The fear of online paedophiles may be obscuring
some deeper drivers of child abuse, as well as the potential offered by the web
to prevent harm. The concept of taboo crossed many boundaries to find its way into the Western
lexicon. Its linguistic origins are Tongan; it was one of the few genuinely
productive cultural exchanges initiated by Captain James Cook. During a
ceremonial engagement with local people, Cook invited some aboard his boat for
dinner and noted:
Not one of them would
sit down, or eat a bit of anything that was served up. On expressing my
surprize at this, they were all taboo, as they said; which word has a
very comprehensive meaning; but, in general, signifies that a thing is
forbidden. Why they were laid under such restraints at present was not
explained.
