TABOO AND MANA

There are various taboos in our American society, and context is the key to understanding them. Culturaltaboos generally refer to topics that are prohibited or forbidden, although often what is taboo to one generation, political group, ethnic group, or gender is acceptable to another. Religious taboo topics are often of a different order, although they may be merged with cultural practices. For example, the matter of abortion may be seen as both a cultural taboo and a religious one. The same is true for talking about death and dying, bodily functions, gossip, incest, and other topics.

Taboo and mana are two words that relate to concepts widely shared in the Pacific, particularly in Polynesian societies. In this short note I mention some of their usages and, in addition, how the terms are translated into Kewa, a Papuan language and Tok Pisin (TP) the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea (PNG).

The word taboo, also spelled tambu in some early works of the Pacific, comes from the Tongan word tapu or the Fijian form tabu. It refers to anything that is prohibited in the culture, often something that is “sacred” and therefore religious in nature. It may also indicate something more general, (such as food items), that are marked by cultural participants as “off limits.” Breaking the taboo is considered offensive and there may be some reprimand or penalty prescribed for the offender. For example, if the culture has a particular animal as its totem, it may not only be “taboo” to eat that animal, but it might also be revered in certain ways. Some foods may also be in some sense taboo, or certain actions, such as excessive hunting or fishing.

For something to be taboo in a religious sense, it must be recognized as abnormal or enigmatic by its cultural group and is often so designated by the leaders in the given society. When something is taboo it may be protected by customary law and breaking the taboo will be an offense leading to some sort of castigation.

However, the word taboo can be used in a more cautious and non-offensive manner. The Bible, for example, is referred to as Buk Tabu in some Pacific pidgin languages. This title means that it is considered “holy,” and belongs, in some sense, to God. In some Pidgin or Creole versions, the Bible is called Buk Tambu/Taboo, perhaps also referring originally to the commandments of Moses, which were a listing of taboos.

Deuteronomy contains many examples of items or actions that are considered taboo. Gashing oneself or shaving the front of the head when mourning for the dead; eating animals considered unclean; men wearing women’s clothing; hitching an ox and a donkey together; charging interest on loans; touching a dead body, are all examples.

Some taboos in our culture are simply superstitions: not walking under a ladder; breaking a mirror; having a black cat cross the road in front to you; spilling salt; the number 13; the number 666; wishing with a wishbone; keeping fingers crossed; knocking on wood; and so on.

Kewa (in Papua New Guinea) women had a superstition that if they ate cassowary meat while pregnant, the baby would be cross-eyed.

Breaking taboos and superstitions therefore, it is sometimes claimed, bring us “bad luck.” And what is bad luck? It is something we do not want to happen. What we need instead is “trust,” as we are advised in Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

The notions and explanations of taboo and mana extend far beyond the Pacific, and we find it in our churches as well. The church in which I had the most to do as a young person had several taboos, including smoking, drinking, dancing, and even attending movies. The church and its leaders had less to say about divorce, greed, and promiscuity. One received a degree of mana by obeying the church rules.

Robert Henry Codrington, an Anglican priest, missionary and anthropologist, first wrote and published a book about Melanesian mana in 1891. He described mana as “as a generalized power that is perceived in objects appearing in any sense out of the ordinary, or that is acquired by persons who possess them." Head-hunters in New Guinea believed that the head contained mana.

In American and western cultures, the material object of a Bible is sometimes thought to contain mana: for example, in some courts, witnesses are told to “swear by” the Bible with the implication that there is power on what is said, such that it will then be “true.” The Bible may be held in such awe that we are to place nothing on top of it. Some people may consider a particular version of the Bible to contain more mana than other versions. It becomes a sacred object and has certain taboos associated with it.

Our cultural understandings and resulting commitments about taboo and mana can lead us away from the path God has prepared for us.

We are to receive power from the Holy Spirit, and it is not taboo to request and receive it.

Karl Franklin