1. What does Nacirema mean? This is tricky, so think about it carefully. It is oneword. Nacierma means American spelled back words. 2. Why was this culture described in this article. If you do not know the answer to #1, you will not be able to answer this question correctly. (Minimum of 100 words) The Nacierma culture was mentioned in this article because, according to anthropologists, they have a variety of human behavior practices which are considered as being highly unusual and extreme compared to other diverse cultures who also have unusual and bizarre forms of human behavior. The Nacierma practice these strange behaviors in order to keep their bodies clean, healthy, pure, and disease-free, where they go through intense measures in order to do so. This culture was also mentioned because, according to anthropologists, they are …show more content…
In this activity, family members enter a shrine room each day where they bow their heads in front of the charm-box and where they mingle various forms of holy water in the small font topped off with a rite of ablution, which is possibly a prayer. The second activity that I found strange was the act of women getting their breast larger, which allows them to go to multiple, different villages so that natives can stare at them for money. The women get their breasts done because of the dissatisfaction they have with their natural breast size, those that are small and large. The third activity that I found strange was the latispo ceremonies which is where children are hesitant to go due to the fear of dying but sick adults are willing to participate, if they can afford it, in order to get healed. In order to participate in the ceremony, you have to give a rich gift and you have to supplement that with another gift after you have been admitted and healed because the ritual is expensive for the Naciermas to partake
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.
In the article “Body Ritual Among the Nacerima” by Horace Miner wee see the framework for social construction of the Nacerima culture. The Nacerima fundamental belief is to avert their bodies debilitating characteristics with powerful
Rituals are held as a very important part of any society, including ours. They go back to ancient times or can be as simple as maintaining one’s hygiene. Non-western societies have rituals that may seem very foreign to us, but they have been engrained in their communities and are essential to their social structure. This interpretation will focus on the Great Pilgrimage, a ritual performed by Quechuan communities. We will be looking specifically at a community in the area of Sonqo.
“Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” explains that magical beliefs and practices is a big part of being Native American. They feel that they must practice their rituals daily to get a sense of belonging in the community. Nacirema Indians have a shrine which they keep charms and magical potions. They believe without them, no member can live. They perform rituals with these potions to make the ill healthy again, once the potion has been used it is put in the shrine box to be kept; normally these boxes are full or overflowing with potions. There are so many that the Narcirema Indians normally don’t know what all of them are and what they do, so they don’t use them again. One of the most common rituals performed is the mouth-rite; this includes inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with magical powders, and then moving the bundle around in the mouth in a highly formalized series of gestures.
He describes the American health system and many aspects of the an American’s personal health as inhuman and uncivilized. Simply changing the way a word is spelled makes this culture seem far away and distant but in reality it is the culture in which we live every day. The article, “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner makes the readers think about what they know to be true and evaluate how strange the many aspects of their lives
Giger (2013) defines culture as a response in behavior that is shaped over time by values, beliefs, norms and practices shared by members of one's cultural group. A person's culture influences most aspects of his or her life including beliefs, conduct, perceptions, emotions, language, diet, body image, and attitudes about illness and pain (He...
In reading one, Body Rituals Among the Nacirema, since this is my second time reading this article this year I have a clear understanding of what the Nacirema tribe believes to be deviant and how they seek to get the deviance out of their daily lives. This community believes that their bodies are deviant, hence men and women would visit a godly like medicine man to perform what we would consider as deviant medical
The Nacirema are unique followers of the market system, and live in a rich natural habitat. This primitive market system takes up much of the inhabitant’s time. However the people spend a large block of time in daily ritual activity. This tribe does not worship the soul like prominent religions but they worship the body. They believe the body is ugly and prone to injury and sickness. So to alleviate the problem they perform many rituals and ceremonies. In each home there is a ritual center where these actions take place. These centers are so important that all wealthier tribesmen have more than one. The shrines are located in the family home but the performance of ...
'The Body Ritual of the Nacirema' was written by Horace Miner for shock value. The article describes the rituals of a people which on the surface seem to be barbaric and highly out of date for that time at which the article was written. Some of the rituals described were women voluntarily baking their heads in ovens and visits to a 'holy-mouth man', which were extremely painful and costly, in order to gain social acceptance from their peers. Another unheard of tradition described in this essay was that of the sick people going to a temple where they had to give very large gi...
Shrines that Nacirema use for their secret ceremonials are bathrooms. Group of vestal maidens work in temple to heal the sick were actually nurses or medical workers in hospital, and bundle of hog hairs are toothbrush. Miner depicts daily routine like brushing our teeth in uncanny way like using bundle of hog hairs into mouth as daily private mouth-rite ceremony. Breast augmentation was a unique ritual to make women’s breasts big in Miner’s article. Miner manipulates language by describe regular human behaviors into something odd, many things Nacirema act created allusions as Nacirema is from an exotic tribe from ancient time. Reader can get Minor’s sense of humor when he portrayed American as Nacirema, and when he referred a dentist as Holy-mouth-men. I saw the humor of Miner’s story. Miner’s use of ironic humor on regular daily routine, made reader to feel what those activities were something bad we did toward our body. His manipulation of language made regular activities of human beings seem uncivilized. His way of ironic humor made me know that sometimes what we do daily and considered as a natural things to do, might be rather odd for people from a different culture to
In his essay, “What is Culture?”, Kluckhohn explains the differences and similarities amongst world’s peoples. To support his explanation of the differences and similarities he provides the concept of culture. It is difficult to give this concept a precise definition because the word “culture” is a broad term. Kluckhohn allows the reader to understand the concept of culture by providing examples of cultural differences along with some anthropological evidence to support his views.
Considering the facts that the essays discussed here were written at different times and encompass various subjects, we have torn them into pieces and used the pieces to complete one puzzle. Upon completion of the puzzle, we now have a picture of culture. Furthermore, the essays have given us a common thread that we can now use to tie our puzzle pieces together. This common thread is our culture.
In “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, Horace Miner (1956) revisits the rituals of a North American group, the Nacirema, as first described by Professor Linton in the early 1900s. Miner depicts these people as quite vain; obsessive over money, appearance and health. While the economic status of a Nacirema individual is extremely important, nothing compares to the significance of the rituals of the body. These rituals tend to involve various steps that allow the Nacirema people to present themselves to the world in their fittest, most beautiful form. The majority of these rituals are performed by the individual in their own home, in extreme privacy. The body is viewed as a disgusting vessel, in need of constant upkeep to be presentable to others. The Nacirema home contains one or more ‘shrines’, devoted to transforming the body into the definition of health and beauty. The main purpose of the shrine is to hold charms and magical potions, bought from
Culture may be defined as the sum totaltotal of non-biological activities of a people. For anthropologists like Marvin Harris (1974). Culture is directly related to concrete material conditions of existence. It is a set of altitudinal and behavioral tools as well as a map of adapting to one’s environment. Culture is thus essentially adaptive. Following the concept of cultural relativism espoused by Margaret Mead (1968) it is the view of this article that culture must be seen asbe specific and valid in particular circumstances with value judgement as to its relative significance to other groups, even within the same nation-state or society. The point that is therefore being made is that there are some particularities of culture that characterize
Culture. As a society, we’re surrounded by it every day, whether we are aware of it or not. It affects what we do each day and how it lives our lives as everyone, everywhere has their own culture, their own set of beliefs and traditions that shape them, their actions, and the environment around them. Because of cultures large role in the lives of people, culture also has a large role in human geography. But there are lot of questions surrounding culture, like what exactly is culture, why are their differences in culture and what arises from those differences, and how exactly does culture interact with society to shape someone’s worldview? It is in this essay I will be answering these questions.