Note 1240 — Chapter V · PIACULAR RITES AND THE AMBIGUITY OF THE NOTION OF SACREDNESS
Joseph Ward Swain translation
Nor. Tr., pp. 525 f. This interdiction against speaking, which is peculiar to women, though it consists in a simple abstention, has all the appearance of a piacular rite: it is a way of incommoding one's self. Therefore we mention it here. Also, fasting may be a piacular rite or an ascetic one, according to the circumstances. Everything depends upon the conditions in which it takes place and the end pursued (for the difference between these two sorts of rites, see below, p. 396).