“Body Rituals among the Nacirema” is a book written by Mr. Horace Miner. Miner was
“Body Rituals among the Nacirema” is a book written by Mr. Horace Miner. Miner was
n the article, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, the author’s purpose is revealed through judgemental and magical word choice.…
In the article Body Ritual Among The Nacirema by Horace Miner, he makes fun of people’s weaknesses, mistakes, foolishness, and wrong behavior. He uses confusing vocabulary words to make it hard for use to know who the article is talking about. Miner refers Nacirema as to America. He wanted to make Nacirema seem magical and silly by describing them as born with behaviors. Miner also, believes that Nacierma do bizarra thing because he does not understand the meaning behind their behavior. One of the behavior is the belief in the ugliness of human body. In society, we are told what is pretty from what is ugly. This is determined by models, hairdressers, barber shop, spa, and infomercial. As a society, we have the power to decided what is right…
When I read Body Rituals Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner the first time, I couldn’t imagine how a culture could behave this way and live their daily lives following these rituals. They believed that their bodies were ugly and its natural tendency was to debility and disease. They devoted much of their time trying to prevent these characteristics…
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.…
After reading the article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, I can’t help but notice blatantly obvious similarities between our culture and theirs. Their rituals, rites, and customs are bizarre in nature and seem to illustrate a nearly obsessive fascination with the human body. The main focus of their culture appears to be shaming people based on their appearance and forcing them to conform to the societal norms. Upon further reading, I noted that while the Nacirema put a high value on the upkeep of their bodies, they made it exorbitantly expensive to do so, even if a tribe member was dying of sickness and the supplies, or “potions”, were readily available to cure him/her. This seemed backwards. There are some aspects of the Nacirema culture…
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…
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,…
1.) The Nacirema excerpt is written by Horace Miner from the etic or outside perspective describing a ‘backward’ culture with weird beliefs and rituals. The purpose of this essay is to address some critical questions and desire at the heart of anthropology. How do we understand other people who are strange, odd, and different. Why do people do what they do. How do we know our descriptions are accurate?…
Ethnocentrism is defined as the “belief in the intrinsic of the nation, culture, or group to which one belongs, often accompanied by feeling of dislikes for other groups”. Ethnocentrism. (n.d.). Ethnocentric individuals believe that they are better than other individuals for reasons based solely on their heritage. Clearly, this practice is related to problems of both racism and prejudice. Ethnocentrism is a powerful force that weakens human relations. Ethnocentrism can be detrimental to a society, because it can lead to false opinions about the differences with cultures which then can often lead to falsified communication between the majority human beings.…
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.…
Some examples that ethnocentrism may be detrimental to a society: The negative effects do clearly exist, [ although the highly excessive forms of ethnocentrism prevalent in the early twentieth century ? which is when William Graham Sumner coined the term ? are not equally relevant today in the twenty-first century. Having coined the term, Graham went on to state that an ethnocentric viewpoint of the world only leads to pride and vanity. This pride often results in being fond of one's own way of life to such an extent that one harbors feelings of contempt towards other cultures. For instance, ethnocentrism within a European society has led to practices such as polygamy and the eating of dogs ? not considered aberrant in certain societies ? to be looked…
Ethnocentrisms is using the standards of one’s own group, culture , or subculture to evaluate the characteristics of other groups cultures and subcultures, generally from the point of view that one’s own characteristics are superior.(Down to Earth Sociology, James M. Henslin,2007). Ethnocentrisms can be detrimental to a society because the members of other groups can lead to racism or violence within a society. It has a negative effect and is the main cause of many social problems, such as slavery and war.…
Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values of ones own culture .The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups related to his particular ethnic group or culture especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion .Ethnocentric individuals believe that they are better than other individuals for reasons based solely on their heritage .Ethnocentrism can be defined as making false assumptions about others ways based on our own limited experience .Ethnocentrism is nearly universal syndrome attitudes and behavior include cooperation with members of in group not out group .Ethnocentrism is a universal human reaction found in all known societies, in all groups and in practically all individuals . Every one learns ethnocentrism while growing up.…