Nacirema American Spelled Backward Analysis

Nacirema, American spelled backward, is a satire paper attempting to force Americans to evaluate their culture and look at it in a different way. By using words that are obscure, atypical and abnormal to describe very common American practices, the paper offers a strange way of defining our culture. One instance in the paper was how Americans hold importance in oral hygiene and use tooth brushes and tooth paste to brush our teeth daily. The author describes this as a “mouth-rite” and a “revolting” daily body ritual. What we understand to be brushing our teeth is illustrated as “inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures” (Miner,