![](http://static.cambridge.org/content/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:book:9781474400220/resource/name/9781474400220i.jpg)
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME
- CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE AND MAJOR WORKS OF ANDREW LANG
- A NOTE ON THE TEXT
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- 1 THE METHOD OF FOLKLORE
- 2 ANTHROPOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
- 3 FAIRY TALES
- 4 ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION
- ‘Anthropology and Ancient Literature’, The Academy (10 March 1883)
- ‘Fetichism and the Infinite’, Custom and Myth (1884)
- ‘Anthropology and Religion’ I, The Making of Religion, 2nd edition (1900)
- ‘On Religion’, from The Making of Religion, 2nd edition (1900)
- ‘Science and Superstition’, Magic and Religion (1901)
- ‘First-Fruits and Taboos’, Magic and Religion (1901)
- ‘Australian Problems’, Anthropological Essays Presented to Edward Burnett Tylor in Honour of his 75th Birthday (1907)
- 5 ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- 6 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- APPENDIX I: NAMES FREQUENTLY CITED BY LANG
- APPENDIX II: ETHINIC GROUPS CITED BY LANG
- EXPLANATORY NOTES
- Index
‘First-Fruits and Taboos’, Magic and Religion (1901)
from 4 - ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME
- CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE AND MAJOR WORKS OF ANDREW LANG
- A NOTE ON THE TEXT
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- 1 THE METHOD OF FOLKLORE
- 2 ANTHROPOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
- 3 FAIRY TALES
- 4 ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION
- ‘Anthropology and Ancient Literature’, The Academy (10 March 1883)
- ‘Fetichism and the Infinite’, Custom and Myth (1884)
- ‘Anthropology and Religion’ I, The Making of Religion, 2nd edition (1900)
- ‘On Religion’, from The Making of Religion, 2nd edition (1900)
- ‘Science and Superstition’, Magic and Religion (1901)
- ‘First-Fruits and Taboos’, Magic and Religion (1901)
- ‘Australian Problems’, Anthropological Essays Presented to Edward Burnett Tylor in Honour of his 75th Birthday (1907)
- 5 ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- 6 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- APPENDIX I: NAMES FREQUENTLY CITED BY LANG
- APPENDIX II: ETHINIC GROUPS CITED BY LANG
- EXPLANATORY NOTES
- Index
Summary
Taboo is one of the few savage words which have struck root in England. Introduced from New Zealand (tapu) and other Polynesian islands, it is used in English to denote a prohibition. This, that, or the other thing, or person, or book is ‘tabooed.’ Many of the Ten Commandments are, in this sense, taboos. But, in anthropological language, ‘taboo’ generally denotes something more than a prohibition. It commonly means a prohibition for which, to the civilised mind, there is no very obvious meaning. In this way the prohibitive Commandments are not precisely taboos; it is pretty obvious why we ought not to steal or kill, though the raison d’être of the Seventh Commandment is obscure to some advanced intelligences. But the reasons why a Sinclair must not cross the Ord on a certain ‘lawful day,’ or why on another ‘lawful day’ the fishermen of St. Andrews might not go a-fishing, resemble many savage taboos in the lack of a manifest reason why. Secondly, the infraction of the savage taboo generally, unlike that of the decalogue, carries its own punishment. Forbidden food is poison, tabooed land is dangerous to tread upon, to handle tabooed property may mean death; nobody knows what awful cosmic catastrophe might occur if a tabooed woman saw the sun; many words and names are taboo, and no luck will come of using them – for instance, you must not name ‘salmon,’ ‘pigs,’ or the minister when out fishing in some parts of Scotland.
In many cases the reason of this or that taboo is easily discovered. A day is unlucky because all the fishers, as at St. Andrews, were lost on that day in a past century through a storm; or the Sinclairs on another day were cut off in an expedition. Most of us have our lucky or unlucky days, clothes, and other vanities. Again, things are taboo for some reason in that kind of faith which holds that things connected in the association of ideas are mystically connected in fact. You must not mention salmon, lest they hear you and escape; or tin in Malay tin mining, lest the tin should literally ‘make itself scarce.’ You may not name the fairies, a jealous folk. Therefore you say ‘the people of peace,’ and so on. But many other taboos have good practical reasons.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Selected Writings of Andrew LangAnthropology, Fairy Tale, Folklore, The Origins of Religion, Psychical Research, pp. 216 - 222Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2015