Its interesting when one mans meat is another mans poison.what is forbidden is relatively subjective differing between cultures,religions and individuals?
Who decides on what is acceptable and what is offensive?That depends on if a person is socially conditioned by the society he lives in.in certain religions,the meat of certain animals is considered a delicacy but for other religions,it is a taboo.so too are certain words that are deemed impolite to utter as swear words like naming the parts of genitals or waste products of the body.
Even colour or words has taboos .in certain societies the rainbow colours are deemed offensive as theyre associated with abnormal sexual deviants.Does one turn into a deviant by wearing a certain colour?Yellow was a colour associated with royalty and it was taboo for commoners to wear yellow unless you were of royal blood.in China ,the dragon was the symbol of the emperor and commoners cant wear clothes with dragon designs.with the change to communist system,now dragon designs are found in tatoos and on even shoes.Colours have associations with political beliefs so yellow is taboo in Hong Kong as its anti establishment and could incite riots.
In our nation,make sure your skirt or shorts is below the knee level or security will not allow entrance to the police station,hospital or government buildings.
To the easterner ,the buddha is venerated as a holy object but to the westerner,it is metely a decorative statue so the head is used as garden ornament.the swaztika is taboo to be displayed in Europe as its associated with fascism but the buddhist see it as a holy symbol of buddhas footprint n in China n Japan its associated with long life,abundance n prosperity.
In a multipolar culture,we need to learn tolerance and respect for others cultural beliefs and religious taboos so that we can coexist in harmony.we need to interact more with each other to understand the diversity of cultures and break down prejudices and stereotypical behaviour that leads to discrimination,harrassment and paranoia.
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