Fw: query: taboo against 3 people in picture

[Paolo Ramat]

Prof.Paolo Ramat
Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS )
Direttore del Centro "Lingue d'Europa: tipologia, storia e sociolinguistica" 
(LETiSS)
Viale Lungo Ticino Sforza 56
27100 Pavia
tel. ++390382375811
fax ++390382375899
-----Messaggio originale----- 
From: Paolo Ramat
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 3:58 PM
To: David Gil
Subject: Re: query: taboo against 3 people in picture

Dear David,
a curious and certainly fortuitous coincidence can be found in Italy: it is
(or rather was) believed that the third person who lightened a cigarette
with the same match as the first two would have bad luck. The explanation
goes on that during the first world war a firing match was first seen by the
gunman in the opposite trench; the gunmen took aim when the second smoker
lightened his cigarette and finally fired at the tird person.  Still
nowadays people avoid to use the same match for a third smoker.

best

Prof.Paolo Ramat
Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS )
Direttore del Centro "Lingue d'Europa: tipologia, storia e sociolinguistica"
(LETiSS)
Viale Lungo Ticino Sforza 56
27100 Pavia
tel. ++390382375811
fax ++390382375899
-----Messaggio originale----- 
From: David Gil
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 1:14 PM
To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: query: taboo against 3 people in picture

Dear all,

Apologies for posting a non-linguistic query, but I'm interested in
checking whether the non-linguistic feature in question correlates with
a particular linguistic area, so perhaps all you field linguists out
there can contribute some of your experiences.

In many parts of mainland and insular Southeast Asia stretching into New
Guinea, there is a taboo against three people posing for a photo.  One
or two is fine, four, five and up is fine, but three is a no no.  In
some places the taboo is strong, while in others it's just something
people joke about.  Sometimes it is said that the person in the middle
will meet misfortune or die.

I have encountered this taboo in Cambodia, Sumatra, Borneo, Palawan,
Luzon, Sulawesi, Maluku, and on a recent trip to the Baliem Valley in
the Papuan highlands.  (Though not in Java or the lesser Sunda isles.)
The areal distribution suggests that the taboo must be older than the
advent of photography, perhaps extending back to drawings and paintings;
the antiquity of the taboo is further supported by its presence amongst
the Papuan highland Dani, whose first contact with the outside world was
only in the 1940s (and it seems implausible that they would have picked
up the taboo since then).

My question is: where else is such a taboo present?  Are you familiar
with it from any other parts of the world?   I would greatly appreciate
both positive and negative data (the latter always being harder to
obtain reliably).  I am particularly interested in delimiting the extent
of the area listed above:  does the taboo exist further east in New
Guinea and into the Pacific?  What about north into China, or west into
South Asia?

Thanks,

David

-- 
David Gil

Department of Linguistics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany

Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550119
Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
Webpage:  http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/