Content deleted Content added
Polly Tunnel (talk | contribs) WL to first occurrence of term |
|||
Line 3:
[[File:Pilbara two.tiff|thumb|Two women dancing and menstruating. Rock art by [[Indigenous Australians]] from the Upper Yule River, [[Pilbara]], Western Australia.<ref>{{cite book |last=Knight |first=C. |year=1995 |title=Blood relations: Menstruation and the origins of Culture |location=London & New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |page=443}} Re-drawn after {{cite book |last=Wright |first=B. J. |year=1968 |title=Rock Art of the Pilbara Region, North-west Australia |url=https://archive.org/details/rockartofpilbara0000wrig |url-access=registration |location=Canberra |publisher=Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies |at=fig. 112 }}</ref>]]
There are many cultural aspects surrounding how societies view [[menstruation]]. Different cultures view menstruation in different ways. The basis of many conduct norms and communication about menstruation in western industrial societies is the belief that menstruation should remain hidden.<ref>Laws, S. (1990). ''Issues of Blood: The Politics of Menstruation''. London: Macmillan.</ref> By contrast, in some indigenous hunter-gatherer societies, menstrual observances are viewed in a positive light, without any connotation of uncleanness. In most of India, [[menarche]] is celebrated as a right of passage.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Turnbull | first1 = C. M. | author-link = Colin Turnbull| year = 1960 | title = The Elima: a premarital festival among the Bambuti Pygmies | url = | journal = Zaïre | volume = 14 | issue = | pages = 175–92 }}</ref>
A '''menstrual taboo''' is any social [[taboo]] concerned with menstruation. In some societies it involves menstruation being perceived as unclean or embarrassing, inhibiting even the mention of menstruation whether in public (in the media and [[advertising]]) or in private (among friends, in the household, or with men). Many traditional religions consider menstruation [[ritually unclean]], although anthropologists say that the concepts 'sacred' and 'unclean' may be intimately connected.<ref>Durkheim, E. 1963. [1898] La prohibition de l’inceste et ses origines. ''L’Année Sociologique'' 1: 1-70. Reprinted as ''Incest. The nature and origin of the taboo'', trans. E. Sagarin. New York: Stuart.</ref>
| |||