“Ruandan women may not pass under a spear, cut the grass, roof a hut, or imitate a cock’s crow. No one must ever sit on a basket of grain. When it thunders, one must never light a pipe, sit on a chair, or lie on a sheepskin. A traveler who knocks his left foot against an obstacle, or encounters a light-colored striped rat on a path, should return to his home immediately to avoid bad luck. A woman kneading bread must be silent. Even if she is summoned, she must not answer. If a woman should become so angry as to hit her husband with a long wooden spoon used for mixing bread, he will leave her. His pride would prevent him from remaining with her after such an affront.” (Carr 1999:82).
All cultures have superstitions and taboos, whether they are believed to be true or not. A black cat crossing your path is bad luck, four leaf clovers are good luck, sneezing or itching ears means somebody is thinking of you… Here are some other examples of superstition and taboo from around the world:
Colin Turnbull gives an example of a taboo within the Mbuti culture in the Congo, “From the roof was hung a sacred banana, which initiates and instructors would set swinging as an understood command for the boys to start singing. The boys were forbidden to touch the banana, being told they would die if they did” (Turnbull 1961: 222).
Anne Fadiman’s (1997) The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores how Hmong culture, religion and taboos contrast the American medical system: “To most of [the young doctors], the Hmong taboos against blood tests, spinal taps, surgery, anesthesia, and autopsies–the basic tools of modern medicine–seemed like self-defeating ignorance. They had no way of knowing that a Hmong might regard these taboos as the sacred guardians of his identity, indeed, quite literally, of his very soul” (Fadiman 1997: 61).
In my own research in the Marquesas, certain superstitions around fishing included beliefs such as: if you stepped on a small millipede before fishing, you will catch a big fish; if you during the night of dream of killing a pig, the next day you will catch many fish; you must not fight in the house when a member is out fishing, or they will not catch anything. These superstitions were relayed to me by the head of my host family, Manuhi Timau. He told me of them with a hint of nostalgia and frustration in his voice, saying that his children and the young people of the island do not pay attention to these beliefs anymore. In fact, he hasn’t even shared with his children all of the taboos and superstitions he grew up with. He says that if they don’t care, if you know they won’t listen, then they shouldn’t even be told, especially since some of the taboos are dangerous if dealt with improperly. These taboos and superstitions, which he has kept secret for himself, will disappear with him and the others that know them as time passes and they pass on.
References:
Carr, R.H. (1999). Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda. New York, NY: Plume Books.
Fadiman, A. (1997). The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Turnbull, C.M. (1961). The Forest People: A Study of the Pygmies of the Congo. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
The Edited Jottings of an Amateur Anthropologist 