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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The article “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner‚ was very interesting because it mocks our society as a whole without blatantly stating the similarities. The reader is supposed to view the Nacirema as being quite outrageous in their way of life; the magical beliefs and superstitions. However‚ if you step back and look at the bigger picture of the article‚ is the Nacirema really any different from us? This statement‚ “The focus of this activity is the human body‚ the appearance and
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Wrap-up Why did Horace Miner write the article on the “Nacirema”? (That is‚ what point was he trying to make?) What do the “lessons” of the Nacirema reveal about the conflicts described in The Spirit Catches You? What did you learn from the assignment? Horace Miner writes this article to captivate his audience. Miner takes a full on anthropological approach in an attempt to expose his own American culture to their egocentrism‚ vanity‚ and narcissistic views that are presented throughout his
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University of Michigan‚ Horace Miner‚ wrote an article in The American Anthropologist that has become a mainstay of learning for anthropology students. Miner published the article to show a fictional exotic society called “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” as an example of how one’s own limited perspective might affect the perception of a foreign culture (Miner‚ 1956‚ p. 503). The article uses subtle humor to make the reader more comfortable in examining cultural behaviors‚ physical appearance‚ and
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“Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” In Horace Miner’s essay on the tribe of Nacirema‚ it takes little effort to determine that Nacirema is a depiction of a typical American’s health habits. This essay is important for two reasons: It teaches principles about our own culture and it makes us assess the value/downfall of looking at other cultures with an etic approach. Without a doubt‚ this essay personalizes the study of cultures and its respective peoples. Regarding the view of North American
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Body Ritual among the Nacirema Kelsey White Ivy Tech Community College Abstract Horace Miner wants his readers to learn the value of what a real culture should be and how Americans today are really like. In his article‚ Body Ritual among the Nacirema‚ Miner writes about a cultural tribe that has strange rituals and values that would seem unethical to anybody else. He describes how important culture is to them and portrays that Americans think their culture is so
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The Nacirema are a society obsessed with the presservation and maintenance of their bodies. They have many body rituals‚ some thats are conducted in private‚ others that require the assistance of certain knowlegable medicine men. After reading about this tribe I was shocked at how much they focused on their appearance. "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" was actually written about Americans. Horace Miner chose not to directly reveal this‚ in order to demonstrate people’ ethnocentric tendencies. From
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Body Ritual among the Nacirema Name Course Sociology Date 6/12/2013 Body Ritual among the Nacirema Horace Miner in the article‚ Body Ritual Among the Nacirema depicts a society that is growing naturally‚ but which has transformed itself into a ritual tribe. In this article‚ the tribe‚ Nacirema‚ is a tribe that has transformed itself naturally and which has incorporated a lot of beliefs and religious tendency for
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Body Rituals Among the Nacirema Abstract This study examines Horace Miner’s essay “Body Rituals Among the Nacirema. While using the participant observation approach‚ he gives us a new perspective on the daily behaviors within this group of people. Exploring ethnocentrism and how we view cultures outside of our own. Horace Miner was a professor for the University of Michigan. He sought out to teach young people the importance of cultural anthropology. ("Horace Mitchell Miner - Wikipedia‚ the
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In Body Ritual Among the Nacirema‚ the writer writes about the extreme rituals that people hold in America. It brings out the idea that what they are doing is only to improve the looks which are actually unnecessary. Although the writer does not use the word America at all‚ we can tell from the content and the examples that it is reflecting the Americans. Actually‚ if the word “Nacirema” in the title reverses‚ it is America. He uses some events that may be trivial and happen in our every day lives
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