Taboo is a documentary television series that premiered in 2002 on the National Geographic Channel

National Geographic Channel

National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...

. The program is an educational look into "taboo

Taboo

A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...

" rituals and traditions practiced in some societies, yet forbidden and illegal in others.

Each hour long episode details a specific topic, such as marriage or initiation rituals, and explores how such topics are viewed throughout the world. Taboo generally focuses on extreme viewpoints; in the sense that they are the most misunderstood, despised, or disagreed upon in the world.

Episodes

National Geographic shows do not always work cleanly by season like a broadcast network so some seasons have more episodes than others.

Season	Episodes	Originally aired
Specials	3
1	13	2002–2003
2	19	2003–2004
3	6	2004–2005
4	7	2006–2007
5	14	2007–2008
6	7	2008–2009
7	6	2009–2010
8	6

Season 1

1. "Healers"
2. "Test of Faith"
3. "Voodoo"
4. "Rites of Passage
   Rite of passage
   A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
   
   "
5. "Food
   Food
   Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
   
   "
6. "Sexuality
   Human sexuality
   Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
   
   "
7. "Tattoo
   Tattoo
   A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
   
   "
8. "Witchcraft
   Witchcraft
   Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
   
   "
9. "Evil Spirits"
10. "Marriage
    Marriage
    Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
    
    "
11. "Blood Sports
    Blood sport
    Bloodsport or blood sport is any sport or entertainment that involves violence against animals.Bloodsport includes coursing or beagling, combat sports such as cockfighting and dog fighting, or other activities...
    
    "
12. "Drugs
    DRUGS
    Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows are an American post-hardcore band formed in 2010. They released their debut self-titled album on February 22, 2011.- Formation :...
    
    "
13. "Death
    Death
    Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
    
    "

"Death" is not featured on the National Geographic page for the show. However it does appear on the first season boxset.

Season 2

1. "Justice
   Justice
   Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
   
   "
2. "Delicacies"
3. "Creature Cure
   Cure
   A cure is a completely effective treatment for a disease.The Cure is an English rock band.Cure, or similar, may also refer to:-Film and television:* The Cure , a short film starring Charlie Chaplin...
   
   s"
4. "After Death
   Afterlife
   The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
   
   "
5. "Body Perfect"
6. "Sacred Pain
   Pain
   Pain is an unpleasant sensation often caused by intense or damaging stimuli such as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting iodine on a cut, and bumping the "funny bone."...
   
   "
7. "Child Rearing"
8. "Extreme Entertainers"
9. "Blood Bonds"
10. "Marks of Identity
    Identity (social science)
    Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...
    
    "
11. "Initiation
    Initiation
    Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
    
    "
12. "Gross Work"
13. "Outcasts"
14. "Extreme Living"
15. "Spirit World
    Spirit world (spiritualism)
    The spirit world, according to Spiritualism, is the world inhabited by spirits. Though a concept of a spirit world is in the constitution of most religions, it is not "itself the religion". Whereas religion regards an inner life, the spirit world is regarded as an external environment for spirits...
    
    s"
16. "Extreme Cuisine
    Cuisine
    Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...
    
    "
17. "Extreme Childhood
    Childhood
    Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood , early childhood , middle childhood , and adolescence .- Age ranges of childhood :The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a...
    
    "
18. "Body Cutters"
19. "Body Art
    Body art
    Body art is art made on, with, or consisting of, the human body. The most common forms of body art are tattoos and body piercings, but other types include scarification, branding, scalpelling, shaping , full body tattoo and body painting.More extreme body art can involve things such as mutilation...
    
    "

Season 3

1. "Gender Benders
   Gender bender
   Gender bender is an informal term used to refer to a person who actively transgresses, or "bends," expected gender roles. Gender bending is sometimes a form of social activism undertaken in response to assumptions or over-generalisations about genders...
   
   "
2. "Gross Grub
   Food
   Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
   
   "
3. "Rites of Manhood"
4. "Altered States
   Altered state of consciousness
   An altered state of consciousness , also named altered state of mind, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking beta wave state. The expression was used as early as 1966 by Arnold M. Ludwig and brought into common usage from 1969 by Charles Tart: it describes induced...
   
   "
5. "Possessed"
6. "Blood Rites"
7. "Crime Scene
   Crime scene
   A crime scene is a location where an illegal act took place, and comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence is retrieved by trained law enforcement personnel, crime scene investigators or in rare circumstances, forensic scientists....
   
   "

Season 4

1. "Initiation Rituals"
2. "Skin Deep"
3. "Sexual Identity
   Sexual identity
   Sexual identity is a term that, like sex, has two distinctively different meanings. One describes an identity roughly based on sexual orientation, the other an identity based on sexual characteristics, which is not socially based but based on biology, a concept related to, but different from,...
   
   "
4. "Signs of Identity"
5. "Proving Ground
   Proving ground
   A proving ground is the US name for a military installation or reservation where weapons or other military technology are experimented or tested, or where military tactics are tested...
   
   "
6. "Body Modification
   Body modification
   Body modification is the deliberate altering of the human body for any non-medical reason, such as aesthetics, sexual enhancement, a rite of passage, religious reasons, to display group membership or affiliation, to create body art, shock value, or self expression...
   
   "
7. "Nudity
   Nudity
   Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
   
   "

Season 5

1. "Trials of Faith"
2. "Pet
   Pet
   A pet is a household animal kept for companionship and a person's enjoyment, as opposed to wild animals or to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic or productive reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful...
   
   s"
3. "Gross Food"
4. "Extreme Performers"
5. "Job
   Employment
   Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
   
   s"
6. "Mating
   Mating
   In biology, mating is the pairing of opposite-sex or hermaphroditic organisms for copulation. In social animals, it also includes the raising of their offspring. Copulation is the union of the sex organs of two sexually reproducing animals for insemination and subsequent internal fertilization...
   
   "
7. "Extreme Kids"
8. "Touching Death"
9. "Supreme Devotion
   Loyalty
   Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, country, group, or cause There are many aspects to...
   
   "
10. "Body Extremes"
11. "Extreme Healing"
12. "Trial by Fire
    Trial by ordeal
    Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience...
    
    "
13. "Extreme Eats"
14. "Outsiders"

Season 6

1. "Drugs
   DRUGS
   Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows are an American post-hardcore band formed in 2010. They released their debut self-titled album on February 22, 2011.- Formation :...
   
   "
2. "The Third Sex"
3. "Extreme Punishment
   Punishment
   Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behavior deemed wrong by an individual or group....
   
   "
4. "Bizarre Bodies"
5. "Extreme Ritual
   Ritual
   A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
   
   s"
6. "Spilling Blood
   Blood
   Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
   
   "
7. "Sex
   Sexual intercourse
   Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
   
   "

Season 7

1. "Prostitution
   Prostitution
   Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
   
   "
2. "Fat
   Fat
   Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...
   
   "
3. "Misfits"
4. "Narcotics"
5. "Strange Love"
6. "Beyond the Grave"

Season 8

1. "Beauty
   Beauty
   Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture...
   
   "
2. "Fantasy Lives"
3. "Addiction
   Addiction
   Historically, addiction has been defined as physical and psychological dependence on psychoactive substances which cross the blood-brain barrier once ingested, temporarily altering the chemical milieu of the brain.Addiction can also be viewed as a continued involvement with a substance or activity...
   
   
4. "Hoarders
   Compulsive hoarding
   Compulsive hoarding is the acquisition of possessions in excess of socially normative amounts, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary...
   
   "
5. "Prison Love"
6. "Forbidden Love"

Specials

In addition to the above episodes, three compilation shows have been made. They include Quest for Acceptance, Marked for Life, and Sex Swap.

Featured individuals

• The Lizardman, Erik Sprague, featured in the episode "Outcast".
• Carnival Diablo
  Carnival Diablo
  Carnival Diablo the Ultimate Sideshow is an award winning traveling sideshow operating primarily in Ontario, Canada. Performances by the troupe follow a traditional Ten-in-One format featuring such acts as fire-eating, sword swallowing and a human blockhead, with show times lasting two and a half...
  
  was featured in the episode "Extreme Performers."