A Biocultural Approach to Salt Taboos: The Case of the Southeastern United States [and Comments and Reply]

Cultural behavior, when viewed as an extrasomatic adaptation for humans, alters previous interpretations of taboos as harmless placations of the supernatural. If the adaptive premise is true, then one may expect to find that taboos either have, or at one time had, an adaptive significance. This paper examines the salt and salt-containing-food taboos that were prevalent among the Indians in the southeastern United States during the early historic period. The analysis indicates that salt taboos existed as a means of regulating dietary sodium intake at times when such control was crucial for the restoration of biological equilibrium. Salt taboos occurred when a low-sodium diet would be physically advantageous: during menstruation, pregnancy, some diseases, and mourning. Prohibitions aloso applied where the behavior resulting from the disrupted system was considered desirable by the cultures concerned: during puberty rites and warfare.