1 min readSep 20, 2017
Menstruation is a messy, smelly business. Giving birth is bloody, messy, smelly, and painful. Sometimes giving birth leads to death. Sometimes the woman develops a fistula, which is so unpleasant and smelly that some tribes “banish” such women from the tribe. The smell of blood attracts predators.
I think we need to start with these basics if we are to construct a theory of taboo.