Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Edward Hamilton Sociology Professor January 15‚ 2014 The “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner‚ is an article that examines the various rituals that manifests within industrialized societies‚ specifically referencing to the United States. In the article Miner joked about the invasion of privacy and the obsession of becoming immortal. Miner provides gives outstanding evidence that the characteristics or an attitude of the human
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RELATIVISM AND MORALITY Lenn Goodman offers a very good argument about his idea of the things that are wrong. I agree with his argument that four of the things that we should look to in whatever being we worship are “(1) genocide‚ politically induced famine‚ and germ warfare; (2) terrorism‚ hostage taking‚ and child warriors; (3) slavery‚ polygamy‚ and incest; and (4) rape and female genital cutting.” (Goodman‚ Project Muse‚ pg 88) When Goodman talks about genocide‚ famine‚ and germ warfare
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Prior to the nineteenth century‚ individuals often linked the concept of evil with God. Thus‚ when an individual committed a devious act‚ it was believed that the creator possessed the ability to punish society how he pleased. This ideology lasted until the late 1700’s‚ when a catastrophic event permanently altered how individuals rationalize. The disastrous event was none other than the Lisbon earthquake. In essence‚ this incident was a culture shock for people in society‚ which overturned previous
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I believe the act of deliberately sacrificing another human being is morally wrong‚ but there are some cases where it is justifiable. I also believe that cultural relativism plays a role in this‚ and that some societies view sacrificing others as morally right and that culture needs to be taken into consideration. An example of this is the killing of female babies in the Inuit culture. Female babies were killed due to a high death rate among men‚ who were hunters‚ which led to a surplus of females
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Cultural Relativism and Child Labor Child Labor The use of child labor in developing nations is not a moral issue‚ it is a cultural one. International corporations should not let the moral argument or current legislation such as the Child Labor Deterrence Act (CLDA) influence how and where they conduct operations. Grounded in what appears as legitimate concern for children‚ proposed legislation such as the CLDA hinder the potential growth and progress of developing nations by limiting the number
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Ethnocentrism refers to an individual who sees‚ thinks‚ and idealizes with the idea that his cultural background and nationality is beyond better than that of others. In today’s modern and complex society‚ many Americans tend to live by this belief or idea of ethnocentrism; they believe they are better off‚ because the United States of America is looked at‚ thought of‚ and respected as one of the most powerful and decorated nations in the world today. Despite having different beliefs based on culture
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agree on a set of morals to abide by‚ and therefore our world is saturated with the ideals of moral relativism‚ whether or not we see it blatantly. Moral relativism is often given the stigma of sprouting impurity or immorality‚ given the fact that it does not accept that there is a universal moral codex. As the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy states‚ the “most serious objection to moral relativism
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Cultural Relativism Introduction According to www.gotquestions.org/cultural-relavitsim‚ cultural relativism is the view that all beliefs‚ customs‚ and ethics are related to the social norms and culture that one comes from. In other words‚ right and wrong or good and bad are culture-specific‚ meaning that what is reflected moral in one society may be reflected immoral in another. Therefore‚ since no collective standard of morality subsists‚ no one has the right to judge another society’s customs
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point has‚ in fact‚ been expressed with respect to clan organization by Murdock (1949: 71).[2] In this light‚ the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go. Professor Linton [3] first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists twenty years ago (1936: 326)‚ but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood. They are a North American
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Does Ethical Relativism really exist? Ethical relativism is based on society and also individual’s desires. With that being said ethical relativism varies from culture to culture and person to person. Does this mean that ethical relativism is any less of a valid theory than other theories? We shall find out in the next 3 pages. Joseph Ratzinger once said “having a clear faith based on the creed of the church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism‚ which is letting
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