Taboos

Navajo Taboos is not some scholarly work by an anthropologist, but an insider's look at a body of folk beliefs shared by many Navajos, illuminating their cultural priorities. The taboos were collected by Navajo students for their own information and previously published in pamphlet form by the Navajo Tribe as the first volume in their Cultural Series of publications. The taboos have been organized and interpreted by Ernie Bulow, who has spent his entire life around Navajos and other tribes of the Southwest as a teacher, writer and Indian trader. The book is a respectful compilation of Navajo beliefs that set them apart from all other groups while at the same time illustrating the universal fears and concerns found in all cultures.

What Women Need to Know to Succeed in International Business From meeting protocol and sexual harassment to dining and gift giving, the rules for conducting business abroad can be dramatically different from those at home--and they can also vary from country to country. But with this indispensable resource, you'll have everything you need to successfully interact with your business counterparts, whether you're doing business in Caracas, Calcutta, or Copenhagen. Bestselling author Roger Axtell combines his 30 years of experience working abroad with the advice of three cross-cultural consultants to provide you with guidance and specific advice on: * Survival --Knowing the culture, protocol, safety, and staying healthy * Cultural differences --A country-by-country listing of the rules for proper dress, speech, table manners, etc. * Climbing the career ladder --Resources listing the best schools, courses, and language training, advice on finding mentors, and more * Personal issues --Dating rules in different cultures, balancing an international career and family life, dealing with harassment and discrimination

This volume examines the concept of taboos and tabooism and a dozen powerful ones in our society and suggests the control they exert on our everyday lives.

"Roger Axtell is an internationalist Emily Post." --The New Yorker International business and leisure travel etiquette expert Roger Axtell's bestselling Do's and Taboos books have helped hundreds of thousands of business travelers and tourists avoid the missteps and misunderstandings the world traveler can encounter. In Essential Do's and Taboos, Axtell shares the wisdom he has compiled over a lifetime of international experience. Whether you need to know the best time of year to set up a business meeting in Germany or why the O.K. sign is not O.K. in Brazil, you'll find practical, fascinating, culture-savvy, up-to-date advice to help you steer clear of faux pas and face the world with confidence. Essential Do's and Taboos features: * Information on customs, protocol, etiquette, hand gestures, and body language * Fresh advice regarding Internet business and communication options * Country-specific chapters on eleven popular locations--from old favorites like England, France, Japan, and Germany to hot tourist destinations and emerging economies like India, China, Russia, and Mexico * Guidance on hosting international visitors * Important tips on using English around the world * Special do's and taboos for women traveling abroad

Contends that the ambivalence felt by all humans about sex, death and eating other animals can be explained by a set of coordinated principles that are expressed in taboos. Valeri evokes the world of the Huaulu, to show the attractions of the animal world which invades the human world in many ways.

What are the origins of table manners? What are the politics of cannibalism? Why is the left hand thought to be sinister? These apparently unrelated questions all hinge on the fundamental notion of taboo. Far from being peripheral leftovers from distant times and places, taboos are a crucial part of any society, determing how people must and must not behave. Yet the topic has rarely been discussed in any comprehensive way in recent years, as though the word itself has become taboo in our efforts to dispel the myth of the irrationality of supposedly primitive cultures

An interesting resource for learning about the cultural differences and characteristics of people across the globe, this encyclopedia covers the "do's" and "don'ts" of a breadth of countries and major ethnic groups. Readers of this one-volume reference will gain useful knowledge of what travelers should and shouldn't do when in countries outside of the United States. After a general introduction, approximately 100 alphabetically arranged entries cover topics such as greeting and meeting, appearance and dress, table manners, body language, social situations and hospitality, verbal communications, business etiquette, religious etiquette, gift-giving, and even "netiquette" regarding social media. Sidebars and images throughout make the text more accessible and engaging, and additional readings at the end of each entry as well as the bibliography offer opportunities for further research on the subject. The content also directly supports the National Geography Standards and the AP Human Geography curriculum for high school students as they learn about the cultural differences and characteristics of people in major ethnic groups across the globe.

You Can’t Say That! Do you have a right to be offended by the facts? Against all the evidence, the mainstream media insist that America has never been more racist and sexist. The police are waging a war on Black people. “White privilege” means minorities never get a fair shake. Although this narrative of oppression is demonstrably fictitious, it is taboo to question it, and those who do so risk being labeled racist or sexist themselves. America needs an honest conversation based on common sense and cold, hard facts. Honesty and respect for the facts are the specialty of Wilfred Reilly, the celebrated author of Hate Crime Hoax. In Taboo, he fearlessly examines ten forbidden truths that have been buried by political correctness. They include: -The Black rate of violent crime is roughly 2.5 times the white rate. When demographic variables are taken into account, there are no racial differences in the rate of police-involved shootings. -Interracial crime is remarkably rare, but 75 to 80 percent of it occurs against white people. -Minorities can be racist—take the Nation of Islam, which holds that white people are an inferior race created by a Black scientist. -Disparities between racial groups in IQ testing and SAT performance are the result of cultural variables, such as the presence of a father in the home, not racism. Reilly goes where most social scientists fear to tread, using objective statistics and common sense to tackle taboo topics. Taboo is an essential takedown of the lies you hear every day from ideological activists and lazy, biased media.

In this brilliant exploratory attempt (written in 1912–1913) to extend the analysis of the individual psyche to society and culture, Freud laid the lines for much of his later thought, and made a major contribution to the psychology of religion. Primitive societies and the individual, he found, mutually illuminate each other, and the psychology of primitive races bears marked resemblances to the psychology of neurotics. Basing his investigations on the findings of the anthropologists, Freud came to the conclusion that totemism and its accompanying restriction of exogamy derive from the savage’s dread of incest, and that taboo customs parallel closely the symptoms of compulsion neurosis. The killing of the “primal father” and the consequent sense of guilt are seen as determining events both in the mistry tribal pre-history of mankind, and in the suppressed wishes of individual men. Both toteism and taboo are thus held to have their roots in the Oedipus complex, which lies at the basis of all neurosis, and, as Freud argues, is also the origin of religion, ethics, society, and art.