With its outset in empirical examples collected among Danish university students (Christensen, 2013; Christensen et al., 2019), this paper will focus on a theoretical outline of taboo as a concept for analyzing ethnographic data. This will be done through the classical works of Wundt, Frazer and Freud, and the contemporary works of the Israeli sociologist Evitar Zerubavel and the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben.
Through the theoretical outline of the concept of taboo it becomes possible to get an analytical tool that allow the ethnographic researcher to grasp some of the micro-dynamics in empirical data and come a bit closer to what is going on among the participants in a social setting. The concept of taboo also highlights some of the ethical problems attached to trying to cross this line and get insight into something that the participants do not want to talk about and perhaps even try to hide. Finally, taboo also seems to be attached to shame as affect. This will be discussed through the work of Sara Ahmed (e.g. Ahmed, 2004).