Originally published in 1956, Body Ritual of the Nacirema is an article written by world renowned anthropologist Horace Miner. In this article, Miner tells of his encounters with a Native American Tribe located between Canada and Mexico. This tribe is a culture obsessed with rituals that rely heavily on the image of their body and how it is judged by other individuals. The Nacirema believe that the body is ugly, and only through daily rituals can one find happiness and prosperity. In the article, Miner describes the “rituals” that all of the members must attend in order to be accepted by society and the different superstitious habits that the members take part in.
These rituals also create a sense of moral community, in which people conform to, which furthers their purpose and meaning in
As a western civilization we are guilty of making other cultures seem strange and unrelatable by describing their culture in an exuberant way. However, Miner does an excellent job at executing the description of the “Nacirema” as foreign individuals with him being a American himself. This essay is told from an
Horace Miner, the author of “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, used very interesting and descriptive choice of words to describe the routines that modern Americans go through from an outsider point of view. He gives different terms to describe mundane routines, like brushing your teeth, and exaggerate the details as something that is bizarre. Some rituals Miner described as illogical because there was a low rate of success in what they are trying to achieve. This reveals that what determines something to be socially acceptable is not through logic, but only though the popularity of the community. One of the rituals that Miner described as illogical but everyone still do the ritual was the fact that the people kept going to the “holy-mouth-man”, or also known as the dentist, even if their teeth are still decaying.
I believe part of the reason a vast amount of the people reading Miner’s book would not recognize America as Nacirema is the language he uses in describing the ways the people do their “rituals”. Many people take medicine, brush their teeth, go to the dentist, and go to the hospital but it is the way they think about it and how Miner describes it that do not line up in their
Horace Miner in 1956 wrote the satire piece, "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" describing the natural human in the 1950s as a tribe that were obsessed with what their bodies looked like going to the what seems as the extremes for perfection. Two of these satires were the "shrines" which in short are bathrooms and describes going to the bathroom as, "the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are private and secret. The rites are normally only discussed with children, and then only during the period when they are being initiated into these mysteries. " The underlying belief to why the bathroom is kept a secret to others it’s a way that a human can get the "disease" and ugliness out of them without facing anyone. Miner talks about the medicine cabinet behind a mirror describing it as box or chest built into the wall.
The article, Nacirema, by Horace Miner effectively creates a barrier of dissociation for the reader that allows them to less biasly evaluate their own culture through Miner’s use of substitute names and primitive sounding descriptions. He creates a religious association for the rituals and traditions of American culture. Using this article, one can look upon their own culture, and realize how strange their own customs and rituals would seem to outsiders, just as we look on other’ cultures as odd or even uncivilized. Miner’s article is incredibly successful at pointing out the rampant ethnocentrism many Americans have, and the article is an excellent tool for using dissociation to help people discover their own biases in regard to their own
In class we talked about many issues surrounding the Etruscans and our understanding of Etruscan societies based off of the ruins and artifacts that they left behind. At one point during class we discussed how temples were often built to accent a natural feature such as a stream, river, or a hill. We also discussed the differences between scared and non-sacred boundaries in Etruscan societies. I would like to look back on these discussions for a moment and contribute some new thoughts that I hadn’t necessarily worked out earlier In both the Edlund and the Warden articles they discuss how in Etruscan society everything was sacred and under “divine protection” and that there was no division between the divine and the earthly.
In your lifetime you can experience, watch, and even help with a ceremony. Ceremonies are formal occurrences for religious and public occasions; usually to focus on one specific thing. There 's basically a ceremony for about everything. Ranging from a Christian baptism to an AVID induction ceremony. There 's a huge difference in experiencing, watching, and helping in a ceremony.
Through Battuta’s travels he learned and was shown many rituals of introduction and witnessed many ceremonies. One ceremony that was carried out, was one of Genghis Khan’s descendants he “watched the daily ceremony of this great Mongol King… noting their “handsome robes””. (Gordon, 107). When the Sultan held feast days Battuta went in depth when he described the poets and their costumes. He also described how they give their poems as “They stand up in ridiculous makeup and recite their poems”
This reading is talking about shamanism. Shamanism is a religion practiced in the Paleolithic period. Shaman is a person who is the leader of the religion shamanism. It could be healer, magician, or a person who has knowledge and could travel around the world. A shaman can be a male or female however, not everyone can become a shaman.
10 BIZARRE TRADITIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD From funny to glory, rituals from around the world could leave one shell-shocked. With innumerable races and ethnicities populating the face of the Earth, the rituals are in plenty and a list of the weird, wacky, unbelievable ones are compiled here. Take a look. 1.
When professor Linton brought forth the attention of anthropologists to the Nacirema culture there was a lot of things about their traditions that were different than that of our own, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t also some similarities as well. As crude and vastly spiritual these people are it is rather impressive that they managed to survive for as long as they did living their rather extreme lifestyle. The people back then also had different social classes like we do now, they also had what we call surgeons to fix their imperfections, and they also have the same kind of cleanliness as we do when it comes down to our bodies. Some differences would be in their rituals we don’t go to those extremes to make sure we are okay spiritually. We also don’t believe that if we don’t take care of our teeth no one will love us.
In the study called Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, the author calls the rituals and ceremonies the people perform “excessive”. They are insane rituals that people in America wouldn’t seem to think about doing. They sound so different, and unusual. As one reads the fieldwork, it raises a lot of questions and concerns. To anyone from another country it would seem these rituals are excessive because of the way they are performed, and the things they use to perform them.
Do you agree with the Norwegian and Japanese position on permitting the hunting of non-endangered species of whales as a cultural exemption? Answer: I think to certain extend I agree to maintain some level of whaling, I guess that it should only be allowed in the villages that depend of this meat as a main source of food, and it should be banned in places where is only done to seek monetary gain. Do you think the whaling ban constitutes a violation of these nations' sovereignty? Answer: I don't believe that sovereignty should be taken that seriously as it is only an idea and it does not affects peoples life in any way and it is not vital for human kind survival, I do think like I mention on the question below, that if it is an imperative
