A little bit of perspective on the society and culture of the Nacirema people involve body rituals and how they go through great lengths to ensure physical wellness. It is difficult as a reader to make sense of the rituals the Nacirema performed and why they did. The Nacirema people believe that the human body is ugly and that it is susceptible to disease. They live a very bizarre lifestyle, not the stressing on the physical well-being part but the spiritual sense they put into their beliefs.
The movie Smoke Signals is a great representation of Durkheim’s theory of religion and the sacred as being social and serving society. As well as a culture’s sacred beliefs and rituals being a symbolic way of a person aligning themselves with their society. Smoke Signals focuses on two individuals, both of whom are Indians of the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation, on a journey where they struggle to hold on to the beliefs and traditions that have enabled them to cope with their difficult pasts. The first part of this essay will provide evidence from the movie to explain how the first individual, Victor Joseph, holds to the belief that an Indian must act like a warrior to receive any respect. Second, this essay will then provide evidence to explain
The document “Altered States of Consciousness in North American Indian Ceremonials” by Wolfgang G. Jilek, explores the theme of religion as a mode of knowledge by examining two rituals of the Native American Sioux and Salish Tribes, the Sun Dance, and the Spirit Dance. In this document, beginning with the Salish Spirit Dance, Jilek analyzes the significance of each dance, arguing that the Native Americans perform these dances to experience sensations from religious ecstasy, or from spirits, ancestors, or deities (Jilek, 326). Essentially, the Native Americans believed that by performing these dances, after undergoing several trials, they would receive a dream or message from these entities (335). One example of this is when Jilek examines
As a result, even anthropologists are likely to face difficulties in accurately representing a group of people. In Body Ritual Among the Nacirema we are exposed to “the problem of representation.” Horace Miner “represented” Americans by writing about them and interpreting their behaviors. Miner’s representations of the American, or in this case “Nacirema,” culture most likely differ greatly from the way we would represent Americans. As we saw in Who are the Nacirema?
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. The Nacirema are the Americans and a representation of the American culture. Although this might not be immediately apparent to the reader, there are a number of hints throughout the text to help come to this realization.
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.
In the documentary, “The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America,” portrays the journey of an immigrant Hmong family battling to maintain their cultural traditions alive in the United States. In the Hmong culture, it is believed that every individual has seven souls and if they have an illness, for example sickness, it means that their soul has departed or taken by evil spirits. Hmong people believe in Shamans, who are gifted and respected people who can make contact with their ancestors and return the lost souls of people. In this documentary, the main character Paja Thao is a shaman who is challenged by American customs to keep his cultural Hmong traditions alive and pass it down to his children. Paja becomes sick because he feels like his children don’t care about the Hmong tradition anymore because they don’t participate in his rituals and realizes his children have assimilated to the American culture.
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.
The essay, written in the form of an anthropological study, critiques the cultural practices of American society by presenting them as the strange and bizarre rituals of a mysterious tribe called the Nacirema. The following quotes demonstrate how Miner uses language and literary techniques to convey his message. "The fundamental belief of the Nacirema is that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendencies are towards evil." (Miner, 1956)
In the study called Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, the author calls the rituals and ceremonies the people perform “excessive”. They are insane rituals that people in America wouldn’t seem to think about doing. They sound so different, and unusual. As one reads the fieldwork, it raises a lot of questions and concerns. To anyone from another country it would seem these rituals are excessive because of the way they are performed, and the things they use to perform them.
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. One of the rituals that Miner described as illogical but everyone still do the ritual was the fact that the people kept going to the “holy-mouth-man”, or also known as the dentist, even if their teeth are still decaying.
Marcelous Halloween Party it started at ten and ended at eight the next morning. We could be their by ten thirty. If we was not there by ten thirty they would have locked the doors, or when there was about 75 people there they would have lock the doors. Everybody didn’t wear a costume but Marcelous did. He was a Zombie Pirate.
When looking at an American account by James Walker, who was a physician on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, gave an account of the sacred pipe and is uses. Walker writes, “When a Lakota does anything in a formal manner he should first smoke the pipe. This is because the spirit in the pipe smoke is pleasing to Wanka-Tanka and to all spirits.” This quote by Walker expresses the importance that the Sacred Pipe had in daily life if one took time out of their day to smoke before doing something of importance. The connection with ancestors and with Wakan-Tanka through the smoke that is released through a sacred pipe and the importance within Lakota society shows the way that an object is able to bring a closer relationship with a God.
Through Battuta’s travels he learned and was shown many rituals of introduction and witnessed many ceremonies. One ceremony that was carried out, was one of Genghis Khan’s descendants he “watched the daily ceremony of this great Mongol King… noting their “handsome robes””. (Gordon, 107). When the Sultan held feast days Battuta went in depth when he described the poets and their costumes. He also described how they give their poems as “They stand up in ridiculous makeup and recite their poems”
The Huron-Wendat Feast of the Dead by Erik R. Seeman Introduction Two thousand Wendat Indians rested on the periphery of a gargantuan interment pit... they had the bones of approximately seven hundred dead friends and family unit members in their arms. The Wendat had devotedly scraped, as well as cleaned the corpse’s bones that had decayed on the gallows. They anticipated only the indicator from the ritual master to put the bones within the hollow.
