Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Analysis

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. In “The Melting Pot” by Anne Fadiman writes about the Lee family who experience culture shock. The Lee family arrived in America in 1980 and are currently living in
We may think we are normal, but to other cultures we are very strange. When in reality, we are just as strange as other cultures are to us. Miner wants us to realize that we should learn to respect other culture’s beliefs, lifestyles, and daily rituals. The Melting Pot discusses the difficulties refugees face and that is culture shock. Anne addresses the problem of refugees, and other who have difficulty adopting new customs and cultures. These two articles discuss American culture and how many fund it difficult to adapted it to their daily routine and