Cultural taboos arise from a basic feature of the human mind

[Celerity]

Unquestioned community rules on marriage, dining and even black cats often stem from our hunger to explain random events

https://psyche.co/ideas/cultural-taboos-arise-from-a-basic-feature-of-the-human-mind


The John Paul II Monument in Częstochowa, Poland. Photo by Piotr Malecki/Panos



Imagine you’re at the dinner table, reaching for the salt, when someone stops you. ‘Don’t pass it hand to hand,’ they say. ‘It’s bad luck.’ You pause, confused. Why would passing the salt bring misfortune? Your friend shrugs, offering no explanation. It’s just something their grandmother told them, they say, and it’s a rule they’ve always followed.

Taboos like this – unquestioned rules about what to avoid – are everywhere. Some are religious, others superstitions, and some exist as silent codes of behaviour. They shape how we eat, talk, and even think. Scholars have long sought to understand why certain behaviours or objects become taboo. Freudian psychoanalysis, for instance, suggests that taboos reflect the repression of forbidden desires, offering a psychological explanation for their emergence and persistence. Social control theory, on the other hand, views taboos as mechanisms for maintaining social order, discouraging behaviours that threaten group cohesion or stability.

These perspectives shed light on the cultural and psychological roles of taboos, but they fall short in important ways. Psychoanalytic theories often focus on individual psychological conflicts, overlooking the shared, collective nature of many taboos. Meanwhile, social control theories emphasise group stability but fail to explain how taboos originate. Neither approach fully accounts for the cognitive processes that drive people to seek explanations for misfortunes. When life feels chaotic or unpredictable, rules about what not to do provide a sense of order – transforming random events into something seemingly preventable.



Consider the example of pregnancy-related food taboos in traditional communities, which often vary widely. In some parts of Africa, pregnant women are advised to avoid eating eggs, which are believed to increase the risk of a difficult delivery. In traditional Indian medicine, certain foods are avoided or favoured during pregnancy to maintain internal balance. Now imagine this concrete case: a woman experiences a miscarriage, and her grieving family searches for answers. They remember that she ate rabbit meat – a rare choice – during her pregnancy. Could that have been the cause? Perhaps they aren’t entirely sure, but they decide it’s better to be safe than sorry. Others in the community hear about their explanation and take heed. Over time, this association crystallises into a rule: pregnant women should never eat rabbit. What starts as a hunch becomes a community-wide norm.

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[Midnight Writer]

1. Conservatives know and exploit this.

"Social control theory...views taboos as mechanisms for maintaining social order"

That is why their rhetoric is peppered with words and phrase like "common sense", "everybody knows", "real men", "real patriots", "God-fearing people". It makes their pronouncements. ridiculous as they are, sound like they are the social norm and that any who don't "believe" are outsiders, perverse, enemies, threats.

It is also why many religious folks are so vulnerable to their messaging, because they have been raised to believe there is only one way, the Right Way or the Godly Way.