The Nacirema People: Sadistic Exploiters? It’s difficult to say whether or not a different culture‚ other than my own is politically correct in the ways they go about their daily lives‚ but after reading the article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner‚ it got me to question; What type of society are we making out our culture to be? Often people look at different cultures as primitive and contradictory through the eyes of ethnocentrism‚ and after reading this article
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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. I noticed that everyday around the same time at daybreak‚ young Naciremas are awaken by an unusual noise coming from some sort of object. I have never in my life heard such an agitating sound. The young Nacirema then changes
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The rituals of the Nacirema To most of us‚ hospitals are a place to help you when you’re in need or want to get healthy. But for the Nacirema‚ it’s quite the opposite. According to the Nacirema ritual article‚ they call hospitals a latipso‚ which is hospital spelt backwards without the ‘H’. They discuss and caricature the repulsive viewings on what they think goes on in hospitals (latipso’s)‚ or what they think they do. I will now tell you how in Miner’s perspective‚ the body is ugly and how
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The Nacirema people‚ living in the territory between the Canadian Creed‚ the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico‚ and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles‚ are a group of Northern Americans who have chosen to live their lives in a strange manner. There is a main premise to their choice of lifestyle and that is to rid the body of its ugliness and natural tendencies towards debility and disease. (p. 503). The Nacirema people have devoted their lives to deterring these features of themselves through ritual
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In our day of age‚ we as the United States of America usually believe that we are better than other countries. A lot of people even get into debate on this subject. This is where the definition of ethnocentrism comes to play‚ which is how we tend to view other cultures based on how we compare it to our own culture‚ which makes us believe wrong things about that cultures or even judge that cultures in a bad light. But we should not do this because other cultures have their way of doing things for
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"Body Rituals among the Nacirema" is a document written by Mr. Horace Miner. Miner was a graduate of the University of Chicago‚ with a degree in anthropology. Throughout his life‚ Miner was dedicated to his studies ranging in anthropology to sociology. He was very interested in the study of anthropology‚ but Miner disagreed with the way that other cultures were represented. He thought American anthropologists believed that the American culture was "normal" and‚ that the other studied cultures
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the Nacirema” by Horace Miner discusses the ritual practice of Nacirema people‚ which is an ethnic group of people in America. In freshman year‚ I had a chance to take freshman seminar class about religion‚ so I know that even in one religion they have various way of ritual practice. The ritual practices are usually formed very early in the acient period of time‚ so most of them are unreasonable and superstitious. It is very interesting to read an article about the ritual practice of Nacirema people
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Ethnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one’s ethnic or cultural group is centrally important‚ and that all other groups are measured on one’s own cultural value. Ethnocentrism happens when one culture or nation places itself at the top of a self proclaimed hierarchy of cultures and nations and subsequently assigns other cultures and nations equivalent or lower value based on that scale. In other words‚ it is the proneness to think other cultures are of lesser worth because it is different
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systems used to compare cultures in sociology: ethnocentrism; the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture (Macionis)‚ and cultural relativism; the practice of judging a culture by its own standards (Macionis). Since we are raised in our own culture‚ it is easiest to use ethnocentrism‚ because it comes natural to judge by our own standards. From studying “Body Rituals Among The Nacirema”‚ it is obvious that the Nacirema people have unusual and extreme customs. Using
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The Nacirema are a culture of vast ethnic diversity‚ yet the majority still share numerous similarities despite their unique trace origins. In the Nacirema culture there are many conventional values that most individuals try to adhere to‚ albeit the varying degrees of adherence due to their unique sub-cultures. The most prominent values are: treating all adult(18yrs) individuals equally with regards to making decisions about their leaders and allowing individuals to follow their own spiritual beliefs
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