The Nacireman Tribe

While in the process of doing a replication study of the Nacireman people, Anthropologist Lisa Hines stumbled upon an intriguing subculture within the tribe. The following are her observations;

It seems that the people of Nacirema, in addition to their personal shrines in the home, have many other shrines they visit for different rituals and purposes. Besides the Holy-mouth-man and the Medicine man, there seems to be other subcultures of these two specialists. Naciremans also frequently gather in great numbers to worship the lower levels of species that inhabit their continent as well as its surrounding waters. Ironically, the very creatures they worship now, used to be killed, captured, murdered and/or eaten in their recent history.
The reason for this change of heart is unknown, one can only speculate that the Nacireman people hunted these creatures so fiercely that many species have become difficult to find, thus cutting into their food and labor supply. In an effort to appease the gods attached to each of these creatures, and an appeal to repopulate the species, they have erected temples to house one or a mated pair of each subspecies. There are two types of temples that house these creatures. One contains land animals of the continent as well as a variety from continents and islands throughout the planet, presumably from lands of early migration of the Naciremans. This land animal temple is called an Ooz. The other type of temple houses creatures from the waters surrounding the Nacireman continent and similar to the Ooz, from waters of other geographical locations as well. Studies are still being conducted in an attempt to find a correlation between the tribe and their choice of creatures to house in the temple. The only pattern found so far is; the less of an animal there is, the more prized and revered the creature is. This type of temple is called a Muirauqa. Each of these temples contained separate smaller temples, each devoted to it’s unique inhabitant. Very seldom is one creature’s presence allowed to soil the subtemple of another. It can be inferred by observing these creatures in their natural habitat, that housing some with others would cause great disaster resulting in the loss of one or the other species, therefore segregation is of the utmost necessity. Capturing some of these creatures to replace losses would be costly and dangerous and is ill advised given the dwindling numbers of many of the species.
Naciremans come for miles around to worship these creatures of the Ooz, and they have special subservient caretakers assigned to each creature as well.
When some of the more aggressive creatures require sustenance, the caretaker enters the shrine of each creature as if it is his life depends on it, angering the animal could result in the caretakers last moments on the planet. He slips in quickly, sliding food to the corner of the shrine, slowly and quietly moving to clean the creatures waste, and slipping out undetected. This job is reserved for only the bravest of the Nacireman tribe, as many lives have been lost in the evolution and developments of these temples. Many of these creatures choose to reward their followers with a performance indicative of their particular talents, but refuse to continue if not provided edible rewards for each display of intelligence. Many times, disrespectful followers have been smote by the creatures during these performances. I personally witnessed an adult male Nacireman poking a particularly vicious creature with a stick, it was called a Regit. The Regit swiftly relieved the tribesman of his arm as a
result.
The other temple I mentioned, the Muirauqa, is very similar to the Ooz, but only houses shrines devoted to creatures native to living in or near saltwater.
The biggest difference to this observer is that the creatures on average seem to be more docile; with the exception of a few species dominated by something they call a Krahs. These creatures also seem to be more graceful as a whole from the Ooz creatures, most likely because they live in water. They also require larger habitats and more frequent feedings. In return they delight their worshippers with many more entertaining displays of agility and intelligence. These creatures prefer their water habitats, and therefore, are less likely to smite their followers. Their anger is directed more often to their caretakers who are not cautious or gentle enough for their liking while entering the creature’s domain. One creature that truly fascinated me was called a Rillek Elahw. This creature is commonly known to be a vicious man-eating monster in its natural habitat, yet his shrine and followers seem to make him want to please the masses. He’s even been known to grace some of the juvenile Naciremans with his kiss. This type of temple seems to be so popular with young and old alike that many Naciremans attempt to create smaller Muirauqas within their own homes. Some are successful and receive awe and admiration from their peers. The not so lucky end up killing one or more of these worshipped animals, they are then shunned by
society, stoned in the streets, and often sacrificed to a vengeful god called ATEP, never to be seen again.
In my observations of the Nacirema with respect to these two types of temples, it seems to me that their violent ways with the creatures of this planet has evolved into a reverence that may one day lead to an evolution involving peace with their ecology. They have even entered into small battles with other tribes in an effort to protect the beautiful creatures they worship. Their only downfall to this phase of their evolution may be another subculture of the Naciremans known as Snaicitilop, but that is the stuff of a much different study 