Taboo

Taboo is a sociological term that Dors Venabili has to explain to the mathematician Hari Seldon when they first encounter it in Mycogen Sector. Males and females alike are depilated at puberty to mark them off as precious few among "swarms and hordes", and this is carried over to distinctive clothing, behavior, and way of life. They farm to make themselves valuable the rest of Trantor and expect, in exchange, to be left alone. Mycogenians are horrified to see the slightest display of "cephalic hair". Such a strong taboo suggests a religious base, but Mycogenians are adamantly non-religious. Instead, they venerate history and a time when humanity is united on a single planet. That state will some day be restored. A Sister entraps Seldon by insisting on acting out her (pretended) hair fetish before she will turn over her precious Book. Reading it leads Seldon and Venabili to...