
Contents
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18.1 Touching lightly on taboo 18.1 Touching lightly on taboo
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18.2 Joking relationships 18.2 Joking relationships
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18.3 Joking relationships in Africa 18.3 Joking relationships in Africa
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18.4 African joking traditions in the diaspora 18.4 African joking traditions in the diaspora
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18.4.1 Early sightings of the dozens 18.4.1 Early sightings of the dozens
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18.4.2 Origins of the term dozens 18.4.2 Origins of the term dozens
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18.4.3 How the game was played 18.4.3 How the game was played
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18.5 Joking as bonding 18.5 Joking as bonding
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18.5.1 Joke-bonding across cultural lines 18.5.1 Joke-bonding across cultural lines
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18.6 The power of taboo in insult joking 18.6 The power of taboo in insult joking
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18.6.1 Joking with the mother-mentioning taboo 18.6.1 Joking with the mother-mentioning taboo
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18.6.2 Taboo jokes and trust 18.6.2 Taboo jokes and trust
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18.7 Rap battling 18.7 Rap battling
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18.8 Taboo is the spice and heart of banter 18.8 Taboo is the spice and heart of banter
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18 Taboo language used as banter
Get accessElijah Wald is a musician and writer whose dozen books include Talking ’Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap; Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues; How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ’n’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music; The Mayor of MacDougal Street; Narcocorrido; and Dylan Goes Electric! He has a PhD in ethnomusicology and sociolinguistics and his awards include a Grammy in 2002. Further information: www.elijahwald.com. Email: elijah@elijahwald.com.
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Published:11 December 2018
Cite
Abstract
Taboo is used in many cultures to cement familial and other relationships, not only by observing taboos but by selectively breaking them. Probably the most common form of societally sanctioned taboo-breaking is within what anthropologists call joking relationships—close relationships in which people are expected to show their affinity by behaving to each other in mocking or insulting ways that would be unacceptable outside the relationship. Such relationships have been found among many Native American groups and throughout Africa, typically involving people who are joined by particular kinship or ceremonial links. In the African diaspora these traditions are maintained in less formal ways, most famously in the dozens, an African American tradition of insult play that most typically involves sexualized or otherwise taboo-skirting insults directed at a companion’s or acquaintance’s mother.
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