n the article, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, the author’s purpose is revealed through judgemental and magical word choice.…
In this paper I discuss what point Horace Miner was trying to make is his paper titled "Body Ritual among the Nacirema". Horace’s paper is about America but in the perspective that America is a tribe of third world country or such. I go through the individual topics, which mostly make fun of American’s vanity, and I describe what he is really talking about. I try to summaries Horace’s paper and put it in “American” terms.…
The most interesting topic that was covered this quarter was in Week 2, Chapter 2: Culture and Society. This was also when the class read the article Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner. This whole week was so intriguing and diverse, one in particular term made a large impression on me, and this was “rituals” as explained by Barken (p. 36) This term and act initially brought a sense of familiarity among all cultures, ethnicity groups, and societies, because each one of us performs a ritual daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. These may vary from extreme acts, or conform to the social normality of going to the dentist every six months for a checkup. The mutual properties of this term is what I found to be the most interesting. From…
Horace Miner was attempting to illustrate a civilization that is similar to ours, who become victims of their culture. In this article I could see how rituals and beliefs could destroy a civilization. The Nacirema did unthinkable things to each other and to themselves they showed us how we can be our greatest and worst critic. Americans try to change themselves to meet a certain standard that we have created. We are not confident in who we are, so we start picking at the flaws we see in ourselves, that we think others see as well. Mr. Miner pointed out that there were certain rituals that could make you lose or gain weight; they also have some that are to enhance a woman’s bodily features. Today some of those “rituals” would be considered normal…
According to the article, the people of the Naciremea people believed in their physical appearance, pregnancy prevention, and health care needs. They believed their bodies was ugly and needed rituals and ceremonies to avert being healthy. The author used religious language to try to get people to understand how cultures are look upon differently. Naciremea is America spelled backwards. When I first read this article, I was in total disbelief and confused as why people live the way the author described.…
In “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” Miner writes about the rituals within a tribe. The tribe he talks about is America. Nacirema spelt backwards is America and it is located between Canada and Mexico. This article discusses about Americans and their everyday activities relating to their body and health. Although Miner’s analyses of Americans are absurd it is quite true. He disguises the bathroom as “cleaning shine”, medicine as “magical potion” and a psychiatrist as a “listener.” Cultural norms are certain behaviors that a society accepts as an entire. As it is accepted within the society it becomes a norm. There are different norms according to each culture. I found this article most interesting because Americans have many cultural beliefs…
The first thing I noticed about the article, Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner is that Nacirema is American spelled backwards. That caught my attention right away and I thought to myself how interesting. Then as I started reading further into the article, I realized that the Nacirema people are us. What I found most interesting about the Nacirema people is how obsessed and focused we are on our health and body. There is always a fad diet that guarantees amazing results or a new cross fit workout that will mold our body like those on American Ninja Warrior. I was bothered by the statement that said “the fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease” (McCutheon, 1). After I read this sentence…
The Nacirema tribe has many strange rituals in regards to the cleanliness or beauty of the body. They believe the human body is ugly and debilitating. Everything they do is in response to that thought process. They spend a large portion of their day in rituals to cleanse their body. They go to medicine men or witch doctors in order to perfect their body. One such horrific ritual is that they go to a medicine man that performs the decorative body rite.…
Broadly speaking, Horace Miner, the author of “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”, criticizes Nacirema’s uncivilized culture. In the article, Miner describes how the tribes perform the strange sadism rituals to very extreme level. The holy-mouth-man uses a variety of tool to enlarge the client’s mouth and put magical materials into the holes. What makes Miner more uncomfortable is that women even bake their head in small ovens for an hour. He thinks that “the magical beliefs and practices of Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go.” And Miner calls the Nacirema a masochistic and magic-ridden people.…
From Rite To Ritual is a painting by Danie Mellor created in 2009. This painting features various Australian native animals jumping and climbing all over the canvas. Those animals are the only features of the artwork in natural colours. The rest of the painting uses primarily blue and white for the curtains and floor and furniture. In the middle of the painting, there are four children seen dancing and playing together. This scene of aboriginal people and indigenous animals placed in a building that is clearly western illustrates the uneasy coexistence of the cultures. The scene depicts an almost forced interaction between the two cultures. The contrast of the traditions attracts the audiences attention and makes them…
Body Ritual among the Nacirema” tells the story of the “unusual aspect” lifestyle and the rituals of the Americans. Miner uses a unique approach to describe not Nacirema but the Americans by using an outsider's view, a person who does not understand American's lifestyle. Nacirema is American spelled backwards Miner writes about is every household having a “shrine room” and those individuals with more power contain more than one. He remarks that the shrines rituals ‘are not with family but are private”and the box or chest which contains “magical potions”. The “shrine room” Miner describes is the bathroom and the box with magical potions is the medicine cabinet. The most important potions are described to be obtained from the medicine man who writes it down on a piece of paper in an “ancient and secret language” then is taken to the herbalist. Miner is talking about the American culture the medicine men are doctors the ancient writing are the scribbles on the prescription forms that somehow the pharmacist can understand. This helps us (Americans) realize different things about our culture and see how others view our culture.…
The research article about the Nacirema culture focused on a heavily religious society. In which the indualives shape their whole lives around it. Most people in the culture have at least one shrine dedicated to their physical health. It’s custom for all of the household members to pray to the shrine at least once a day. Praying is a secluded activity in the Nacirema culture and it is believed to reinforce the individual’s relationship with the divine. There is a major emphasis on the mouth and how it relates to a person’s social interaction and relationships. The mouth was so empathized that the Nacirema people visit the “Holy-mouth-man” once or twice a year, who inspects their mouths of any evil spirits using special instruments. The ancient traditions of the Nacirema culture seems to have influenced western culture.…
“Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner discusses the ritual practice of Nacirema people, which is an ethnic group of people in America. In freshman year, I had a chance to take freshman seminar class about religion, so I know that even in one religion they have various way of ritual practice. The ritual practices are usually formed very early in the acient period of time, so most of them are unreasonable and superstitious. It is very interesting to read an article about the ritual practice of Nacirema people to understand more about a culture in the religious aspect. I was surprised to see that in every religion they usually have an image of God to worship, but Nacirema people does not. They worship to holy-mouth-man, medicine man,…
The Nacirema people value developing a religious connection with their deities because every family possesses at least one shrine in their home. They garnish and decorate their shrines with charms and other accoutrements and commune with them on a daily basis. The Nacirema people also put a lot of faith in their Medicine Men and Listeners, as a means of communing with the Divine through their rituals as a means to heal the sickly.…
First, the Nacirema have a "highly developed market economy which has evolved into a rich natural habitat" ("Body Ritual among the Nacirema, p. 1). The same might be said of Americans, where virtually everything is bought and sold. The ritual activities for the human body with which the Nacirema are obsessed could be compared to the elaborate grooming rituals of average Americans: bathing and showering, blow-drying hair, brushing and flossing teeth, applying underarm deodorants and colognes or perfumes, shaving the face (for men) and legs and underarms (for women), putting on make-up (in the past, for women only, but sometimes, now, for men, too), and cutting, trimming, bleaching, brushing, coloring, curling, or otherwise manipulating the hair. Increasingly, many Americans go so far as to but sticky, gooey little strips of some substance or other on both the top and bottom layers of their teeth and leave them there for up to half an hour each day, to make them whiter. Americans complain often of extreme tooth sensitivity due to this practice, but refuse to cease this ritual. Clearly, between grooming and attending to their advanced market economy, Americans, like the Nacirema, have little time left over for any, more idle endeavors. Also Americans, like the Nacirema, consider the human body fundamentally ugly and in need of…