Abstract

What Is Blocking Us? II. Folklore and Taboos

Social scientist W.H.D. Rivers called attention years ago to a Melanesian tribe among whom canoe building became so encumbered with taboos, social prohibitions, and personal penalties that soon no one wanted to practice it and no more canoes were built. Yet that society needed canoes. Substitute houses for canoes and present day United States for Melanesia, and one have the housing picture today. One hasn't stopped building houses, but people are on the way. The public is confused; even the experts frequently confuse one another. And through this entire muddle one hold to one's belief that somehow the "American way" can produce good low-priced houses for all. In an effort to solve the housing problem without disturbing the status quo Americans make use of three devices: (1) they elaborate their housing myths; (2) they tinker hopefully with their aid-for-housing machinery; and (3) they pass new, complicated, experimental legislation.