<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Courier; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000'>Could the taboo against pictures showing three persons have to do with a dispreference in community-centered societies for a person "standing out" in a small group? Although, by necessity, there will be one person standing out in any odd-numbered group, being the distinguished person of a larger group may be felt to be less demeaning to the others.<br><br>Edith Moravcsik<br><br><br><hr id="zwchr"><b>From: </b>"David Gil" <gil@EVA.MPG.DE><br><b>To: </b>LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG<br><b>Sent: </b>Wednesday, February 22, 2012 9:14:58 AM<br><b>Subject: </b>taboo against 3 people in picture: clarificartion<br><br>While the various other taboos (not involving pictures) that have come <br>up are all interesting, what I am looking for is rather more specific:<br><br>• A taboo involving exactly three as opposed to fewer or more than three <br>— not a taboo involving three or more as opposed to two<br><br>• A taboo involving cardinal three as opposed to other cardinal numerals <br>— not a taboo involving the ordinal third as opposed to other ordinal <br>numerals<br><br>-- <br>David Gil<br><br>Department of Linguistics<br>Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology<br>Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany<br><br>Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550119<br>Email: gil@eva.mpg.de<br>Webpage: http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/<br><br><br><span><br><br>-- <br><span name="x"></span>Edith A. Moravcsik<br>Professor Emerita of Linguistics<br>Department of Linguistics<br>University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee<br>Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413<br>USA<span name="x"></span><br></span></div></body></html>