Taboos in Thailand

Shoes off

In Thailand, shoes are removed before entering any establishment, including bars and stores.

Bad Mouthing Authority and Religion

If you have a strong opinion on something having to do with the king or Buddha, it's best to keep your mouth shut. The Thai's have a strong view of their king, and talking down about him or any authority will land you in a very hot seat with the locals.

Revealing Skin

While in big, tourist filled cities, this is okay to a point, you should avoid revealing too much flesh, as this is generally frowned upon.

Public displays of affection

Kissing in public is a big no-no, and you won't see Thais holding hands, either. While most are used to seeing Westerners holding hands, they still don't like to watch you kiss.

Sexual taboos and HIV/AIDS in Africa

To talk about sex in some African cultures can be equated with cursing at the church. Sex is simply not discussed. It is believed that good families do not discuss this issue. In fact, to discuss sex with older adults is considered a sign of promiscuity. Childhood sexual curiosity and questions are learned from one's peers. With the availability of technology, most sexual information is now gleaned from the western media, and of course from the internet.

In Africa, there are so many sexual taboos because sex is believed to be private between the man and woman. It is believed that sex is strictly for married couples. Sexual practices are attributed to the dictation of the religion and individual cultural norms. Anything that deviates from these reasons is evil and bad. However, sexual taboos are practiced secretly with very adverse consequences - HIV/AIDS, rapes and pedophilia.

In Africa, HIV/AIDS infections and mortality is an epidemic. One of the sexual taboos that still contribute to the proliferation of this deadly virus is homosexuality. This sexual preference is so taboo that even speculation of it is grounds for societal taunting, punishment, alienation and even death for not only the homosexual individual, but for his/her family too. In Nigeria, homosexuality is considered unnatural, unacceptable, ungodly, taboo, evil, and sign of a poor upbringing.

Male homosexuals are not considered "real men". In a patriarch society like Nigeria, they will not be taken seriously, and their opinions will not be considered important. Real African men have to prove their masculinity by marrying and producing children. They have to show their manliness by marrying as many wives that their religion or culture will allow them to have. As for women, they have to get married and have children to be considered a "real women". This is important because women have rights in Nigeria only through their husbands or male children. For instance, a barren woman will encourage her husband to get married to another woman so that they can have children. Unmarried women and lesbians are ridiculed privately and publicly, and can be at risk for rape. Many African homosexuals will rather die than admit to their sexual orientation because of this societal label.

Due to this stigma and threat of death in some cases, homosexuals are forced into loveless marriages, secret double lives, and condemned to life of unhappiness. In some cases, their sexual partners are prostitutes of the same gender willing to do the sexual act for money, drug and alcohol addicts, household servants, and unfortunately, children. As one can imagine, some of these sexual acts are unprotected. These homosexual individuals will then go home to their wives/husbands to have unprotected sex, hence infecting them and their unborn children. Some homosexuals unwilling to live this double secret life, will commit suicide, move to western countries where they will be accepted, or continue with their deadly sexual practices. As a result, HIV/AIDS continues to flourish uncontrollably in Africa.

Even though we condemn the United States media for publicly and inappropriately exhibiting and extolling sexuality in our everyday lives, we should use the opportunity to teach our children about sex, importance of protected sex, abstinence, different sexual preferences, importance of tolerance, and the outcomes of having any type of sex.

Medical Health Taboos

The term medical health taboos refers to taboos aimed at protecting and promoting human health.

Preventing illnesses and diseases in traditional societies was critical for human survival since these

societies could not boast of some of the breakthroughs in modern medicine such as the discovery

and use of penicillin and antibiotics as well as vaccinations and immunizations against various killerdiseases.

The following taboos exemplify both the diversity and complexity of the taboos used in

preventive medicine.

It is a taboo to have sex in the bush: While this is said to offend the near-by gods and the earth

goddess (Asaase Yaa) who may strike the offenders with venereal and other diseases, several

scientific explanations can be given for this taboo. For instance, it helps to ensure that sex does not

take place in an unsafe environment such as the bush where there are dangerous insects, scorpions

and snakes, not to mention microorganisms. There’s also the possibility of a heart attack or

bleeding on the part of any of the parties, which could prove fatal, especially, if the farm or bush is

far from home. It is also to deter the incidents of rape, which often occurs in the bus, and related

health-risks.

It is a taboo to sing while taking your bath: It is feared that one will mysteriously lose the mother to

death just by refusing to stop such a habit. The scientific explanation for this is not hard to discern.

Soaps used in the olden days were highly acidic and therefore poisonous if swallowed in sufficiently

large quantities. The essence of the taboo then is to prevent people from the harmful effect if unsafe

traditional soap. Given the special bonding between mothers and their children in traditional

societies where children are breast-fed for one year or more, the possibility of causing death of one’s

own mother is for most Africans, the worst case scenario in life.

It is a taboo for a widow/widower to be at the cemetery for their spouses’ burial: The personal

explanation is that this will disturb the peaceful separation and departure of the deceased to the

world of souls. Consequently, it is believed that the ghost of the dead spouse would visit the

offending spouse at night and might take him/her away spiritually.

Mysterious as this taboo might appear it is associated with a very plausible scientific explanation. In

psychological terms, the wise elders explain that it is aimed at protecting the mental health or

emotion well-being of the bereaved spouse. The moment of burial marks a definite point of

separation and the bereaved spouse could be overpowered by extreme emotions. In extreme cases

this could result in the collapse or death of the bereaved. For similar reasons children are also

forbidden from seeing dead bodies, especially their own relatives and friends.

It is also a taboo to talk while eating: In terms of personal explanation, it is feared that one’s mother

would die if one breaks this taboo. The scientific counterpart to this personal explanation is simply

that the prohibition is necessary to prevent people from getting choked. Food chocking is a common

phenomenon in Africa since many ethnic foods made from mashed corn, cassava, yam, and plantain

have to be swallowed with soup or sauce without chewing. These include balls of fufu, akple and

toozaafe especially with very oily palm-kernel and groundnut paste soups etc.

Amulets, charm and Spell

An amulet is a material object on which a charm has been written, or over which a charm or spell has been cast. It is carried or worn in the belief that it will protect from evil, or bring good luck. It is used frequently as a shield against evil spirits or black magic, as well as protection from disease, adversity, or danger. Amulets are worn, for instance, by women during childbirth, individuals in dangerous occupations, the superstitious (including any actors, gamblers, and Gypsies), and by some who have been magically healed.

Amulets are common throughout the world, worn by the civilized and uncivilized alike, and are of an infinite variety. The heathen wears a human finger bone or tiger's tooth, while his white cousin in the city carries a rabbit's foot, or a charm on his watch chain. Amulets are found in the form of birthstones, beads, garlic (worn to protect against the evil eye, vampires, etc.), copper bracelets, Egyptian scarabs, St. Christopher's medals, four-leaf clovers, letters of protection (carried by soldiers, for example), human hair, rings, lucky coins, the cone from a hemlock tree (a fertility charm), lucky charm bracelets (which are worn today by girls who are many times unaware of their magical associations), and countless other objects.

Charms

A charm basically means a chant or incantation recited in order to produce some good or bad effect magically (the term charm means to sing). An object may be charmed in this manner, or the charm may be written down. Such charms when worn or carried are amulets. The distinction between a recited charm and the amulet is generally overlooked and consequently the amulet itself which has been charmed is usually called a charm.

Spells

A spell may be spoken or written and involves the use of magical incantations, rituals, and symbols. The magician, charmer, or sorcerer casts a spell in order to curse, injure, harass, and bind (hence the term spellbound), or to bring to pass what he desires. Both humans and animals (as well as anything else from crops to marriage) may be charmed or have a spell cast over them in order to cure, harm, or protect, or to cause some other desired effect.

The secrets of magical charming and casting spells were revealed by Satan himself to his devotees and passed down through the ages. Satan has established his own complicated rituals for charming and casting spells, and the forces of darkness are obliged to act on behalf of the sorcerer (or anyone else) if he observes the proper formulae.

Spells and charms are cast, and amulets worn, for any reason desired: to give strength, to kill an enemy, to protect from evil, to assure success in love, or to give victory in battle. Charms and spells are used to cure diseases in humans or animals, to shield against demons, or to cause a business to prosper, and so on.

Perhaps two of the most common spell or charm works having magical import and which are familiar to everyone are: Abracadabra and Hocus-pocus. The term abracadabra is an ancient word believed to have magical power to ward off evil spirits, disease, or other adversity. The first recorded mention of the term occurs in a written remedy for the cure of disease, believed dating from the second to the fourth centuries A.D. The term was to be written on a paper in a certain manner, then folded and worn as a amulet for 9 days, after which it was to be thrown backward before sunrise into a stream flowing east, thus curing the disease. The term hocus-pocus is generally used by magicians during sleight-of-hand tricks, or in conjuring and incantations. It is believed to be a corruption of the Latin hoc est corpus (this is the body), a phrase used by a Catholic priest in the ritual of the Mass when the bread is erroneously believed to become mystically transformed into Christ's body.

Oaths Superstitions

Blasphemy of the Divine name, so fearfully common in professedly Christian countries, is almost unknown to the African heathen. Though the native name for God, Anyambe, is improperly used in names of persons (which is not intended for disrespect), it is not often actually blasphemed. An equivalent blasphemy, is occasionally practised in the misuse of the name of their great and sacred spirit-society. In the Benga tribe "Saba?" and "Sabali?" used interrogatively, mean only "True?" "Is that so?"; but, used positively, they are of the nature of an oath, especially when the society's name (Ukuk) was added: "Saba n' Ukuku" (True! by Ukuk!).

On the Ogowe River, in the Galwa tribe, the name of that society was Isyoga, more commonly spoken of as Yasi. In the initiation into it the neophytes were taught a long and very solemn adjuration, that could be uttered only among the initiated, as an oath; but they were allowed commonly to use simply its title "Yasi," the utterance of that one word being accompanied by a downward sweep of the right hand over the left arm from shoulder to hand. It was not permitted to women to speak this word.

In no tribes with which I have lived was this "By-the-Spirit" oath used so much as among the Galwa of the Ogowe. It became monotonously frequent, in and out of season, in all conversations and on the slightest assertion or the simplest excitement.

I became very tired of "Yasi! Yasi! Yasi!" and that sweep of the right hand, for the doing of which the canoe paddle or a tool was laid down. And, by the way, the more of a liar a man was, the more frequent and vociferous was he in his persistent use of "By Yasi!"

Speach Superstitions

Superstition mingles in customs of speech. There is the custom of Kombo, existing to-day. Something about the act of sneezing is considered uncanny. A phrase or a cabalistic word, intended as an adjuration or a protestation in the nature of a prayer for protection or blessing, is very commonly ejaculated by one who sneezes and sometimes when one stumbles. (In the old despotic days of native kings, in the Benito region, if a king, on first emerging from his house in the morning, should happen to stumble, be would order the nearest person in sight to be killed.) That word is uttered by an adult for

[1. From a West African Newspaper.]

himself, by a parent or other relative for an infant child. It may be an archaism whose meaning has been forgotten. Generally the Kombo is an epigrammatic phrase invented by the individual himself, and to be used only by him.

Sometimes, instead of a phrase, the single word "Kombo!" as representing the custom, is uttered.

Some forty years ago the ejaculation, before the invariable "Mbolo" salutation was uttered, that was used by visitors to the Mpongwe king on the south side of the Gabun estuary, was, "What evil law has God made?" The response was, "Death!" Little as the heathen natives liked to talk of death, their use of that word to their king was in the nature of a good wish that he might escape the universal law. And the "Mbolo!" (gray hairs) that followed was a wish that he might live to have gray hairs.

His son, an edueated man and a nominal Romanist, is now saluted quite as formally, but the ejaculation has been changed to a more respectful and Christian recognition of God.

Twins Superstitions

Mr. Arnot states that in Garenganze "cases of infanticide are very rare. Twins, strange to say, are not only allowed to live, but the people delight in them." Though they are not regarded as monstrosities deserving death, as among the Calabar people on the West Coast, it is nevertheless considered necessary that certain preservative ceremonies should be performed on the infants and their parents.

Mr. Swan, an associate of Mr. Arnot, describes a ceremony be was unexpectedly made to share in while on a visit to the native king Msidi: "My attention was drawn to a crowd of folk, mostly women, who approached, singing and ringing a kind of bell. They formed in lines opposite to us. In front of the rest were a man and woman, each holding a child not more than a few days old. I learned that the little ones were twins, the man and woman holding them being the happy parents, who had come to present their offspring to the king. They wore nothing but a few leaves about their loins,--a hint to Msidi, I suppose, that they would like some cloth.

"After chanting a little, an elderly woman came forward, with a dish in her left hand and an antelope's tail in her right. When she reached Msidi, I was astonished at her dipping the tail in the dish and dashing the liquid over his face. Msidi's wife had a like dose. But my surprise increased when she came to us and gave us a share. What was in the dish I cannot say, but it struck me as possessing a very disagreeable odor. This discourteous creature was the Ocimbanda (fetich doctor). She did not cease her dousing work till she had favored all sitting around. The king then went into the house, and his wife came out with some cloth, which she tied around the mother's waist; and then a piece of cloth was given to the husband. The friends had brought some native beer; and when Msidi came out, he went to one of the pots, filled his mouth, spouting the beer in his wife's face; she did the same to him, after which the spouting became general.... They told me it was their custom to act thus when twins are born."

In the Benga tribe, thirty-five years ago, I observed that if one of a pair of twins died, a wooden image was substituted for it on the bed or in the cradle-box, alongside of the living child. I strongly suspected Animism in the custom; but some Christians explained that the image was only a toy, so that the living babe should not miss the presence of an object resembling its mate.

Names of twins are always the same, in the same cognate tribes. In Benga they are always Ivaha (a wish) and Ayenwe (unseen). These names are given irrespective of sex. But not every man or woman whom one may meet with these names is necessarily a twin. They may have inherited the name from ancestors who were twins.

All over Africa the birth of twins is a notable event, but noted for very different reasons in different parts of the country. In Calabar they are dreaded as an evil omen, and until recently were immediately put to death, and the mother driven from the village to live alone in the forest as a punishment for having brought this evil on her people.

In other parts, as in the Gabun country, where they are welcomed, it is nevertheless considered necessary to have special ceremonies performed for the safety of their lives, or, if they die, to prevent further evil.

In the Egba tribes of the Yoruba country they become objects of worship. As in other parts of Africa where twins are preserved, they are given twin names; which, of course, differ in different languages. Among the Egbas the firstborn is Taiwo, i.e., "the first to taste the world," and the other Kehende, i.e., "the one who comes last."[1] About eight

[1. See "Niger and Yoruba Notes."]

days after their birth, or as soon as the parents have the money for the sacrificial feast, they invite all relatives on both sides, neighbors and friends together. Various kinds of food are prepared, consisting chiefly of beans and yams. A little of each kind of food is set apart with some palm-oil thrown upon it, and the small native plates or basins containing it are set before the children in their cradle. They are then invoked to protect their mother from sickness, to pity their parents and remain with them, to watch over thern at all times. I quote in this connection the following from a West African newspaper:

"After the ceremony an elderly man or woman who has been a twin is called upon to split the kola nuts, in order to find out whether the children will live or die. This is their way of asking the god or goddess to answer their requests (and it is singular that this throwing of kolas may be done repeatedly until the reply is favorable to the inquirer). Thus: if a kola nut is split into four parts in throwing it down, they say, "You Idol, please foretell if the children will live long or die.". If all the four pieces of the kola fall flat on their backs, or all flat with their faces to the ground, or if two of them fall with their faces downward and the other two upward, then in each of those cases the reply is favorable, and it means they will live long and not die. But if three pieces of the kola should turn their faces to the ground and only one fall flat on its back, or if the three pieces should turn their faces upward and only one downward, the reply is unfavorable, and it means that the children will die before long. In such cases they continue throwing the kola nut indefinitely until they obtain their wish; or, in rare cases of total failure, the subject of inquiry is reserved till a future time, when they hope the idol may speak more favorably. Thus, twin children are worshipped every month.

"In some cases, where the parents have the means, an invitation goes round to as many twins as they can get to partake of the sacrificial feasts. Of course, the people enjoy themselves at the feast.

"The twins have everything in common; they eat the same kind of food and wear the same dress. If one of them should die, the mother is bound to make a wooden image to represent the dead child. This kind of image is generally about a foot in length, and is made of Ire wood, which is flexible and durable. It is carved in such a manner as to represent the human anatomy."

These images, substitute for a dead twin, are used very extensively among all the tribes of Africa. Various reasons are given for their use: that the surviving twin shall not be lonely; that the departed one may be sure it is not forgotten; and other reasons. The images are retained as family fetiches, to ward off evil from the mother.

"If both children should die, the mother must have two wooden images, and regard them as her living children; she worships them every morning by splitting kola nuts and throwing down a few drops of palm-oil before them. Of course, the occasional feasts follow in their due course, and as oftentimes as she may happen to see them in her dreams.

"If they should live, and both are males, they make engagements and marry at the same time. If one is male, and the other is female, their dowry must be given the same day; the parents believe that if things done for them are not alike or do not go together, one will soon die."