General Anthropology Body Ritual Among the Nacirema ` In this article anthropologist‚ Horace Miner writes about the depiction of the North American group called the Nacirema‚ described by a Professor Linton in the early 1900s. The Nacirema people were characterised as being obsessed with rituals about the vanity of the human body. There is a description of a shrine with medicines and magical materials placed inside. A daily ritual that is described is “scraping and lacerating the surface of
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The article Body Ritual among the Nacirema is about the characterizes of the Naciremas‚ a North American group of people. Their lives are dedicating to their charm-box in which is a major need for them to complete their rituals and everyday life. Each house has a charm-box or a treasure chess in these they place their charms and medicines and magical materials that they believe in. Their daily mores they do is that every day each member of the family enters the shrines room and bow their head before
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article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”‚ I can’t help but notice blatantly obvious similarities between our culture and theirs. Their rituals‚ rites‚ and customs are bizarre in nature and seem to illustrate a nearly obsessive fascination with the human body. The main focus of their culture appears to be shaming people based on their appearance and forcing them to conform to the societal norms. Upon further reading‚ I noted that while the Nacirema put a high value on the upkeep of their bodies‚ they
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Body Rituals of the Nacirema tells a story of a tribal group’s lifestyle and the rituals of it. Miner is actually talking about the American culture. As most of us know‚ Nacirema is American spelled backwards. In this article‚ Miner’s intention is not to express the extreme human behavior with the Nacirema‚ but the way it affects our perception of an unfamiliar culture. If we were to look at the Nacirema’s behaviors with regards to appearance and hygiene without the slightest bit of knowledge about
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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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Body Ritual in Nacirema When I started reading Miner’s “Body Rituals among the Nacirema” I wasn’t really ‘reading’ it. By the end of the first page‚ it “hit me” and I had to start reading it over again. Realizing the essay was speaking of Americans gave me a whole different perspective. I found some of it quite amusing as well as enlightening. My feeling is that the author intended the reader to see our own ethnocentrism and question our own acts towards others with whom we are not familiar
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In the article “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner‚ he writes about a North American group known as the “Nacirema”‚ who were described by Professor Linton in the early twentieth century. In the article described‚ the “Nacirema” are a cultural group who seem to be obsessed with rituals they perform in regards to the human body on a day-to-day basis. These people believe that the human body is ugly and debilitating and are described to waste great portions of their days performing the
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Nacirema and Its Sociological Effects Rachael L. Smith SOCI 111 In Horace Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema‚” the reader is introduced to an interesting group called the Nacirema‚ whose culture is then described and dissected in very tribal and primitive terms. At first‚ it is unclear as to where or how this culture exists under the guidelines and practices and beliefs its society maintains; but‚ the reader soon discovers‚ with contextual clues and a bit of pondering‚ that
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“Body Ritual Among The Nacirema” As I started to read “Body Ritual Among The Nacirema” by Horace Miner I was really confused. You told us that the homework was to write what was the real true meaning of this reading but I had to reread the pages over and over to find the true meaning to the reading that Horace Miner was talking about. It is a culture named Nacirema and that no one really know much about this culture. And also that they come from the east. He talks about the rituals they have
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article was not to show the “Nacirema” as an example of how extreme human behavior can become‚ but how an outside perspective can affect your perception of an alien culture. If one were to look at the “Nacirema’s” cultural behaviors regarding physical appearance and health without any insight or knowledge of the specific beliefs or values of that culture‚ they might seem bizarre and even incomprehensible. By showing behaviors and “rituals” performed by this unknown tribe‚ Miner allowed others to see that
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