Taboo

What is taboo? Taboo is human activity that is forbidden based on moral judgment. Anything that is not accepted by society or by your peers is considered taboo. This perfectly awful word has so many meanings ,yet no matter what race, religion, or culture your in it means forbidden or banned. No matter how hard you try not to be taboo you are. So is being taboo part of human nature, or is it how we try to stand out from everybody else and show individuality? Are you taboo, do you know someone who is taboo?
There is no taboo that is universal, but some occur in the majority of societies. The dietary practices of some people are considered taboo, for instance some are vegetarians, kosher diets, cannibalism, or meat-eaters. Judaism prohibits the eating of bats, frogs, crocodiles, or snakes. Cow or beef is taboo to be eaten by vegetarian, Hindus, or Zoroastrians. Dog meat is taboo in the United States, they are considered part of the family. While in China dogs are bred for their meat, one example of this is the Chow Chow.
Prince Philip of the United Kingdom once said “If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aero plane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it. ” Once again everybody is taboo. I personally love to eat frog and beef. It is taboo in my eyes not to eat meat ,but that is because I am a meat-eater. The way people show or deal with their body function, such as burping, flatulence, defecating, and urinating are all forms of taboo. In the United States it is considered taboo to defecate or urinate in public.

While in India, they teach to drink cow urine and eat cow feces. We all try to avoid doing things we think are taboo. People deal with things they think are different in different ways. Some turn their heads when they are faced with something or someone they find ugly or repulsive. The way people stare with added expressions when they see something different then what they consider normal, anything from a personal choice to birth defects. Even in relationships there is and will always be taboos. Sex outside of arriage, adultery, miscegenation, and incest are all forms of taboos in relationships. In the United States adultery and incest are very taboo, but in Wodaabe ,men of Niger steal each others wives even if they already have one. So adultery is taboo here over there it is accepted and condoned. Miscegenation was taboo in the United States until 1967 when they said it was unconstitutional. Taboo is in the politics of everyday living. For the United States fascism, communism, and anarchism are all taboo.
While in China and Vietnam both accept and have a communism government. In early German the Nazism was taboo because of the fascism. Taboo was brought to the English language by Captain James Cook, and English explorer who visited Tonga. A famous American author Henry Miller said “ whenever a taboo is broken, something good happens, something vitalizing. Taboos after all are only hangovers, the product of diseased minds, you might say, of fearsome people who hadn’t the courage to live and who under the guise of morality and religion have imposed these things upon us. So do not shun or avoid , accept everybody’s taboos because when they look at you they see all your taboos to them. Taboos are everywhere and in everything, because if there wasn’t then this would be a boring world to live. Could you imagine if everybody was doing the same thing, everything going the same direction ,no disorder, or no rebellion it would be very bland. In the end no one is perfect, and even if it might be considered taboo, whatever it is. The taboos we have or don’t have make us all unique and special.