taboos

An 8-year-old muay thai boxer fighting for his 'life'...
A 6-year-old forced by a nation to be a living goddess...
A 13-year-old deep-miner depending on cigarettes and coca leaves to get thruogh a miner's day...
These are real 'taboos' in different places of the world. I'll try to describe them as how I understand it as short as possible.

OUTSIDE BANGKOK, THAILAND
Muay Thai is a national sport in Thailand and is considered deadly. Bangkok has banned fighting for those weighing below 100-lbs, targeted for children. Since these 'young' fights draw big crowds, they still have fights outside Bangkok. Jay, the 8-yo featured fights not for pleasure of beating someone up but for the money. One win could give their family his father's half-year salary. Sad to think that his parents even put him up to it. Muay Thai fights in Thailand are fueled by gambling. The audience bet on their winning fighters. At a championship bout, Jay had the opp to win an equivalent of his father's yearly salary. Putting their faith in him, Jay's neighbors and his family gamble a large sum for him to win. A terrible pressure for and 8-yo. For that championship bout, he lost the fight and along with it, his family's and neighbors' money.

KATHMANDU, NEPAL
In Nepal, there's a tradition considered taboo in other cultures. They choose a girl aged around 6-14 yo to be a living embodiment of their god. The chosen girl, kumari, will be worshipped and treated as divine. She will be taken away from her family and will live in solitude until her first period, or until she bleeds from any wound. They believe this living god will set the future of their country. What can be considered taboo with this tradition is that the kumari will lose her childhood. While other children are playing, she is locked up in a 'gilded cage' and visited to be worshipped. She can come out only once a year during the annual kumari festival. The effects of solitude can be seen after the kumari is reverted back to common status. Ex-kumaris are seen to be silent types and speak only when spoken to. Here's a link for more kumari info.

POTOSI, BOLIVIA
In Potosi, there's a mountain filled with silver. Mostly, boys 13-yo above go to work the mine during summer to earn money for necessity. On their way to the mine, they pass by nearby smallshops to by dynamites, cigarettes and coca leaves(raw ingredient for cocaine). They need these for the job ahead. Most of them compare going down to the deep-mine to hell and they need the cigarettes and coca leaves to get them through hell. The dynamites they use for blast digging, where every blast can cause the tunnels to give-in, so they say a prayer before every blasting. Though risky, most boys choose this job from peddling or from being conductors in buses. The mining job pays 5$ a day as compared to the other jobs paying only pennies... Here's a link to a miner's experience at the mine.

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The above involved children in difficult situations but they are there because of necessity and/or tradition.
I will NOT say these are bad cultures/traditions cause they aren't. They can be considered taboo by other cultures but that's really the world we live in - full of diversity in different cultures - and these make the world and interesting place to explore.

source: "Taboo", documentary, ArtsCentral