Border Lines

A fascinating way to look at any culture, either ancient or nascent, is to look at what they deem to be right and wrong. Some behaviors will be strongly rewarded, while other will be strongly dissuaded. The latter, the taboos, are very interesting indeed.

Taboo, etymologically speaking, simply means that which is forbidden. Most of these forbidden behaviors appear to be culturally derived. To go against one is to be subject to severe punishment or even complete removal from the group. A healthy sense of personal guilt usually is enough to keep them from occurring. And, as will be seen, some taboos are common to almost all cultures for sound reasons.

The first to discuss are forbidden foods (i.e., food taboos). A primary example is the fact that many cultures refuse to eat pork and pork products. Others eat pork at will, with no ill effect, so why would one culture denounce it? Clearly, tainted pork can kill you. Trichinosis, which occurs in undercooked meat, is more prevalent in swine. So after a few illnesses or deaths, pork becomes forbidden.

The second to discuss are taboo acts of intimacy. The primary one in most cultures is incest in any form. Why would this be so? Think about the genetic disasters that occur in animals that interbreed often. The species weakens and begins to die off. Nature abhors this weakening and does not support it, so incest is usually repulsive for biologically driven reasons.

Another repulsive act to most anybody is the idea of eating dead people. This is tied to the foods issue first discussed, and in the case of necrophilia to the second (another very common taboo). These are acts that it seems any would abhor; yet some cultures still celebrate cannibalism as a rite to this very day. It seems shocking, but the records bear this out. But those cultures that still practice this act have abnormal physical issues as a result. In short, we were never evolved to eat our own, and yet this had become a cultural issue over time.

In considering these issues and ideas, one idea springs forth. Perhaps cultural boundaries have been created over time as a result of biological boundaries that have always been instinctual. If eating a certain food will kill some in the group, then you would not allow your offspring to eat it. If procreating too close to your own gene pool will create debilitation, then you would be intrinsically opposed to it. If eating other people made you sick and insane you would stop doing it at some point, and so on.

Cultures would not be defined as such unless there was an ongoing impartation of knowledge over time. Taboos fit into this model very neatly indeed. Something is important in order to survive. As awareness grows, the survival instinct gets subsumed into the rituals of living together as a community. Hence the forbidding of certain behaviors and the rewarding of others. Morality results in the end.

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