Taboos as Supernatural Interdictions in Folklore: The Constructors of Social Reality

Abstract This paper serves as a fundamental study of taboos as a form of interdictions among the African people. Taboos form part of social control structures by which internal order is maintained in agreement with the principles of traditional competence and individual societal rights and limitations. It has been observed that, in the approach to these prohibitions, the principle of constancy and personality can be welded together to enable people to describe individual or communal existence. In general, the concept constancy in human beings is used to indicate the uninterrupted feature of personal existence. This paper serves as a safety measure in connection with traditional laws, that is, the protection of the public in general and the prevention of anti-social behaviour in particular. Basically, taboos form a pattern of mutual harmonious co-existence whereby some expectations of every human being are set.