Body Ritual Among The Nacirema By Horace Miner Summary

Through the Eyes of a Foreigner
Horace Miner wrote an article in 1956 called “Body Rituals among the Nacirema” in which he described a culture through the eyes of an anthropologist. At first glance I was under the assumption that this article was written about a foreign culture that performed very odd rituals. Literature analysis is crucial, especially in this article, because it helps the reader to truly understand what the writer is trying to convey. After reading the article several times, I realized that the purpose of this assignment is to understand how other societies view the American culture. It is amazing how quickly someone can judge others without really taking the time to understand them. Although Horace Minor’s descriptions

He talked about our oral hygiene routines and our use of dentists to maintain healthy teeth. Interestingly, Miner described our dentists as men who tortured people in order to release evil spirits (Miner 1956). This may not be completely true, but when I think of the pain I have gone through to fill a cavity, it reminds me of his explanation. One of the reasons we do this is because someone with rotted or missing teeth is viewed as ugly. In order to prevent criticism from others, we try to preserve our teeth as long as we possibly can. When our teeth begin to decay and fall out, we replace them with false teeth so that we can maintain our self-images. Also, we pay the dentist large sums of money for these services and find it normal to do so. I can understand how crazy it must be to a culture that does not consider their teeth to be of equal significance and have other more important financial obligations. This is just one of the reasons Miner considered Americans to be a “tribe,” or group of people in a specific region that follow similar behavior patterns (Miner

Everyone has the need to urinate and defecate; yet Americans find it appalling to speak of such a thing. We always close the door to the bathroom when we need to “do our business” and it is highly frowned upon to pass gas in front of others. It especially surprised Miner that when people became ill and had to go to the hospital, the privacy they once had was lost (Minor 1956). When a patient enters the hospital, they can no longer hide underneath their clothes and instead have to wear a hospital gown. Depending on the situation, a patient has to use a bedpan to urinate and move their bowels. This is used in bed and a nurse comes and helps clean the patient up once they are done. These are just a few of the hospital practices that contradict the need for privacy or secrecy American’s strive to maintain. In other cultures, it is normal to be nude in front of others and some cultures do not have or need private bathrooms that they can use. Other cultures are not embarrassed about these types of things and may view us as peculiar human