![]() ![]() Taboo is a very primitive prohibition imposed from without (by an authority) and directed against the strongest desires of man. ![]() Let us summarize what understanding we have gained of taboo through its comparison with the compulsive prohibition of the neurotic. Our combination of "holy dread" would often express the meaning of taboo. Thus something like the concept of reserve inheres in taboo taboo expresses itself essentially in prohibitions and restrictions. ![]() The oposite for taboo is designated in Polynesian by the word noa and signifies something accessible. On the one hand it means to us, sacred, consecrated: but on the other hand it means, uncanny, dangerous, forbidden, and unclean. The «YOC of the Greeks and the Kodaush of the Hebrews must also have signified the same thing which the Polynesians express through their word taboo and what many races in America, Africa (Madagascar), North and Central Asia express through analogous designations.įor us the meaning of taboo branches off into two opposite directions. It was still current with the ancient Romans: their word "sacer" was the same as the taboo of the Polynesians. Taboo is a Polynesian word, the translation of which provides difficulties for us because we no longer possess the idea which it connotes. ![]()
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