The term ‘taboo’ is no longer fashionable among anthropologists. In many modern textbooks and treatises, it is missing from the index. Comparable terms thought to impute ‘otherness’ or ‘irrationality’ to non-Western...

The term taboo derives from various Polynesian languages where it has the sense of ‘forbidden’. More specifically, what is forbidden and dangerous is unregulated contact between the everyday world and the sacred, which includes both the...

Phenomenon in numerous language communities (e.g. in Africa, Australia, Oceania, and the Americas) where the use of certain words is avoided. One typical example is the name of a deceased person (and all similar-sounding words); rather than using the...

...

A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) against words, objects, actions, discussions, or people that are considered undesirable or offensive by a group, culture, or society. Breaking a taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent. Some...

Let's talk about sex. How many of you parents out there have not/would not/cannot utter those words to your children? I'm guessing most of you have your hands up right now, just like me. In the area of openness, which, if you believe...

The word "taboo" is Polynesian origin and is defined in Webster's "a sacred prohibition put upon certain people, things or acts, which makes them untouchable, unmentionable, etc." A secondary definition is: "any social prohibition or restriction that results from convention or tradition." These...

For most Americans, who now wish we had never invaded Iraq, the notion of expanding that extraordinarily lethal mistake into neighboring Iran and Syria must seem insane. Yet those same brilliant neoconservative strategists who brought us the war in Iraq and constantly urge its escalation...

Hikari Ota is doing what he does best on his weekly "news" show: taking aim at Japan's aging lawmakers."It's easy to spot them nodding away during parliamentary sessions," he tells the studio audience while a large screen on stage shows a napping lawmaker. "Sometimes they're...