De sociogenese van het woord 'Taboe' in West-Europa. Of: De 'Edele Wilde' en de 18de eeuwse burgerij

Samenvatting

How & when the word 'taboo' was introduced in Western Europe is discussed as part of a larger attempt at tracing the social conditions & functions of taboo in Western Europe. The word was introduced twice, each time with a different function. It was first used around 1780 by explorers in Polynesia & it referred to 'savage' prohibitions that seemed strange & irrational to them. Taboos were inherent in lower civilizations but did not fit their own higher culture. The word reappeared a few decades later & it was used to criticize Western civilization as being itself as strange & irrational as that of the 'savages'. To inquire into the sociogenesis of the word 'taboo' is therefore to inquire into that particular tension in Western-European society because of which the same word both exalts & inveighs against its civilization. The first pole of this tension is considered: the discovery of that abasing, 'primitive' word, 'taboo'. By the end of the eighteenth century, bourgeois society came in a closer, more business-like, & more complacent contact with foreign countries. They lost the older generation's respect for the ideal of the 'noble savage'. They found natives not to be innocent, but shameless & uncivilized. One of their shortcomings was 'taboo' & European explorers could discover these prohibitions because their rationality & self-constraint had then become strong enough. Modified HA.