TEMPO

Time. – Certain days and periods of time can also be *t.*, especially in relation to lunar phenomena or recurring events or circumstances of social life: hunting, fishing, war, agriculture, various festivals.

Illness and death. – Given the animistic concept that illness and death are the effect of evil spirits or, in any case, of evil influences or powers that have penetrated the organism, it is understandable that the sick person and the corpse are *t.*, and that those who have come into contact with them have been contaminated by the same impurity.

Sex and blood. – Sexual *t.* are very numerous and extend from what is connected with the phenomenon of generation (fertilization, pregnancy, and childbirth) to the *t.* of kinship (v. ESOGAMIA; INCESTO), particularly that of the mother-in-law, which has remained as a subject of joking in universal folklore. Over time, *t.* tends to disappear as a prohibition of a religious-social nature. It does not, however, disappear entirely, since it remains alive in all cases of individual animistic beliefs (*t.* related to funerals, sex, food, etc.), partly becoming incorporated into social ethics and partly surviving in the less evolved strata of the population.

BIBL.: G. Turner, *Samoa a hundred years ago and long before*, London 1884; W. W. Skeat, *Malay Magic*, ibid. 1900; A. Van Gennep, *Tabou et totémisme à Madagascar*, Paris 1904; J. G. Frazer, *The Golden Bough*, III, *Taboo and the perils of the soul*, London 1911; E. Durkheim, *Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse*, Paris 1912; R. R. Marrett, *The threshold of religion*, London 1914; H. Webster, *Rest Days. A study in early law and morality*, New York 1916; F. R. Lehmann, *Die polynesischen Tabusitten*, Leipzig 1930; J. Lublinski, *Ursprung und Entwicklung des Begriffs tabu*, in *Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni* 13 (1937), pp. 215-26.