The Nacirema people practiced extreme human behavior or ethnocentrism, in their rituals and culture. These people were highly economically developed, buy believed in witchery, magic, folklore of their religion, and many, many rituals. The focus of their rituals was the human body, through sexual exploitation of the human body, body fluids, and body parts. (Source: "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner).
I found that the observed rituals concerning the mouth were most intriguing. The Nacirema people believe that there is a strong relationship between oral and moral characteristics and that if the rituals are not performed, not only will poor oral hygiene issues occur but their social life will be ruined as well through loss of friends and lovers. Through the case study it appears that tribe has a reason for everything that they do whether it makes sense or not. The only aspect that is not making sense to the observer, author, or myself is the extreme levels of pain that the Nacirema expose themselves to for reasons that do not require such physical torture. When reading through the case study, it appears that this tribe has some reasoning for their oral fetish and other body rituals but the pain associated with them is not necessarily required. (Source: "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner).
The Nacirema people believed the human body was ugly because as it debilitates and causes diseases. Therefore, the human body was idolized for the “good” parts such as male large penis’ or women’s large breasts’. Ethnocentrism, as practiced by the Nacirema was a fundamental and ethnic belief of a racial and cultural superiority. They made false assumptions of others, due to their limited experiences with others. (Source: "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner).
Ethnocentrism is still practiced today, however, in various other