. The history of mankind . r time he, as the conveyer of taboo, is in a position to taboothe property of others. It works beneficently if, under fear of a bad harvest,the crop is tabooed with a view of preventing famine, until such time asthe chief removes the taboo from the fields. In Tonga, as well as in Hawaii,it was the custom, when great festivities were celebrated with immoderateextravagance, to lay a taboo on certain produce ; every landowner can in thisway protect his own piece of ground from persons lower in rank ; or even suchfishing-places as are reckoned private property. The fact
. The history of mankind . r time he, as the conveyer of taboo, is in a position to taboothe property of others. It works beneficently if, under fear of a bad harvest,the crop is tabooed with a view of preventing famine, until such time asthe chief removes the taboo from the fields. In Tonga, as well as in Hawaii,it was the custom, when great festivities were celebrated with immoderateextravagance, to lay a taboo on certain produce ; every landowner can in thisway protect his own piece of ground from persons lower in rank ; or even suchfishing-places as are reckoned private property. The fact that taboo is sofrequently laid upon articles of food, is due to the further reason that everythingconnected with the tutelary deity of a tribe in animal form—the atua—must notbe touched by those that belonged to the tribe. The soul-eating of the gods, areligious method of expressing wonder at the enigmatic process of digestion, playsequally a part in this, and, lastly, selfishness is not without its effect. Thus, in. King Lunalilo of Hawaii. (From a photo-graph. ) 286 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND the western islands, there were forests, roads, beaches, which were tambu. Un-doubtedly, in the later times of religious corruption, taboo was shamelesslymisused for the selfish objects of priests and chiefs. Thus once upon a time
Size: 1339px × 1866px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectethnology, bookyear18
