This article is an introduction to the anthology „Tabus und Tabubrüche als Symptome gesellschaftlicher Verhältnisse“ and focuses on the history and the current status of the phenomenon and the concept taboo in humanities as well as in everyday discourse. We argue that the european societies invent their own taboo concept during the reception of ethnological studies and the popularization of the term in the last 250 years. While the thematization of taboos shows a strategic use in media discourse, the expression is used in fairly mundane contexts in everyday language. Nevertheless there exists quiet a wide range of research in cultural studies and social sciences as well as in studies on discourse that focuses on the phenomenon and the negotiation of taboos. This perspecive makes boundaries of social acceptance visible. The main thesis of this article is that taboos as a research object is a central access point to study social conditions.