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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Horace Miner’s Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Elizabeth Brower Introduction to Sociology Matthew Howell January 25‚ 2015 Abstract: Horace Miner’s point throughout the entire article of “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” was to prove to us‚ Americans‚ that we are not superior to anyone else or any other culture‚ society‚ or religion. We are all the same‚ and we just to need to keep in the back of our minds that everyone does everything differently. Whether it is a dramatic difference‚ or barely
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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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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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Cultures‚ Belief and Behaviors. In review of the article by Horace Miners “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” I would evaluate this culture’s belief and behaviors provides a direct evident that the attitudes or characteristics of human body has an extensive influence on variety of institutions in Nasiriya society. Throughout the reading‚ he provides the reader an understanding perspective of the American rituals from a different point of view. The key word that is emphasized is the word ritual and
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Horace Miner‚ an anthropologist‚ has a different view on American society. American v Nacirema. Nacirema is American spelled backwards. He wanted to show people how satirical they were in 1956. Anyone can compare his ideas of American civilization then to today. For example‚ bathroom routine‚ body obsessions‚ and the need for a therapist. One can also contrast his ideas of the 1956 to now. The Nacirema avoided showing their bodies‚ women would go every week to the salon‚ and the poor health treatments
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Nacirema‚ American spelled backward‚ is a satire paper attempting to force Americans to evaluate their culture and look at it in a different way. By using words that are obscure‚ atypical and abnormal to describe very common American practices‚ the paper offers a strange way of defining our culture. One instance in the paper was how Americans hold importance in oral hygiene and use tooth brushes and tooth paste to brush our teeth daily. The author describes this as a “mouth-rite” and a “revolting”
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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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Reaction on Reaction Paper The first thing that came to my mind when I have heard about Reaction paper is “What exactly is it?” and before I get an understanding of that‚ I resisted that change. But later‚ when I have studied about it and understood its purpose‚ I have started thinking “Why people avoid change at the first look without an analysis?” The general human tendency is to live in a comfortable zone in which he has lived for quite some time. He draws a circle‚ thinks that circle is his
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anthropologist‚ in which we have to maintain an open mind regarding things we may not understand. He introduces the Nacirema people for their “exotic customs”. Extreme behaviors in human aspects that have been either suspected or been imagined can be found in this tribe. A study done on them was conducted due to many unknown (pre-study) details regarding this tribe. The Nacirema culture views the human body is “ugly in its natural tendencies to debility and disease. The use of powerful rituals
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