Northcote W. ThomasThinkers

Mana (n.) charges ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠taboo persons like objects charged with electricity — a tremendous power transmissible by contact, destructive to anyone too weak to resist it.

Punishment (n.) began ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠with taboo: first the violated taboo itself took vengeance, then the gods, and finally society — so the earliest penal systems trace back to taboo.