The term “taboo” comes from the Tongan tapu or Fijian tabu (“prohibited”, “disallowed”, “forbidden”), also meaning unclean or a practice which has the ability to release a curse over a community or one’s life.

A taboo is a vehement prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred or too accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake, under threat of supernatural punishment. Such prohibitions are present in virtually all societies.

The word has been somewhat expanded in the social sciences to strong prohibitions relating to any area of human activity or custom that is sacred or forbidden based on moral judgment and religious beliefs.

The immoral behaviours carried out by humans can be referred to as “taboo”  due to the fact that these behaviours posses the ability of releasing negative energies which can lead to the state of a curse or a bad fortune in a society.