ii8 TABOO AND GENETICS 



witch-haunted England of the 17th century, as 

 is shown by the social position of the magicians 

 who deal with the Mana of the Pacific and with 

 the Orenda of the Iroquois. It implies 

 " wonder-working," and may be shown in sheer 

 luck, in individual cunning and power, or in 

 such a form as the " uncanny " psychic qualities 

 ascribed to women from the dawn of history. 

 With this interpretation of mana in mind, taboo 

 may be conceived as negative mana ; and to 

 break taboo is to set in motion against oneself 

 mystic wonder-working power. 



Our stud}^ thus far has made it clear that 

 there are m3^stic dangers to be guarded against 

 from human as well as extra-human sources. 

 There is weakness to be feared as well as power, 

 as shown by the food and sex taboos And 

 once again there is mystery in the different, the 

 unusual, the unlike, that causes avoidance and 

 creates taboos. Man's dislike of change from 

 the old well-trodden way, no matter how irra- 

 tional, accounts for the persistence of many 

 ancient folkwa^'s (6) whose origins are lost in 

 myster}^* Many of these old and persistent 

 avoidances have been expanded in the develop- 



*Prof. Franz Boas explains this tendency : " The more fre- 

 quently an action is repeated, the more firmly it will become 

 established ... so that customary actions which are of fre- 

 quent repetition become entirely unconscious. Hand in hand 

 with this decrease of consciousness goes an increase in the 

 emotional value of the omission of these activities, and still 

 more of the performance of acts contrary to custom." (7) 



