n the article, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, the author’s purpose is revealed through judgemental and magical word choice.…
I could only imagine how Horace Miner felt when entering the Nacirema village. At first glance he must have had culture shock when learning about the daily mouth cleansing and the temples where some enter and never return. I came to realize that western cultures share many of the same daily rituals just like the Nacirema. This non-material culture has many reglionist beliefs such has the use of witch doctors, medicine men, shrines and oddly enough the Nacirema woman bake their heads in oven. In evaluating the culture of the Nacirema we can break down each of the beliefs and compare them to…
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.…
The Nacirema are a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawark of the Antilles. Little is known about their origin but people believe that they came from the east. These people concentrate on the human body, which is their main concern which makes the Nacirema unique in their rituals and ways of thinking. The Nacirema believe that the human body is ugly in the sense that it’s not perfect because it’s weak and prone to catch diseases. They believe that the only way to rid of these characteristics is through rituals and ceremonies.…
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…
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 analysis of the article Body Ritual Among the Nacerima by Horace Minor uses key principles to help decipher the hidden meanings behind his work. The article is based off of Americans but written in a primitive manner to help show readers the importance of keeping an open mind. Cultural relativism is crucial when researching a new topic. This culture is different than others based on their obsession with physical appearance but it does not make them wrong. Also, the culture that practices different rituals has a different belief system. One culture may place great importance on preserving the land while…
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.…
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.…
Many of the practices Miner mentions in the article aren’t really strange to the Nacirema culture. But an outsider views the practices as odd. For example, Miner mentions about a shrine box, which translate to a medicine cabinet being strange to the outsider. The charms and magical potions in the shrine box being the medicine needed cure the ills and maladies of an individual. Medicine had a purpose of curing those maladies for many with similar ills. But the outsider views pulling out these magical packets is not something done in their culture or rather not seen as necessary. These charms and magical potions are given to the people by the medicine men, or rather doctors, psychiatrists, and pharmacists. Another strange practice to the outsider is the belief in the…
Most people don’t think much about the ancient civilizations that lived all over the world where current cities and towns have been established. Some day in the future, people in a history class might be studying about the past (like they are supposed to) and learn about this time period and how the people now contributed to their present day life. Without the ancient civilizations, we would not be anywhere near as advanced as we are now. The ancient cultures left behind architecture, religions, tools, and even writings and drawings. Their customs are remembered, discovered, and guessed at by archaeologists today. Just as our cultures today have similarities and differences, the cultures of the past did too. The people of the Indus River Valley, the Minoans, and the Vikings all had some things similar between them, but more things that were different. Some of their differences and similarities include geography, lifestyle, government, religious views, trade and agriculture, and the end of their civilizations. They all also have some major influences on our civilization today.…
History has been made up of many different cultures, each learning from each other, and previous ones. In Mesoamerica, there were many different cultures reigning at the same time, but there was always one stronger, and more accomplished than the rest among them were the Olmec, and the Teotihuacan cultures. Their artworks have helped us decipher the other artworks from other cultures before, during and after their times.…