This article by Horace Miner is, in a way, a comparison that is used to describe the American society. After reading the article for a couple of times, I came to realize that the name of the tribe, Nacirema, is American spelled backwards. Article also states that the tribe and its culture are characterized by highly developed market economy, which is also characteristic of the economy of the Unites States. What is so unusual for civilization living in such advanced economy and market are their rituals and traditions. The people from Nacirema culture pay great attention to their health and were ready to deal with irrational pain levels and procedures to achieve health and great looks, just like we are nowadays. This is a negative characteristic of a society. When too much attention is placed on physical looks, people begin to loose sight of what is really important and became superficial in their thinking and judging of others based on their appearance. Their main place of prayer takes place at a shrine. Shrine is the synonym for the bathroom. The chest built into wall is mirror, featuring medicine cabinet and other things we can’t imagine our daily life without. Medicine men are doctors, and holy mouth men are dentists. We can see that the similarities between Americans and the Nacirema people are obvious, when comparing …show more content…
I think that the negatives of the today’s society are dedicating too much time to physical look ad what’s on the outside. Another segment is taking preventive medicine a step further then we should. People take more pills then what they can remember the uses for, even though most of the time they don’t even have the use for them. This isn’t helping our bodies, and actually might even do us
Body Ritual among the Nacirema was written by Horace Miner in 1956. This piece was crafted as an excellent accumulation of the techniques of ironic, symbolism and use of a didactic tone that made this piece a great success. An example of where irony is used in the text is the way he makes us see the tribe as foreign and exotic and we judge it, but then we realize that Nacirema is American spelled backwards and the reader see that it is not a foreign tribe - but indeed the modern American people themselves. There is also mass irony around Notgnihsaw and the chopping down of the cherry tree in which the Spirit of Truth resided, because Notgnihsaw spelled backwards is Washington. Miner is using irony because America is supposed to be built on
Modern America has a few similarities with the Natives that are carried over time, too what is now known as the new modern style in America. Instead, the Natives do still keep their practice the same and nothing has changed. The essay Herold Miner wrote; the body Ritual of Nacirema, describe a native’s tradition everyday lives by giving themselves a safe place to price possessions and the body modification on a native women. Today, the same tradition is still carried on, but in a different modern way it is done from what the natives usually do.
I think that Horace Miner was attempting to be satirical in describing American culture in order for other anthropologist to look at their own culture more subjectively. He calls the tribe Nacirema, or American spelled backwards and calls everyday objects by there more literal names, like charm box (medicine cabinet) and mouth-rite ritual (brushing your teeth). Miner makes us think that this is a Native American tribe to play off our thoughts and stereotypes that we may have. He wants us to think this is a tribe of backwards people when in fact he is describing Americans. For example, he talks about the chest built into the wall of the shrine that holds magical potions that no one believes they could live without and people seek out the
Guadalupe Gutierrez Professor Huld Anthropology 102 The Nacirema I have never heard of the Nacirema until now. Learning about them was both interesting and appalling. What I learned about them is that they really care about their appearance or obsessed about their appearance.
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
Something called “Medicine Men and Women” are spiritual leaders who use herbs to heal sick people. It’s very important to have spiritual leaders because they are the one’s to provide for the sickness of people, they play a huge role in people's lives so that’s why they're so important to the Native Americans religion. Now in closing, I have learned a lot of new things that I have never seen or heard of
This part of the book deeply investigates the agriculture, culture, customs, and religion of the area. This helps the reader grasp the importance of culture and how it affects the reaction of a culture during a disastrous time. “ To speak of culture is to speak of elements that help shape human behavior- the inhibitions that govern it from inside, the rules that control it from the outside, the languages and philosophies that serve to edit a people’s experience of life, the customs and rituals that help define how one person should relate to another. To speak of culture is to speak of those forces that promote uniformity of thought and action” (Erikson, 1976, p81). Understanding the culture of the settlers of the area helps to bring about better understanding of the survivors reaction to the
Although Native Americans are characterized as both civilized and uncivilized in module one readings, their lifestyles and culture are observed to be civilized more often than not. The separate and distinct duties of men and women (Sigard, 1632) reveal a society that has defined roles and expectations based on gender. There are customs related to courtship (Le Clercq, 1691) that are similar to European cultures. Marriage was a recognized union amongst Native Americans, although not necessarily viewed as a serious, lifelong commitment like the Europeans (Heckewelder, 1819). Related to gender roles in Native American culture, Sigard writes of the Huron people that “Just as the men have their special occupation and understand wherein a man’s duty consists, so also the women and girls keep their place and perform quietly their little tasks and functions of service”.
When professor Linton brought forth the attention of anthropologists to the Nacirema culture there was a lot of things about their traditions that were different than that of our own, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t also some similarities as well. As crude and vastly spiritual these people are it is rather impressive that they managed to survive for as long as they did living their rather extreme lifestyle. The people back then also had different social classes like we do now, they also had what we call surgeons to fix their imperfections, and they also have the same kind of cleanliness as we do when it comes down to our bodies. Some differences would be in their rituals we don’t go to those extremes to make sure we are okay spiritually. We also don’t believe that if we don’t take care of our teeth no one will love us.
They were often disregarded in society, and were believed to be corrupt, unwise, uncivil, etc. However, their history shows a generous amount of similarities in which they share with other cultures, which points out that they are not what they are generally understood to be. The creation story begins with a pregnant virgin woman, which draws similarity to the universally acknowledged story of Virgin Mary. This similarity shines light on how ideas of creation are universal. Natives are not an exception.
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)
When one thinks of racism, our minds thinks of African Americans or Hispanics and their history of being victims of racial hate in the past and today. We rarely even consider that Native American tribes of today if whether they experience the same type of racial and cultural hate. Living conditions on the reservations have been comparable to that of a third world nation. It is irrational to efficiently explain the many concerns that have added to the trials and tribulations that Native America faces today. The following evidences about the highest pressing matters of economics, health, and shelter gives a clue to what life was like for many of the first Americans.
If this scenario is viewed in isolation it will be a personal problem but if it is viewed under the microscope of social imagination it will reveal that due to society’s high standards and obsession with beauty has effected number of people in society. In a nutshell Social imagination is being able to distinguish personal problems
Not Just a Bowl Beauty is one of the main foci in society today where selfies, beauty enhancement or plastic surgery, celebrities, and the media reign over society—constantly defining what people should aim for in terms of appearance. Appearances are everything to many people rather than inner beauty such as character and values. In turn, this beauty-obsessed world has led to people becoming more shallow, superficial, and unaccepting towards anything besides the “norm.” It is quite ironic to have a “norm” considering how each individual is different and live in different cultures and such. People are not meant to be or look the same neither should they adhere to a certain standard in which someone else has established.
Addition, more people are beginning to care about their body size and health because of the media. The people who are overweight, having diabetes or want to become