Monthly taboos

From: Jane Williams <jane_at_williams.nildram.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 23:32:49 +0100

Just a thought, but a lot of early taboos started of with very practical reasons (like not eating pork, because it goes off). Maybe this is another? Having sex at that time is great fun, but washing thoroughly afterwards is a good idea. If you're in a desert with a water shortage (or somewhere so cold that you have to melt the snow to wash in), this could be tricky.

Oh, and one of the other taboos connected with it does have a real reason: the idea that women shouldn't bake while menstruating. Baking (of pastry, at least) requires cool hands: that's why we tend to use marble slabs and so on. Body temperature goes up by a few degrees during the period, making pastry-making difficult (generally ends with lumps of proto-pastry being thrown at something). I'm not sure what other activities would be affected by this, but it may explain a few.

BTW, does anyone have a Gloranthan mythic reason for menstruation? The sort of story that would be told to the young girls to prepare them for adulthood? I can't believe they get the biology text-book explanation: I doubt if any Gloranthans know it. Having developed the myth, would that give us any fun taboos?

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