A “cultural taboo” is something a specific culture views as wicked, disgusting, or simply wrong. Pick a “cultural taboo” to explore. Why do you think it is a “taboo?” Do not pick the same taboo as someone else, unless you’re going to disagree with your fellow student.
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A cultural taboo would be wearing clothes. Someone that doesn't is known to have done something wrong. We're born knowing we should wear clothes and raised this way. Your parents raise you and tell you to have clothing on at all times just because its wrong to not be wearing clothes.
This is a cultural taboo for really a reason someone couldn't describe. Clothing wasn't required for indians and they were very little clothing, but as the world started to develop, people started to realize that maybe clothing should be worn and more of it, such as the pilgrams.
If you look around, everybody wears clothes. Its a taboo that the majority of people follow and very few, if any break.
An example of a cultural taboo in our society is discrimination. Discriminating against anyone in our society based on differences can trigger emotions of rage and can truly offend people. Treating people just because of their religion, culture, skin color, gender, etc. is considered to be unacceptable in country. Although these ideas haven't been constant throughout the years. Women, African Americans, Japanese, and many more have been treated differently and horribly in American history.
I believe the reason that discrimination has become a cultural taboo in our society is based on our past. Japanese interment camps, slavery, lack of rights for women and African Americas, and other events are all examples of discrimination in our past. From these experiences have erupted war and strikes which have weakened our society. We have felt shameful of all these acts of discrimination that is etched in the American past. Our society has attempted to move forward from this extreme discrimination in order to avoid war and strikes, which are costly and violent. Differently, there are still traces of discrimination in our society but they aren't to the extremity of our past actions.
In our society, there are many cultural taboos, one including stealing. Stealing is something that everyone knows is wrong. If you steal and get caught, you are punished. Stealing is something that everyone knows is wrong because that is how everyone in our society is taught as they grow up. When you are a little kid, as you are exposed to different stores, you see that whoever is getting something, goes up and pays for what they are getting. If everyone stole, there would be no stores. Without any stores, there would be nothing and everyone would be on their own for food and other goods.
As society grew, eventually someone must have decided that we needed another way to get certain items. This way is to buy them with money. Then, it was always wrong to steal. A long time ago, most people traded goods, they didn't buy them, but still at that time it was wrong to steal. Taking something from someone else shows that you have no respect and don't care about how others will suffer from what you are doing. Obviously, there are always some people who steal. This is not right, but there always has to be someone who has to do the wrong thing. Hopefully, someday there will be no one who feels the need to steal, it's wrong.
One cultural taboo that is mostly viewed as wrong in America would be drug use. People in other countries are somewhat looked down upon but not quite as much as drug users in America. One reason for this may be that other countries aren't as educated about the effects of taking drugs. Drug use is looked down upon because we know the health risks and know that they are deadly.
Since we know that taking drugs affects our bodies in a bad way, people that use dtugs are seen as stupid or as someone who has no respect for their bodies.
Using drugs was not always looked down upon,though. A good majority of people used to smoke and do other drugs for a long time. Many of these people stopped, however, when the FDA and other health companies announced that these thigs were harming their bodies and shortening life spans.
Even though many people have realized these risks and stopped using drugs, there are still people hat do use them. These people are part of the cultural taboo and are looked at and not respected as much as they would be if they stopped.
One Cultural Taboo is defiantly stealing. stealing is an aweful thing to do and nobody wins. one lesson that i learned about stealing is that it fits under so many catagories. if you lie, you steal the right to someones truth. if you muder someone, you steal that person life, and you steal a family member. this list goes on and on. almost everyhting you do can be considered stealing.
if you steal, you are also breaking the law, it is also a question of your morals. so next time you about to do something wrong, think, what am i stealing?
a cultural taboo in todays society would be dressing ourself in public. It has become such a taboo in our society that it is actually illegal not to be dressed in public. You get charged with public nudity. It seems almost like common sense to put clothes on. Not doing so is just uncommon and looked badly upon. It also seems that the higher social class dresses more elegant formal. You do not see homeless people in suits and u dont see CEO's in rags. Also unsophisticated cultures seem to lack clothing. Like native tribes from south america and Africa. the lack of clothing does not seem to be a taboo within their cultures. In our eyes it just seems wrong and perverse not to wear clothes but other cultures see it differently.
Cultural taboos have become very prominant in our society. There are many taboos, and they have all become very specific. An example of cultural taboos would be education. Education is very valued in the United States, and if you don't get educated to a certain level, other people will think that you are weird.
In the United States today, everyone must be educated until they are 16 years old. It is against the law to drop out of school before you turn 16. Education is very important in our society. We want our country to grow and become better. We can only achieve that by educating the future leaders, and buissnesspeople and getting them them to think creatively and come up with new ideas on how to run the country and make it better for future generations.
Other cultures may not agree with this. For example, the Middle East doesn't think that education is very valuable. Men are only educated through high school before they go and get a job. Women are only educated through middle school. It isn't even a requrement for people to be educated. Only 60 percent of their population is eduated and can read/ write.
Cultural taboos depend on location, and the value of things. Some people may not think taht something is important, yet it may be everything to another culture.
A cultural taboo in many cultures would be not being married. In some other cultures, if you do not get married or have no plans to do so, they will not really respect you and will assume that something is wrong with you for you to be unmarried. This, of course, is not true of all cultures, but in many, people will talk behind your back, asking why you aren't already with somebody, and even to your face sometimes they will ask you whats wrong. We dont think its necessarily something you are forced into, but because many in other cultures are forced into arranged marriages, they have always grown up knowing that they will eventually marry someone and start a family. They probably have seen older people around them have their parents find somebody suitable for them and start a family with them, and even their own parents were arranged to be together. So if they decide to not marry anyone once they are of age, then everyone in their family and around them is going to be whispering and wondering "what is wrong with him/her?" Many people in our society may decide one day to not marry, and we will be pretty ok with it, but in other places that may not turn out so well for them.
A cultural taboo in our society is cannabalism. If you hear about some third would tribe that practices cannabalism, they first thing you say is "What is wrong with them?" or "Those are some messed up poeple!"
Cannabalism is a taboo because it is something that hardly anyone does, and we are hardly ever exposed to. The most that alot of people know about cannabalism is what they see in movies, like Silence of the Lambs. After watching that, whenever you hear about a cannibal, you picture them as someone similar to Hannibal Lecter, which is not true.
In our society an example of a cultural taboo would be coughing and sneezing without covering your mouth. Everyone knows that they should always cover their mouths whenever they cough or sneeze. It is disgusting to get sneezed on or coughed on, everyone hates that. It's not only disgusting but it is also a health hazard. Now with the Swine Flu going around everyone is being extra careful with germs. They wash their hands whenever they can, they carry purrell around with them, and they try to keep their fingers away from their mouths. If someone sneezed without covering their mouth in the middle of New York City everyone would probably turn around and try to get as far away as they can from that person so they don't get sick. Even when I sneeze in my own room without covering my mouth my mom yells at me because the germs still get around. I always try to be careful and cover my mouth when I cough or sneeze and I try to stay away from people who don't.
An example of a cultural taboo that exsists in our society today would be having poor hygiene. Although it's not a very extreme taboo, it is definitely looked down upon and very disgusting. In some countries, such as France or other European countries, not showering for a few days would be seen as completely normal. However, in America, not keeping up with your own hygiene is seen as gross and just strange. In comparassion to many other countries, America is seen as moderately clean and there is a much lower percentage of people living in poverty as well. Having good personal hygiene is not just a taboo for the U.S., but is an even stronger taboo for the smaller communities. In towns such as Mendham, Chester, Bernardsville, etc., it's highly uncommon to find people living very uncleanly lifestyles.
A cultural taboo that many Americans do without even realizing is pointing at people. This is viewed as being extremely rude by the person who is being pointed at. People may not even know that they are pointing, because it is something a lot of people do in our society. People point for many different reasons. They can point because they are talking bad about somebody. Or they can point because they like their clothes. Either way, it is bad.
This has become a cultural taboo for most likely many reasons. One major reason would be because it is obvious you are talking in one form or another about a person if you finger is pointed right at them. It is very disrespectful and people probably started to notice this and saying something about it. Pointing your finger at somebody is now considered a cultural taboo.
A common cultural taboo is weight. In our society, people aspire to be thin and fit. There is a high obesity rate in America and the people who aren't obese look down on those who are and think it's wrong or gross. Many times we think "why don't they do something to lose weight," but sometimes it's out of their control. We change our diets and workout to keep from becoming overweight and once we cross the line from being average to overweight, we freak out and do whatever we can to lose it, worrying that others will judge us. On the other hand, there is the problem of being too skinny, or having an eating disorder. We look at people who are like this and can't understand how they can starve themselves or regurgitate whatever they eat, but sometimes we don't realize that it's psychological. People who are like this never think that their bodies look good enough or still have too much fat on them. A lot of this is due to the fear of being overweight since advertisements and the media basically tell us that skinny=pretty and being too heavy is almost unacceptable.
American society is chalk-full of cultural taboos. Some are extremely irrational, while others have an educated reason behind them. The cultural taboo i will adress is murder. Killing a fellow man in our society is both frowned upon, but it is also celebrated.
Soldiers are paid to kill, but yet they are one of the most celebrated groups of men in our country. Ted Bundy killed over 35 people; he was exicuted by The state of Florida in 1989. Theodor Bundy probably had a better reason for killing all those people than most of the soliders in the U.S. Army today. So why was he killed for what he did, and the soldiers awarded medals and honors. The people Bundy killed may of been innocent people, so are the 102,624 and counting civilians that have been killed in Iraq. I am not saying murder is right. I am saying why isn't war wrong.
A cultural taboo is eatting animals such as dogs. In the USA if someone eats a dog it would be thought of as animal abuse or cruelty. Because dogs are mans best friend in the United States, people have alot of respect and love toward them and keep them as pets. They are not classified as food animals such as cows or pigs are. When most people have a pet they love and care about, they can't ever imagine hurting it and especially can't imagine eatting it. Different food that is a cultural taboo is common in other countries as well. In India, it is against the religion to eat cow, so if you are seen eatting one people would think you are disgusting.
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