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Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Summary

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Rituals are a part of what makes a society. In order to understand someone of a different sociological background you must think outside of the box. Culture is typically based on rituals in which culture defines its reality and acceptable behavior and chooses its authorities. Rituals are typically described as what you do on a regular basis, which is repeated for a long period of time. In the article ‘Body Ritual Among the Nacirema’ written by Horace Miner he goes on to describe the culture and rituals of the Nacirema. A group of North Americans that are found “between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles.” Throughout the article he describes American rituals from an outsiders point …show more content…

I have never been able to understand our culture in an outsider point of view as well put as Horace had done. I felt as though I was reading about an indigenous group of people and how they lived their everyday lives. I had much sympathy for those people while reading the article. It was impossible to believe that people lived like that. Until towards the end of the article I realized that the author was describing my own society and how our everyday lives are lived. It was a bit hard for me to wrap my mind around. Horace was right when describing the temple also known as our hospital. It’s a shame that we must pay to be seen even when extremely ill and pay to leave. I never liked that idea when going to the emergency room, knowing that in about an hour there would be a bill collector coming to your room while you are in pain to collect. The author also describes how much appearance is important to us. In what point of time did we allow our society to tell us what is and is not beautiful. People worried about what others would say or losing friends because their teeth are not perfect or they are not skinny enough. Your appearance should not take away from the person you are on the inside. We entrust dentist and plastic surgeons to cause pain to our bodies to meet societies expectations of beauty and spend thousands in the

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