TABOOS IN NGWA-IGBO

Abstract

A taboo is a socio-cultural behavior that is forbidden by a particular group of people. This paper seeks to show that Ngwa-Igbo speech community is controlled by laws /taboos which must be observed in order to avoid the wrath of the gods, that peace is sustained in Ngwa land by obedience to the laws of the of the land, that incest is the worst taboo in Ngwa-Igbo and often leads to death as it is very offensive to the earth goddess, that some taboos have minor penalty, while others have severe penalty, that taboos help in checking the excesses of unruly behaviours by individuals in Ngwa land, that taboos are part of the cultural heritage of the Ngwa people, that cultural taboos ensure that the Ngwa-Igbo land is not desecrated and that linguistic taboos help in determining what a person says at various linguistic contexts. The method of data collection for this paper is elicitation, where information is collated by consulting four elderly persons of the age range of fifty to seventy years through oral interview by the researcher. Ethnography of Communication was used for data analysis.