The Mother-in-law Taboo
In old Native American cultures
In the past, several Native American tribes practiced what has become known as a mother-in-law taboo. In these old cultures husbands and their mother-in-law were not allowed to come into contact with each other. Some of the tribes that practiced some form of this taboo included the Apache, Sioux, Cree, Cheyenne, Crow, and Blackfoot.
But no native peoples were stricter and more severe about it than the Navajo. In Navajo culture a husband and his mother-in-law were strictly forbidden from coming into contact with each other. They were never to make eye contact with each other and they were not allowed to be in the same home or building together. The mother-in-law was not even allowed to attend her own daughter’s wedding! (1)
Often a newlywed couple would live with the bride’s family for the first year or two of their marriage. But they had to live in separate dwellings because of this taboo. Even if the married couple got divorced the taboo stayed in effect for the duration of the lives of the husband and the mother-in-law. They could never come into contact and/or look each other in the eye for the rest of their lives.
