Aniconism is the absence of material representations of the natural and
supernatural world in various
cultures, particularly in the
monotheistic Abrahamic religions. It may extend from only
God and deities to
saint characters, all living beings, and everything that exists. The phenomenon is generally codified by the religious traditions and as such becomes a
taboo. When enforced by the physical destruction of images, aniconism becomes
iconoclasm. The word itself derives from
Greek εικων 'image' with the negative prefix
an- (Greek
privative alpha) and the suffix
-ism (Greek -ισμος).