Consider the classic hypothetical scenario: Your house is on fire and you can take only three things with you before the entire structure becomes engulfed in flames. What would you take? Laptops and external hard drives aside, people's responses to this question differ wildly. This diversity results from people's flexibility in ascribing unique value to objects ranging from a hand-scrawled note from a loved one to a threadbare t-shirt that others might consider worthless.
這是一個經(jīng)典的情景假設：你的房子失火了，在整個房子被大火吞噬之前，你只能帶上三樣東西逃走，你會帶走什么？除了手提電腦和移動硬盤之外，人們的回答可謂五花八門。人們的回答之所以各不相同，是因為物品被附加的特殊價值因人而異，從一張至親摯愛手寫的紙條到一件別人可能認為一文不值的破T恤，都可以是某人心中的無價寶。

The critical quality that leads people to treat rookie cards like rosaries is that of the sacred, whereby an object becomes worthy of boundless reverence, commitment, and protection. Actually, it explains one side of the word "taboo" which few people realize. Taboo, the prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred and consecrated or too dangerous and accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake.
人們之所以會視新秀球星卡若念珠圣物般神圣，關鍵是這物件被賦予了無法衡量的意義，所以變得備受尊崇、珍愛和呵護——實際上，這種情況解釋了“taboo（禁忌）”這個詞鮮為人知的一面?！癟aboo”，意為對某種行為的禁止——因為堅信這種行為要么太神圣要么太危險，做出該行為的普通人會受到詛咒，所以禁止該行為。

Generally, the prohibition that is inherent in a taboo includes the idea that its breach or defiance will be followed by some kind of trouble to the offender, such as lack of success in hunting or fishing, sickness, miscarriage, or death. In some cases proscription is the only way to avoid this danger; examples include rules against fishing or picking fruit at certain seasons and against walking or traveling in certain areas. Dietary restrictions are common, as are rules for the behavior of people facing important life events such as parturition, marriage, death, and rites of passage.
禁忌所蘊含的禁律通常包括這么一個觀念：違反或者藐視禁忌會令違反者禍患臨身，如打獵或捕魚無甚收獲，生病，流產(chǎn)，或者死亡。在某些情況下，限制行為是避免這些危險的唯一方法，例如制定一些禁止在某些季節(jié)捕魚或采摘果實，以及禁止在某些區(qū)域行走或通過的規(guī)定。最常見的是各種飲食上的禁忌，對人們生命中重要事件的行為規(guī)范也不少，如對分娩、結婚、死亡和各種個人典禮中的規(guī)矩。

In other cases, the danger represented by the taboo can be overcome through ritual. This is often the case for taboos meant to protect communities and individuals from beings or situations that are simultaneously so powerful as to be inherently dangerous and so common that they are essentially unavoidable. For example, many cultures require persons who have been in physical contact with the dead to engage in a ritual cleansing. Many cultures also circumscribe physical contact with a woman who is menstruating—or, less often, a woman who is pregnant—because she is the locus of extremely powerful reproductive forces. Perhaps the most familiar resolution to this taboo is the Jewish practice of bathing in a mikvah after menstruation and parturition.
除了上述的情況，禁忌所象征的危險可以通過儀式來化解。這常常適用于那些目的在于保護群體和個人的禁忌，因為某些生靈或在某些情況下可能造成的威脅極大且太過常見而基本無法躲避，而人們相信這些禁忌可以保護他們免受傷害。例如，許多文化習俗都要求那些接觸過尸體的人參加凈身儀式。還有許多文化習俗限制人們解接觸月經(jīng)期的婦女，或者孕婦（這種情況較少），因為她們身上蘊含了極強的繁殖力。對此禁忌最為人熟知的化解方法也許是猶太人的習俗慣例，也就是月經(jīng)和生產(chǎn)之后在浸禮池里沐浴。

Taboos that are meant to prevent the sacred from being defiled by the ordinary include those that prohibited ordinary people from touching the head—or even the shadow—of a Polynesian chief because doing so would compromise his mana, or sacred power. As the chief's mana was important in maintaining the ritual security of the community, such actions were believed to place the entire population at risk.
避免俗人褻瀆神靈的禁忌，還包括禁止普通人觸摸波利尼西亞首領的頭部，甚至影子，因為這會削弱他的“mana（神力）”。由于首領的神力對于維持部落的儀禮安全至關重要，所以人們相信，上述做法會危害整個群體（編者注：“taboo”一詞源于波利尼西亞文化，所以有關“禁忌”的解釋會與波利尼西亞文化里的一些現(xiàn)象聯(lián)系，在此用與波利尼西亞文化相關的例子來講明“俗人褻瀆神靈被視為禁忌”）。

There is broad agreement that the taboos current in any society tend to relate to objects and actions that are significant for the social order and that, as such, taboos belong to the general system of social control. Sigmund Freud provided perhaps the most ingenious explanation for the apparently irrational nature of taboos, positing that they were generated by ambivalent social attitudes and in effect represent forbidden actions for which their nevertheless exists a strong unconscious inclination.
人們普遍認為，現(xiàn)今，各個團體的禁忌都趨向于與那些對社會秩序有重大影響的事物和活動掛鉤，這樣看來，禁忌屬于社會管理的范疇了。對于禁忌那顯而易見的非理性本質，西格蒙德·弗洛伊德的解釋也許是最獨到的——他假設禁忌源于矛盾的社會態(tài)度，進而表現(xiàn)為種種禁忌行為，而事實上，這些行為都存在著強大的無意識傾向。