Concealment, confession, and innovation in Kwaio women's taboos

Abstract

The extensive anthropological literature concerning menstrual taboos has been dominated by symbolic and structural analyses. I t tells us little about how people actually engage such taboos in their daily lives or about how taboos change through time. I argue that a more historically conscious, practiceoriented approach is needed and employ the Kwaio case to demonstrate how such an approach can reveal taboos as emergent and dynamic creations that both shape and respond to social change. [taboo, menstruation, confession, gender relations, religious change, Melanesia