Keyword Collection: Taboo Bearbeiten

  • taboo means
    • not allowed, under prohibition
    • being restricted or protected by custom or by law
  • taboos
    • are based on cultural experiences of a society during history
    • are created by culture created, politicians created laws
    • have developed culturally from more basic instincts
    • persisted from generation to generation often merely as a result of tradition
    • derive often from religious beliefs and long-established traditional beliefs, social customs and emotional aversions
    • have a protection element
    • are a limitation of personal freedom
    • are a kind of social pressure
  • there are general taboos of a society and personal taboos (erection problems; pay for sex, homosexuality, age and death, personal income)
  • the main problem with taboos is that you take over the opinion of other people
  • topics that are delicate are not always taboos
  • maybe a taboo is stated by the majority of a society
  • maybe your taboo is not mine
  • often it is difficult to make a distinction between law, etiquette and taboo
  • breaking taboos
    • allows people to talk about their emotions
    • avoids many visits to psychiatrists
    • avoids having to live 2 separate life’s
    • makes it possible to live more honestly
    • has do with changing society
  • talking about a personal taboo with another person is often the first step for help


Taboos can include:

  • Dietary restrictions (halal and kosher diets, religious vegetarianism, and the prohibition of cannibalism)
  • Restrictions on sexual activities, gender roles and interpersonal relationships (sex outside of marriage, adultery, interreligious marriage, miscegenation, homosexuality, incest, bestiality, pedophilia, necrophilia and other paraphilias)
  • Restrictions of bodily functions (burping, flatulence, defecation, urination, masturbation, nose picking, and spitting)
  • Restrictions on state of genitalia (circumcision or sex reassignment)
  • Restrictions on exposure of body parts (pornography and nudity)
  • Taboos on illicit drugs, substance abuse and addictions to legal drugs such as alcohol (alcoholism)
  • Restrictions on the use of offensive language also known as obscenity and vulgarity


Questions Bearbeiten

  • What are the most significant taboos in society?
  • What are the things you are not supposed to speak about?
  • Do you think that universal taboos (i.e. existing independently of place and time) exist? If so, which ones?
  • Why do taboos exist? Are they necessary? Shouldn't we try to break them to be free?

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