Summary Of Body Ritual Among The Nacirema By Horace Miner

In Horace Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” he describes various habits and traditions the Nacireman people go through in everyday life and throughout the year. Miner also describes different places and how the people interact with each other as a society. While describing some of the customs, he points out how barbaric and sometimes inhumane the rituals are. Another reoccurring topic is the Nacireman people’s ideas of beauty and what ways to make themselves better looking. Miner concludes with the fact it is arduous to understand a different culture other than our own when only looked at face value. To comprehend the complexity of another culture we must have an open mind. Especially when the other culture is so different. The Nacirema people seem to be a very self-obsessed. The whole population puts much thought into the image they portray. They are obsessed with what others in the community will think. Each person undergoes

Had I not read the instructions first I probably would not have understood that Miner was describing America until well into the article. Maybe not even until I read the instructions and the question stating what he did. Most people would not realize that Miner was describing America because they would not see the “rituals” that he explains as anything unusual even though they probably do some of them every day. Nearly everyone in America brushes their teeth at least once a day. They just do not see it as something out of the ordinary. 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