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EveryJaadu

Tapu

A Polynesian term for what is set apart as sacred or restricted, the source of the English word taboo.

A ritual circle: a marked space set apart for a rite, with its edge and a sign at the centre. Found in ceremonial, folk and neopagan practice.

Also: tabu, kapu, tambu

Tapu, in Maori, Tongan, Hawaiian (kapu) and related languages, marks a person, place, object or time as sacred and restricted, with consequences for crossing the line. It is bound up with rank: a chief's body, a burial ground or a fishing ground may be tapu. Its opposite is noa, the ordinary and safe. The word entered English through Captain James Cook's accounts of Tonga in the 1770s as taboo. Many Pacific communities still use tapu in daily life, for example for a rahui, a temporary ban on a stretch of sea or forest. The English word has since drifted far from the meaning it holds in these languages.

See also

TabooManaLiminalityThe numinous

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