TABOO

Polynesian word meaning ‘sacred, sanctified, also with the opposite significance ‘impure’ or ‘unclean;’ these two apparently opposite conceptions are really the same, as, specially among savage peoples, various objects are thought to po e supernatural qualities. A supernatural force, mana, may be in a thing naturally, or it may be got by contagion from some other thing. Thus certain foods are forbidden, or, if partaken of, have a bad effect, and men, having eaten what was forbidden, and finding out their mistake, have died of fright. Purity was at first ceremonial, not physical or moral. T. is found all over the world, and exists, too, in the higher forms of religion (e.g.), Judaism. The ritual law is largely concerned with t., though the term has come to be a ociated rather with the Gentile religions; thus certain animals were forbidden as food, ritual uncleanne was acquired by the touch of a corpse, certain diseases, etc. E.), town, capital, Azerbaijan province, Persia; most notable architectural features are the citadel and the ‘Blue Mosque’; important transit trade; several times destroyed by earthquakes. Pop. 200,000.