After taking the cultural intelligence pre-test my initial score was 96. I think I did rather well considering that I work in a very diverse workplace and communicate with many different people of different cultures. I was always taught that when interacting with a different culture that does not understand English, to talk so, ask them if they understand, try to explain things in short ways and use pictures if needed. I think I use a lot of these skills already which helped me have more confidence in answering these questions. I found I did rather well in being confident in interacting with different cultures and am conscious of the cultural knowledge when interacting with people of different cultural backgrounds. There where however …show more content…
He was actually portraying and explaining the rituals of the American people and how we are so consumed with self-image. Our cultural worldview influence and inform our perception of people from other cultures by the way our own culture has taught us to behave. For example, we are so consumed with self-image that Miner explains how the Nacirema culture “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 rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them” (Miner, 2007, p.504). Some of the practices and rituals of other cultures seem odd or foreign to us because we of the way our own culture has shaped us. The US is an individualistic culture where Japan is seen as a collectivist culture. Other cultures practice different rituals then us such as religion, family practices and other standards. Our cultural norms affect our understanding and perception of other cultures by the way we practice our cultural norms. For example, we might find it respectful to shake someone’s hand when introducing ourselves or saying hi, however in India it is avoided with it is with the opposite sex. Another example is eye contact. We are taught when speaking to someone always display eye contact, but in Japan you avoided it with superiors as a sign of
Anthropologists learn about a culture through participant observation. They often experience cultural shock when encountering with different cultures. Horace Miner in his essay Body Ritual among the Nacirema wrote about the unusual rituals and beliefs of the Nacirema. He describes the Nacirema as a North American group whose rituals originated from their magical beliefs. When I first read the essay, the practices of Nacirema seems ridiculous to me. However, I was amazed when I found out that Nacirema turns out to be the word American, but spelled backward. I then reread the essay and realized that the culture hero, Notgnihsaw and the temple, latipso are also the wordplay of Washington and hospital. After all, the essay was a satirical essay
Human needs are similar- health, physical appearance, human body and economic resources to meet these needs. Nacirema culture bears some semblance to more civilized culture. While reading this article it seems most of the practices are similar with modern culture. A major difference is the magic, ritual and the crude method of doing things. One of the cultural practices that stood out for me is the “holy-mouth-men” ritual, which seems like what a dentist will do. I also find interesting the diagnostic ability of the diviner.
In Horace Miner’s “Body ritual among the Nacirema.” Miner writes about the strange customs and rituals practiced amongst the Nacirema tribe. These rituals revolve mostly around the human body which is seen as “ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease” (Miner, 1). In order to treat their natural afflictions, the natives put themselves through a daily series of seemingly sadistic and brutal rituals that include visiting a holy-mouth man who ”opens the client's mouth and enlarges any holes which decay may have created in the teeth”(3) and “scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument.”(3). Upon closer inspection, the reader soon realizes that the exotic Nacirema tribe that Miner describes is in fact our own culture (Nacirema is American spelt backwards) and that these bizarre rituals are daily actions that we ourselves take part in regularly.
Worldview is the lens through which someone views their life and interprets the world around them. Our worldview is what shapes our beliefs and practices of healing. In “A Very Bad disease of the Arms” by Michael Kearney talks about his own worldview, which was scientific and materialistic compared to the Ixtepeji worldview. We expect Kearney worldview to be just that because he comes from an educated and financial stable background. On the other hand, we have the Ixtepejanos which are not privileged enough to have the background of an ideal “white man”. An anthropologist comparative method is used to find differences and similarities between cultures. Kearney wanted to know why they “could walk the same streets, abide in the same houses, eat the same foods, and yet live in such different cognitive universes”. Kearney realized that he faces each day with a sense of security knowing that he’s in control of the factors that affect him directly. In the contrary, Ixtepejanos interpret their world with harmful and lethal immaterial forces.
“Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner was a very interesting read. It took me a while to actually, fully understand the meaning of the article. The first time that I read through the article I was dumbfounded on how strange the rituals described in the article were. I genuinely thought that the author was describing a very primitive culture found in a remote area of the Americas and did not have the slightest clue that the author was talking about the American culture found in the United States. Originally, the article made me wonder how, in such an advanced world, there could still be such a primitive culture as the one described in the article. The article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner opened my eyes to how another person may look at the American culture and how strange it may seem to them.
Growing up in an American society, we are surrounded by certain customs and mannerisms. We pay little attention to them, as they have been ingrained into our society and is apart of our everyday lives. It is when a new culture or society gets thrown into the mix that we notice the different customs. Our first reaction is to think their way is wrong or weird, but when you take a step back you realize that it’s not weird at all, in fact it is as natural as breathing. They are from a different country, therefore they have different customs and way of living. To them, our ways are just as strange.
Written by Horace Miner, this essay of the people group Nacirema is an interesting look at their everyday functions. The tribe Miner describes is seemingly primal and uncivilized, and yet somewhat familiar. The entire account of these mysterious people describes unusual and strange behaviors and activities. The brief overview on the Nacirema is graphic from Miner’s point of view. When the meaning of the story becomes clear, the purpose for writing it becomes either humor or disdain.
“Body Rituals among the Nacirema” is a document written by Mr. Horace Miner. Miner was a graduate of the University of Chicago, with a degree in anthropology. Throughout his life, Miner was dedicated to his studies ranging in anthropology to sociology. He was very interested in the study of anthropology, but Miner disagreed with the way that other cultures were represented. He thought American anthropologists believed that the American culture was “normal” and, that the other studied cultures were misrepresented (Hoogland). Miner was convinced to prove otherwise. He wanted to prove to other anthropologists that to other cultures the American culture could be viewed as unusual.
In Horace Miner’s article, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”, he talks about a tribe and describes their odd behavior. He tells about how the tribe performs these strange daily rituals and how their peculiarity is extreme, but in fact he is actually speaking of Americans as a whole (Miner). Miner uses this style of writing to more effectively prove his point: that Americans are ethnocentric.
...dess, 2006). This quote could not be more perfect in the sense of what many people consider to be culture now a days. It seems that in this day and age, some people have lost sight into seeing what real culture is all about. It doesn’t come from fancy schools, or being well off, it comes from within. All those other meaningless superficial type of distractions, cannot be seen as who you are as a person. It comes from family and how they were raised, and how they raised you, and how you will raise your children, and so on. Culture is something that is always going to be a part of you no matter what. Doesn’t matter if you have a fancy degree form a private school. Doesn’t matter if you’re an owner of a successful business, and it doesn’t matter how much money you have or make. In the end, a person has to know where they come from and remember their roots in life.
This means that a person tries to make actions in another culture fit his/her own culture’s meanings. This can create confusion and an obvious misunderstanding if a person doesn’t even attempt to learn what another means. This can also cause frustration between the people involved because there isn’t clear communication between the two groups. The closest I’ve come to having an experience that relates to this happened while in Hawai’i. We visited a Polynesian Cultural Center where we learned about different cultures and how different actions and things had different associations. One example was entering through the chief’s door in different tribes; in one tribe, it was extremely disrespectful and resulted in death, while in others it wasn’t a big
The goal of the anthropologist is to come to understand the beliefs and behaviours of the cultures around them, without judgement. When one scrutinizes Western rituals, we often have difficulty seeing the strangeness of our own culture. To understand those around us, we must first be able to understand ourselves. In this paper, I will attempt to critically summarize and analyze Horace Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”.
Cultural intelligence (CQ) is defined as an individual’s capability to adapt and function in situations that involves new cultural setting. CQ is regarded a useful tool as it can allow an individual to work in effectively multi-cultural settings. An individual can develop CQ competencies through personal experiences such as travelling/studying abroad, working in a firm that is established from a culture different from their own and also studying the many ways people of different cultures function.
There are traditions and or rituals that we participate in year after year, even though we have forgotten what the meaning is or where it has come from. Every one of us has experienced some type of ritual or tradition in some form or fashion. Wedding and marriage rituals and traditions also fall true to this. There are different cultures that celebrate in different ways all over the world. There is a tradition for Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and South America, North America and even Caribbean traditions and Oceania traditions. I suppose there is a tradition or ritual for every corner of our world and for every tribe. I have even seen weddings for animals. Everyone seems to be getting into a ceremony! Within all of these different ceremonies, traditions and rituals have changed over the years. To go back hundreds of years ago, some couples did not even know each other when they were to be married, or paired up by the tribes or royal parents to choose the couple that would best suite the family. Just imagine not even meeting the one that you are supposed to marry and spend the rest of your life with until the day of the ceremony. These traditions were kept sacred and carried out just because that is the way that it has always been done. Most wedding ceremonies would consist of the same rituals and traditions that would be carried on down from generations. Most people doesn’t even know what most of the traditions mean. Unfortunately with time, and more modern ways, these rituals are being changed.
Social prejudice and a human propensity for ethnocentrism cause observers of a culture other than their own to judge such practices and beliefs as peculiar, yet ‘many of our own practices are peculiar when viewed through the lenses of other cultures’ (Karp, 1990, p74-75, cited in Schultz &...