From the earliest times to the present day, society has established rules and taboos, written and unwritten, that tell us what we can say, what we can wear and what we can do in public and in the privacy of our homes. The penalty for breaking these rules has ranged from state-sponsored execution to the most subtle social exclusion. From the Bible telling us what to eat to today's paranoia with political correctness, Philip Thody has compiled all these taboos in a witty and irreverent collection. Thody provides an historical account of how taboos and social rules have operated through the ages and in different societies. This book will appeal to anyone interested in knowing why they can't do certain things and must not do others.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
In his selection of some 200 words and phrases which at some time and in some geographical area have been considered taboo, the author (professor emeritus of French literature at the University of Leeds) casts a wide net. Not an etymological dictionary, and intended for the lay reader, this work discusses taboos within five categories. In the first section, "Actions," are such words as adultery, homosexuality, incest, and smoking. Section 2, on food and drink, includes terms like alcohol, bananas (apparently there are a number of banana taboos in Hawaii), and seafood. The third section, on words and themes, includes four-letter words and terms such as dago, female sexuality, political correctness, and redneck. The fourth section is devoted to terms in artistic, literary, and political arenas, including apartheid, censorship, and violence. The last section offers examples of taboos working as signs--color, hair, jeans, to name a few. Each section provides footnotes to books, journal articles, newspapers, and other sources in English and French.
The volume concludes with three appendixes and a selected bibliography. The first appendix lists some themes, such as Islam and sex, and provides references to related terms in the dictionary. Appendix B is an index of headwords. Appendix C is a selective index of names of authors and historical figures mentioned (among them Jane Austen, Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, and William Clinton--but not Joycelyn Elders, Clinton's former surgeon-general, who resigned because of her views on masturbation). The bibliography (listing only monographs) cites classics by such writers as Ruth Benedict, Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, and Eric Partridge. It does not, however, list Lighter's Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang [RBB O 1 97].
Don't Do It!, although highly selective, makes for lively reading for browsing and reference. It is suitable for public and academic libraries to supplement such standard titles as multivolume general encyclopedias, The Oxford English Dictionary, and Lighter.
About the Author
Philip Thody is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Leeds, England.
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