Function
Taboos may serve many functions and often remain in effect after their original reason has disappeared.
Communist and materialist theorists have argued that taboos can be used to reveal the histories of societies when other records are lacking. Marvin Harris particularly endeavored to explain taboos as a consequence of ecologic and economic conditions.
Read more about this topic: Taboo
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“It is the function of vice to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportional to their ability as writers. This is their main use.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)