Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Sparknotes

In Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, Horace Miner develops a weird, quirky society called the Nacirema that is made up of natives who go about their day doing odd rituals and tasks. The purpose of the story was to have people judge other cultures less harshly by making them step back and think about what they were perceiving. Additionally, Miner calls attention to how similar cultures are from region to region without even knowing. Sociologists from the perspectives of functionalism, conflict, and symbolic interaction would interpret Nacirema society differently and in a unique way. Throughout the story Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, many ideas that align with the three theoretical perspectives are blatantly displayed by the Nacirema natives.

In the event that the magical materials get disorganized and not all get put back into the charm-box, then the worshipper may be unprotected. This action of ensuring that the materials are in their designated location so that the natives are protected communicates to functionalists that they are taking great care not to become an anomie. Functionalists would wonder what the consequences of an uncompleted task would be and how the unfinished task would affect others in the household. This need for structure and alignment is clearly displayed on several occasions throughout the story, therefore expressing the importance. The idea is stated again when “[t]he Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships. Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they believe that their

The author states that “[m]ost houses are of wattle and daub construction, but the shrine rooms of the more wealthy are walled with stone. Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine walls” (503). Stone is associated with wealth in the community. When a native sees the stone in an individual’s home, they automatically know they are in a wealthy household. This symbol of wealth stirs up emotions, so much so that other natives try to copy the rich. Poor families get upset and try to appear as though they were at least somewhat wealthy to fit in. A symbolic interactionist would hold the questions of what emotions do the poor feel as they see stone, the symbol of wealth, when they are out and about or how do the rich feel when they see wattle and daub houses. The symbols are all around the natives, even on them physically, as “[g]eneral dissatisfaction with breast shape is symbolized in the fact that the ideal form is virtually outside the range of human variation. A few women afflicted with almost inhuman hypermammary development are so idolized that they make a handsome living by simply going from village to village and permitting the natives to stare at them for a fee” (506). Having very unnatural body parts, or in this case breasts, symbolizes several different things. The first is that people with