Taboos regarding family relations/ home
If a man has sexual intercourse with an animal, that’s a great taboo. That animal is to be slaughtered and eaten by elderly men who are past the reproductive age to cleanse the man.
A man having sexual intercourse with the mother, his sister, step sister, aunt or a mother in-law is a taboo.
If aman sleeps with the father’s wife while the father is alive is attracting his father’s death
A man having sexual intercourse with another man is a great taboo that has no way of cleansing. The two men are
to fight until one of them dies.
A father having sexual intercourse with the daughter or his son’s wife is great taboo but has a way of cleansing through slaughter of a goat
An adult passes stool inside the
house or the doorstep is a great
taboo. A fat goat (ngoima) was to be slaughtered and eaten by old menwho are past the reproductive age.
If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman on her monthly periods, it is a taboo.
If a man falls down in his own
compound, it is a taboo. He has to be picked up with a he-goat.
If a hyena or a fox is heard making noises outside the home compound or the granary. Death has visited that household and there is no way to cleanse the taboo. Someone must die.
If a woman touches a man during her periods, it is a great taboo. They have to be taken to a witch doctor, who makes them vomit, then they get smeared with clay and washed in goats loose dung.
If a woman crosses over the husbands legs or body is a taboo. They should not have sexual relations again and the only solution is divorce.
If a goat drinks water from the basin that is used to bathe a child is a taboo. The goat is given to in-laws to be slaughtered and eaten.
If a fire stone injures a woman, it is a taboo. The stone has to be thrown away.
If the roof top (rutara) where fire
wood was kept fell down together with fire wood, that’s a taboo.
If a woman has sexual relations with the husband or any other person after the goats have gone for pasture (late in the morning), that’s a taboo.
If a woman carries the remains of her child that has passed on and had already been dedicated is a great taboo.
If a father carries his child on the
back, it is a taboo.
If a man carries the remains of a child that had not been dedicated, it is a taboo.
If a man touches a corpse of person unknown to him or who is a not a relative, it’s a taboo. But if it’s a relative there is no taboo. However his head has to be shaved to shave away death.
If a child swallows a milk teeth from the upper jaw, that’s a taboo. That child is considered a cabbage( stupid and worthless, in kikuyu—KIUGU).
It’s a taboo if a child is breastfed by any other woman except the mother.
If a man eats meat from an animal that does not chew card, that’s a taboo.