Laura A Lewis’s Hall of Mirrors attempts to explain the social hierarchy of early New Spain society and argues that through sanctioned and unsanctioned domains that dominate every day life; consequently, society’s layer are intertwined and often conflict and influence each other in New Spain society. The term sanctioned domain refers to rules of society that were handed down and enforced from the Spanish government and distributed through the lower rungs of society(5). The term unsanctioned domain pertains to acts that were considered to go against Spanish moral and religious beliefs. Unsanctioned acts consisted of witchcraft which could be broken down into dealings with the devil, and use of “black Magic”(6). Sanctioned and unsanctioned domains are the threads that interlocked all layers of new early Spain society.…
Barbara Myeroff, of Peyote Hunt, The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians, writes of the rituals within the Huichol religion and generalizes, “Rituals occur, significantly, in dangerous situations” (239). These dangerous situations often occur as a result of a time of change and the dangers may either be a literal physical risk to well-being or it can be a perceived fear. It is interpreted that ritual can be utilized to stabilize a variety of dangerous changing environments to meet societal norms, so that the danger may be controlled.…
Furthermore, Underhill’s weaknesses in approaching the study qualitatively are only matched by her ability to effectively describe many of the contemporary customs of the Papago tribe, most of which had prevailed over hundreds of years. She relates the tribe’s unwavering piety to relay animal stories only during particular seasons, the social conventions that govern Papago interactions, and even the tribe’s attitude towards child-rearing. She discusses the lack of thanks in Papago communication and that gifts are repaid with other gifts and are…
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 Rituals Among the Nacirema, “ by Horace Miner, is an essay written about the Nacirema, or American people, from an outsider’s perspective. Miner gives an insight on the Nacireman people, which he describes in his essay as an unknown tribe, and the completing of the Nacireman’s magical beliefs and practices, which involve daily, involuntary body rituals that cause much pain and discomfort. Miner shows how an outsider’s perspective can affect the way a culture is seen.…
Shaki, or Napoleon A. Chagnon’s 15 month enculturation with the Yanomamo tribe, Bisaasi-teri is characterized by fear, discomfort, loneliness, nosiness, and invaluable experiences through relationships and modesty about human culture. Chagnon documents the experience through the struggle and discovery surrounding his proposed research, as his lifestyle gradually comes in sync with the natural functions of his community. Much of his focus and time was consumed by identification of genealogical records, and the establishment of informants and methods of trustworthy divulgence. Marriage, sex, and often resulting violence are the foremost driving forces within Yanomamo, and everything that we consider part of daily routine is completely unknown and inconsequential to them. Traveling between neighboring tribes, he draws conclusions about intertribal relations, especially concerning marriage and raiding. Chagnon deals with cultural complexity that takes time to decipher, and in process, potential risk. Confronted with seemingly trivial situations, they often become unexpected phenomena and Chagnon’s adherence to documentation is amazing. He encounters personal epiphanies that I find intriguing, related to privacy and hygiene. This report becomes an inspiring document of an extreme anthropologic lifestyle as much as it is a cultural essay.…
The abundance of sustainable items derived from the forest; such as; food, household products and the training in gathering these nuts, fruits, products used to make soap and other household goods from a young age within the Teduray, economically was quite impressive to Schlegal and me. Although the Teduray do not believe in hierarchy and do not assign roles; they do have specialties roles such as; fisherman, basket weaver, legal, or shaman. All Teduray have at least one if not more specialty and storytelling is a specific one in which “old ways” of telling must be possessed by the…
Over 50 years ago, Horace Miner published a study on the Nacirema Tribe. In the study he talked about their body rituals, and revealed to the world every strange ritual these people had. After reading this study, I decided to do one for myself. So I visited the Nacirema tribe. The things I observed still puzzles me.…
In the paper, Miner describes the Nacirema, a little-known tribe living in North America. The way in which he writes about the curious practices that this group performs distances readers from the fact that the North American group described actually corresponds to modern-day Americans of the mid-1950s. The article sometimes serves as a demonstration of a gestalt shift with relation to sociology.…
In the essay “Body Ritual Among the “Nacirema”, anthropologist Horace Miner describes a group of people known as the Nacirema, a little known tribe living in North America. The way in which he writes about the curious practices that this group performs, distances readers from the fact that the North American group described actually corresponds to modern day Americans of the mid 1950’s. The Nacirema’s cultural beliefs are deeply rooted in the perspective that the human body is prone to sickness and disfiguration. Consequently, a substantial part of their lives are spent on unusual rituals and customs to improve conditions of the body that are filled with magical components.…
The father is responsible for enhancing the beauty of his child from the time when a child is only a few months old. The first thing that a father does is decorate the baby with shells in order to make "socially beautiful", and it also provides the child with its first political step in life. After the father decorates his child with shells, if he intends to give his child a necklace, he must first provide them with tortoise earrings. The male and female earrings vary by decoration, but are almost the same. Like everything else in the Trobriand culture, there is a way to tell the families stature by the earrings. It depends upon the amount of shells that are in the child's ear, so the more tortoise shells a child has, it shows that the child's family is of that much greater wealth or…
In the mid-nineteenth century a girl named Ni-bo-wi-se-gwe (Oona) was born in pitch darkness in the middle of the day when the sun and moon crossed paths. The book Night Flying Woman by Ignatia Broker is biography of Broker’s great-great-grandmother, Oona. It describes Oona’s life through what Broker has learned from her grandparents when they passed down the stories. In the book, one of the main themes is passing traditions on. I chose this theme because in the book, passing traditions on is major part of the characters’ culture. Passing traditions on is a practice that is important to many cultures and it effectively connects generations of people through experiences and stories.…
Horace Miner writes about the Nacirema, a culture steeped in magic and superstition. Their ways of life are portrayed as uncivilized and barbaric. The Nacirema perform rituals and rites that are strange to us here in the civilized world. The description and portrayal of this tribe make it very hard for the reader to connect or even begin to understand such a strange people. Miner starts of the article creating an atmosphere of wonderment; “if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he(anthropologist) is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe”(Miner:1956:503). And that tribe is the Nacirema, a foreign and strange people to whom we in the western world could never relate. However, if ones look closely at the text and the hints provided, it is clear that Horace Miner has tricked us into ethnocentrism, all the while describing to us the American culture. In fact the word Nacirema is American spelled backward. The Body Rituals of the Nacirema is in fact a satire on the American culture of the 1950’s.…
I hope you are getting over the flu you had last Friday. I’ve had it before and I felt absolutely terrible. I know it has been going around campus, and I see you were one of the unlucky ones to get it. Hopefully, you will get better soon, but please don’t come to class until you are well, because I don’t want to get sick! Anyways, in class Friday we discussed a passage titled, The Culture of Thin Bites Fiji, written by Ellen Goodman. This writing argues that the skinny culture of the United States is responsible for damaging the Fijian teens.…
You wouldn’t resist hearing the beautiful harmony produced naturally by the voices of these three youngsters. They are the winners of the PNG Digicel Stars 3 competition 2012, The GLEAMERS! From thousands across Papua New Guinea who auditioned for the singing competition, several battled in the 6 (six) heats and only a few made it to the grand finale. Surprisingly, the Gleamers snatched every Papua New Guineans dream of becoming a DIgicel Star.…