Introduction

Mozambique is a country with great cultural diversity as the majority of African countries and its society is extremely mythical. The taboos play a great role in social education. The Cicope ethnic groups resort to this value not only to explain the world around them, but also to educate and encourage people. Thus, this paper gives an overview on what taboos are and how they influence people’s behavior in a society. 

Taboos: what are they?

Taboos are understood as social practice that restricts a certain behavior in specific society. These practices can be passed down through generations to ensure the proper functioning of the society. It is important to highlight that setting of taboos implies compliance, therefore, the refusal to follow them has consequences, which may include despondency, isolation. Although taboos are set to prohibit some actions or behaviors; I find them more educational than prohibition. Below paragraphs will present some examples of taboos and their impact.

The impact of taboos in social education

This cultural value has some impact in society, in the sense that they shape the society’s perception of what it is believed to be normal. This perception can either encourage and discourage some habits and behavior and is essential for leading respect, fostering strong relationships, addressing societal problems and devotion to duty. The following present some taboos and its value in the Cicope ethnic group.

Common taboos for Cicope ethnic group related to education 

Cicope people believe that a cat’s intuition is, to some extent, connected to human feelings. A clear example could be a situation in which someone is sick. No matter how sick the person is, if the cat is still around home, it means the person will not die. This could be one more way of keeping people’s hope in difficult moments like sickness. In case of death due to the nature of the situation, no one would be attentive to the presence of cats. 

In addition, kids are encouraged to pull out teeth, particularly the incisors at home arguing that they can find coins where they place the teeth after they have been extracted. It is unbelievable that the elderly people after pulling out a kid’s tooth, instructed them to place it in a specific place, and at night they go and put some coins so that the kids find them in the morning as they wake up. Believe it or not, but no kid could refuse to pull out teeth since they were encouraged this way. Another practical example in the educational dimension could be the vertical placement of Katana in a backyard with a piece of it on earth. Elderly people prohibit this action arguing that, if done, someone close could die in the same place where the instrument was placed vertically. This could be understood as a way of teaching children not to play with this instrument or put it in a dangerous way that could harm people around them. Unquestionably, society did its best to avoid this since no one wanted his relative dead. 

As usually, the house is cleaned up during the day, then sweeping at night is extremely prohibited and the arguments stem from the fact that the person sweeping at night will not have his own home. Actually, this is a great lesson to make sure children do all their housework during the daytime and not leave this task for later.

Conclusion 

In a nutshell, it is noted that the relevance of taboos may have wider applications in social control. This value is ingrained in the culture and people do not focus on what actually happened or didn’t happen, however, they follow social expectations set by the society. In addition, no one would like to be subjected to these possible bad implications and consequently, children do their best to build obedience and respect. 

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