primitive Nacirema‚ who carve out an existence somewhere between "the Canadian Cree‚ the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico‚ and the Carab and the Awawak of the Antilles" ("Body Ritual among the Nacirema‚ p. 1). Who could even think to compare Americans‚ in our advanced state‚ with such a remote and isolated group? However‚ upon closer reflection‚ however‚ it occurred‚ much to the present author’s surprise‚ that the Nacirema and Americans are in fact mirror images of one another. First‚ the Nacirema have
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Clifford 2005[1997]:207 Clifford de Certeau 2009[1990]:171 1 2 James Clifford Anthropological Locations 1997 6 Lévi-Strauss Lévi-Strauss Lévi-Strauss 1950 Lévi-Strauss Lévi-Strauss James Boon 1982 Horace Miner American Nacirema … 1956:505 Renato Rosaldo 1993 Rosaldo Lévi-Strauss Malinowski 1991 Malinowski Rosaldo 1986 7 E.Evants-Pritchard Foucault being there Clifford Geertz being there 1988:4 : � �being there �ibid.:4-5 — de Certeau de
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Body Rituals of the Nacirema Tribe By Sir Horatio Galbraith People in the Nacirema culture spend a considerable portion of their days in ritual activity. The focus of some of these activities is the human body‚ the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the minds of the tribe’s people. While such a concern is certainly not unusual‚ the way the tribe operates can be considered quite unique. The fundamental belief of the people appears to be that the human body is ugly and
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Miner: American Vs. Nacirema Horace Miner expresses both irony and ridicule towards the American culture in his article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”. He uses a sociological approach that is rather witty‚ using a fictitious North American group called the “Nacirema”. The views of this culture are much like our own‚ depicting the importance of societal status‚ wealth‚ health and appearance. Miner introduces the readers to a society living between Canada and Mexico‚ originated by a founder called
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Body Rituals Among the Nacirema Assignment “Body Rituals Among the Nacirema”‚ by Horace Miner‚ is an essay written about the American people‚ from an outsider’s perspective‚ which he calls Nacirema‚ American spelled backwards. He disguises what he’s talking about by spelling many nouns backwards and giving things different names. Miner writes about American rituals in a foreign way that comes off as barbaric and heinous. He starts off talking about George Washington and how he founded America and
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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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"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 Study and the Priorities of the Modern American When a person visits a museum or watches a documentary to learn about an unfamiliar culture‚ particularly distant cultures‚ often the information has been gathered and studied by an anthropologist. As defined by Merriam-Webster‚ anthropology is the study of humankind‚ their culture and how they react with their environment (Anthropology‚ n.d.). In Horace Miner’s essay about the Nacirema people‚ he observes a culture who is on the extreme
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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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Cultural Anthropology 28 September 2011 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
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