Horace Miner’s article first prepares us to find an example of the extremes to which human behhavior can go. He gives us the locations of the Nacirema‚their myth of origin and their market orientation. He introduces his topic ritual activity‚the main point of the article of which is the human body‚the way it looks and health. "The fundamental beliefunderlyinig the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease." Nacirema people work
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When I first read the title of this article‚ I realized Nacirema is American backwards. Horace Miner’s article Body Ritual among the Nacirema is about the way a group of North Americans and their culture. Nacirema’s people lived in the early 1900’s and these people were extremely obsessed with body rituals. During one of these rituals men used what’s described as a chisel to scrap faces. These rituals are usually done in what’s described as a shrine area where there’s potions and medicine to be
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article‚ “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner‚ the author’s purpose is revealed through judgemental and magical word choice. The author’s purpose is shown through his judgmental word choice. For example‚ to describe going to the dentist he uses the words‚ “ritual torture”‚ “augers‚ awls‚ probes and prods” and “gouge.” All of the words that Horace Miner used to describe going to the dentist sound negative and foul. The words make people judge the Nacirema for doing these ill sounding “rituals”
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The most interesting topic that was covered this quarter was in Week 2‚ Chapter 2: Culture and Society. This was also when the class read the article Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner. This whole week was so intriguing and diverse‚ one in particular term made a large impression on me‚ and this was “rituals” as explained by Barken (p. 36) This term and act initially brought a sense of familiarity among all cultures‚ ethnicity groups‚ and societies‚ because each one of us performs a ritual
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“Body Rituals among the Nacirema” is an article written by Horace Miner about a group of people‚ the Nacirema‚ and their everyday functions or rituals. Miner relates the culture‚ practices‚ values‚ and beliefs of a seemingly exotic and strange tribe. He vividly and descriptively describes behaviors and activities that are interpreted as unusual and strange. The tribe Miner depicts seems primal and uncivilized‚ and yet somewhat familiar. They are a “North American group living in the territory between
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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
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Horace Miner Response Horace Miner’s essay "Body Ritual Among The Nacirema" is deeper then a clever critique of the absurdities of the American culture. Other then mocking the science of anthropology‚ Miner shows how an outsider would view America. This sight would not be much different from an American viewing an uncivilized village in the middle of the forest. Miner’s essay extensively proves that the culture of America is not very different then many other civilizations. The perspective
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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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Activity I could only imagine how Horace Miner felt when entering the Nacirema village. At first glance he must have had culture shock when learning about the daily mouth cleansing and the temples where some enter and never return. I came to realize that western cultures share many of the same daily rituals just like the Nacirema. This non-material culture has many reglionist beliefs such has the use of witch doctors‚ medicine men‚ shrines and oddly enough the Nacirema woman bake their heads in oven
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In Nacirema‚ Horace Miner uses satire and wordplay to teach us how easy it is to judge cultures that we don’t know much about. Miner is sneakily describing American culture‚ their entire way of life including both material and symbolic elements‚ the whole time77. Miner is trying to teach us that ethnocentrism‚ using your own culture as a standard to evaluate another‚ leads to the belief that other cultures are inferior78. Instead‚ we should be using cultural relativism‚ understanding other cultures
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