness of the group in the face of others. Food taboos and food habits can persist for a very long time and can be and have been made use of in identifying cultural and historical relationships between human populations [ 76 , 77 ].

It has, for instance, been suggested that the food taboos of both Jews and Hindus reflect not the nutritional needs, but the explicit concerns of the pastoral peoples' that they once were [ 78 ]. In our increasingly international world, it is essential that we know and understand food taboos of societies other than and in addition to our own. In a world, in which many persons still go hungry, it is important to realize that numerous societies impose restrictions on what is acceptable as food and that in most cases the full food potential of a given environment is not being made use of.

Food restrictions can affect the nutritional status of a community or a subsection within it. There may be sound reasons for prohibiting certain food items as we have demonstrated in this paper, but declaring some food items taboo can equally well be a form of suppression by a more dominant sector of the society. To explore the operating food taboos from historic, hygienic, and social perspectives must be the aim of any study that deals with the problem of community food culture [ 10 , 14 , 79 , 80 ].

In the words of Drewnowski and Levine [ 80 ]: "There is a need for further discussions of the economics of food choice". The single author of this paper VBM-R is responsible for every aspect of the research, the conclusions, and the writing of the paper. May RM: Theoretical Ecology. Google Scholar. Krebs CJ: Ecology. Ann Nutr Metab.

Meyer-Rochow VB: The diverse uses of insects in traditional societies. Am Scient. Harris M: Good to eat — Riddles of food and culture.

All rights reserved. Examples of Religious or Cultural Taboos Many taboos are associated with religion or culture. The Hindu faith, which is the predominant religion in India, forbids consuming beef. For example, Catholics who marry non-Catholics must agree to raise their children Catholic.