Say the word taboo and people immediately think of forbidden practices like cannibalism. Part of our modern understanding of the concept of taboo comes from Captain James Cook, who first introduced the Tongan word tabu to the West after his third voyage around the world, in 1777. However, early anthropologists mistook the word's meaning and gave it a gloss that included superstitious, magical, and unexplained practices in primitive cultures. It is only during the past 50 years or so that modern anthropologists have explained that taboos are part of all cultures because they provide guidelines on what is acceptable or unacceptable behavior.
In the very short preface, Holden, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, explains that this incomplete understanding of the term taboo is part of the reason there has been no comprehensive encyclopedia or dictionary published on the topic during the past 45 years. To remedy this situation, Holden has written this guide with more than 150 entries on topics like Beans (did you know some cultures forbade the eating of beans?), Dolls and puppets , Ockham's Razor, and Zoroastrian purification rituals. Entries, which vary in length from one paragraph on mushrooms to ten pages on Food taboos, generally define the term or concept, place it in a historical and cultural context, and discuss its significance. Often there are cross-references, as well as lists of sources for further information, but no overall bibliography.
The entries deal with taboos from the beginning of human culture to the twentieth century. There are more than 20 entries on people who shaped our understanding of taboo, such as Sigmund Freud and the Marquis de Sade. Holden has drawn on the fields of anthropology, folklore, psychology, art, music, literature, and the natural sciences to provide easy access to basic, nonsensational, preliminary information to laypersons on a wide range of cultural prohibitions and people associated with the study and practice of taboo. Public libraries and junior college and college libraries where there is interest will find this a useful addition.
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