Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language

Taboos and their origins 27
Censorship simply gives institutional clout to censoring; but it is no less
subject to the current personal beliefs, preferences and whims of the censor.
We have defined what we mean by taboo, censorship and censoring. We
now offer the following definition:
The censoring of language is the proscription of language expressions that are taboo
for the censor at a given time, in contexts which are specified or specifiable because
those proscribed language expressions are condemned for being subversive of the good
of some specified, specifiable or contextually identifiable community.
Taboo and the censoring of language
We have seen that taboo is more than ritual prohibition and avoidance.
Taboos normally arise out of social constraints on the individual’s behaviour.
They arise in cases where the individual’s acts can cause discomfort, harm or
injury to him- or herself and to others. Any behaviour that may be dangerous
to an individual or his/her community is likely to be subject to taboo, whether
this is in the domain of the sacred or the otherwise metaphysical, or touches
on earthly persons of power, or concerns contact with dangerous creatures.
A person’s soul or bodily effluvia may put him/her at metaphysical, moral or
physical risk, or may contaminate others. Finally (though these categories are
obviously not discrete), a person’s social behaviour may violate taboos on
politeness. We have seen that infractions of taboos can lead to illness or death,
as well as to the lesser penalties of corporal punishment, incarceration, social
ostracism or mere disapproval. Even an unintended violation of taboo risks
condemnation; but generally speaking, people can and do avoid tabooed
behaviour, unless they intend a taboo violation.
A taboo is a proscription of behaviour for a specifiable community of
people, for a specified context, at a given place and time. There is no such
thing as an absolute taboo that holds for all worlds, times and contexts. We
likened taboo to a radioactive fuel rod, which will have dire effects on anyone
who comes into direct contact with it unless they know how to protect
themselves. Being able to violate a taboo has shock value and displays the
semblance of power, which is often effective. That is why the women of
Xanthos overcame Bellerophon, why the church was powerful in medieval
Europe, and why the Sex Pistols succeeded in having hit records in the 1970s.
Language is constantly subject to censoring: individuals who do not censor
their language, and so normally say whatever first enters their heads without
considering the circumstances of utterance, are deemed mentally unstable. To
what extent should (language) censorship be imposed upon us by those
in power? We have suggested that there should be minimal censorship of
that kind; there is no evidence that it protects the society or does anything