Analysis Of Body Ritual Among The Nacirema

After reading “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” I believe the Nacirema are the Americans. First Nacirema is American spelled backwards. I also think it is America because it said “North American group living… Little is known of their origin, al- though tradition states that they came from the east.” I also believe it is America because it said, “The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people.” Because there is very few countries that believe that you have to look perfect. For example, wearing makeup, perfectly white straight teeth, BMI, hairstyle, and the fashion. I also believe it is America because of a YouTube video I watch where two guys discussed the

Body Ritual of the Nacirema by Horace Miner is a clever piece that describes a foreign sounding culture only to be realized that the group being described is one that is much more familiar. Through his process of describing conventional habits or “rituals” in an unconventional way, he allows the reader to look at this culture through a very unique lens.

Horace Miner’s use of irony, satire, and invective help the piece succede. If the author did not use all three of these satiric devices, the paper would not make sense. Throughout the paper, the author uses these three devices which make the reader laugh. It also helps us to understand the article.

Daoism, also known as Taoism, is originally a Chinese religious tradition that is centralized in living in harmony with the Tao, meaning “way”, “path”, or

Ceremony and rituals have played a vital and essential role in Native American culture for a long time. Often referred to as “religion,” most Native Americans did not think their spirituality, ceremonies, and rituals as “religion,” the same way that Christians do. Instead, their beliefs and practices form an integral and seamless part of their being. Like other aboriginal people around the world, their beliefs were heavily influenced by their ways of getting food, – from hunting to agriculture. They also did ceremonies and rituals that gave power to conquer the difficulties of life, as wells as events and milestones, such as puberty, marriage, and death. Over the years, practices and ceremonies changed with tribes '

Horace Miner, the author of “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, used very interesting and descriptive choice of words to describe the routines that modern Americans go through from an outsider point of view. He gives different terms to describe mundane routines, like brushing your teeth, and exaggerate the details as something that is bizarre. Some rituals Miner described as illogical because there was a low rate of success in what they are trying to achieve. This reveals that what determines something to be socially acceptable is not through logic, but only though the popularity of the community.

When people hear the word witch they might think of hexes, potions, broomsticks, wands, black cats, black magic, pointy hats, and covens. According to the History Channel’s “Bet You Didn’t Know: Witches” most of these stereotypes came from Western culture. They could also think of pop culture types of witches such as the ones in The Wizard of Oz, the Harry Potter series, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Hocus Pocus, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; but those aren’t the only kinds of witches one would see in the world, all of that info is for a later time. This will be about a few aspects of Wicca and how a few of the stereotypes listed above is related to Wicca.

The Nacirema practices consist of magic driven rituals and ceremonies that shape human behaviour. The rituals and ceremonies establish Horace Miner’s view of Nacirema as American spelt backwards. Initially, the Nacirmea culture originates from the Canadian Cree, Yaqui, Tarahumare of Mexico, the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. The origin comes from the natives who first landed in America. However, the culture Nacirema comes from the hero Notgnihsaw, who initially is Washington, spelt backwards is the first president of the United States. Nevertheless, the culture develops from the rich natural habitat known as the natural resources to develop the economy.

The Holy Ghost People by Peter Adair, was created in 1967. It exposes people of the Pentecostal religion, and their unusual rituals and ceremonies that they partake in. While watching the movie I kept on wondering why someone would want to sit through one of their services and participate in such odd rituals and behaviors. After reviewing the sociological theories we have learned in class, I concluded that Durkheim’s Social Consensus theory and Collins Interaction Ritual Chains theory both best explain the motivations for joining and staying in a religion that has such unusual rituals and extreme commitments.

Horace Miner, a American Anthropologist wrote an academic essay titled “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema.” In this article Miner described some of the bizarre rituals and practices of the “Nacirema” which the reader comes to find out that he is talking about North Americans. The way Miner goes into detail about how these people live makes them seem foreign. Thus making the norm for an American lifestyle seem odd because the certain type of lingo Miner uses to make this “tribe” more exotic then the actually are. His point in doing this is to show the reader how obnoxious anthropologist can be when they are explain a different culture. As a western civilization we are guilty of making other cultures seem strange and unrelatable by describing their culture in an exuberant way. However, Miner does an excellent job at executing the description of the “Nacirema” as foreign individuals with him being a American himself. This essay is told from an

The main feature of the festival is ofenda (an altar). People usually build them in their own houses or in cemeteries. The altars aren’t made for worshiping, rather, they carry out the task to welcome the spirits back to the Realm of Live. That’s why they are loaded with offerings, such as: water and food (is spirit is thirsty and hungry after long journey), the photos of members of families, candles (one candle for each dead member of family). If some spirit is a child, you can find little toy on the alter. The alters is used to decorate with marigolds. Spreading from the alter to the grave, the petals of these flowers meant to guide the traveling souls back to their place for rest. The smoke from incense depurates the area of the alter.

Illyrian religion:By the wealth of Bosnia and Herzegovina it was always full of water streams and many forests. This religious system of the Illyrians was dedicated to the worshiping of natural forces. This explains why Tana and Vidasus became symbols, also personifications of the human environment. They signified the strength of nature and everything it offers to mankind. With them comes other gods and goddesses such as Tur, Anzotik,and Bindu. What we need to focus on at the beginning is the thanks to our forefathers, and today we can be proud that we have a cut of healing which has a deep meaning in the ancient times. Documented information for the National Museum in Sarajevo shows examples of ritual practice of the streams and washing the

A ritual is a religious or solemn ceremony in which certain actions are performed according to a prescribed order; rituals are seen across all religions and cultures. Tibetan Buddhism, is a part of the practical philosophy of Buddhism, which was first taught by Prince Siddartha Guatama (The Buddha); The philosophy is over 2,500 years old and currently has 376 million adherents worldwide (BBC , 2014). A ritual that is evident in Tibetan Buddhist culture is the Sky Burial, which has been performed for centuries with the first rites being recorded in an indigenous Buddhist community in the 12th century. This ritual entails the deceased to be dismembered and fed to Sky Vultures (Danikis) in the rocky Tibetan Autonomous Region as the most common

Cultural relativism is the understanding of other cultures in their own terms. To achieve the understanding of the rituals used in the cultures of another, one must be able to look at them from an emic (insider) perspective. One must also be able to look at his own culture from an etic (outsider) perspective. The ability to look at one’s culture from the etic point of view will make it easier to explain the rituals to someone from a different culture, for example, rites of passage. Rites of passage are used to mark a life stage and are celebrated by tradition or religion, meant to separate a specific group. These differ in every culture and some may even appear brutal or abusive to many outsiders, an example would be a Maasai warrior must kill a lion single handedly, tattoos and mutilation after a certain milestone in age. The ones that are more familiar to all would include the courtship, wedding or funeral. According to our text, “ceremonies such as christening, puberty rituals, marriage and funerals, which we hold whenever a member of society undergoes an important change status, within the lifecycle of the group, are considered rites of passage.” (Crapo, 2013 para. 2) Rites of passage are an important part of tradition that often symbolizes a transition from childhood to teenager to adulthood and they even give off a sense of manhood to their family as well as their community. This paper will dig into the rites of passage we call marriage in the American culture, from

In Renato Rosaldo’s “Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage” Rosaldo writes about ritual and the connection, it has with emotion which I found that interesting to read. I found very shocking that he associated the emotions with death. Throughout the reading, I questioned myself, why ritual in general and llongot headhunting in particular form the intersection of multiple coexisting social processes. It should also be recognized that those in the center of the ritual will have more feelings aroused from the ritual than those on the outer edges. Also, Rosaldo mentions how he just did not understand how the grief and rage were connected, but says he now knows, after a tragic loss of his own, that to an Ilongot they went together in the most visible manner. However, I think it becomes evident that those in the center are in focus and the ones