...Body Ritual among the Nacirema by Horace Miner emphasizes on the role of culture and how it affects our idea of stereotypes and prejudices. Miner attempts to make familiar things seem strange and he does so successfully. He describes the peculiar rituals performed by a very dubious category of people called Nacirema. The “magical”beliefs and practices of the Nacirema comes off as bizarre and ancient and the primary belief of the Nacirema culture is that “the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease” (P1) and thus the reason for the rituals; to enhance and improve the conditions of the body. Miner explains that within the homes of the Nacirema are shrines devoted to sacred rituals and ceremonies. The Naciremas...
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...Summary In the article, Body Ritual among the Nacirema, written by Horace Miner, talks a lot about a North American group called the Nacirema which was first brought up by Professor Linton twenty years ago. He talks about the Nacirema having a daily ritual activity that focuses on the human body. To the Nacirema, they believe that, “the human body is ugly”, and they use what they call a shrine to help avert these characteristics. In these shrines are kept many charms and magical potions that are used daily for when the ritual activity takes place. There are practitioners called the ‘medicine men’ who write down ingredients for the magical potions and then given to the herbalists who then provide the potion for the Nacirema to use and store in their shrine for safe...
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...Body Ritual Among the Nacirema In 1956, Horace Miner published "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" and with it arose many questions. Some of those questions included, "Who are the Nacirema?", "Why have we never heard of them before?", and "Why do the Nacirema live the way they do?" From these inquiries, readers could then deduce their own thoughts about the passage and the Nacirema as a whole. The aforementioned questions served as a foundation of internal (sometimes external) discussion on the main focus of the passage; How does this article make me feel about the Nacirema? For some readers, myself included, it made me feel as though the Nacirema's antics were a bit bizarre/extreme. The idea that the citizens of the Nacirema keep shrines that...
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...The article Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner describes the rituals and society of the Nacirema, a North American group. The Nacirema group are described by Professor Linton as orthodox followers of their rituals and very superficial in their view of the human body. The article starts by illustrating to us how the houses of the Nacirema have a shrine dedicated for performing the rituals, with the powerful people having multiple shrines. The shrines contain various charms and magical potions; the items are important to the Nacirema as the article describes them as “without which no native believes he could live.” (Miner, 1956, Pg. 20) Furthermore, a ritual described as “involves scraping and lacerating the surface of the face” (Miner, 1956, Pg. 21) is performed by mostly men of the society. In addition, the article describes that people cleanse themselves with holy water from the “Water Temple.” (Miner, 1956, Pg. 20) The article continues by describing the roles of the “holy-mouth-men” (Miner, 1956, Pg. 20) who are responsible for rituals concerning the mouth and the...
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...Trevor Gilliam Dr. Jim Merryman ANT 101 Nacirema Essay 7 June 2012 The origin of the Nacirema is unknown but the tradition states that the culture migrated from the east but not all from the same location and not all at the same time. The geography of the land of the Nacirema is very mixed. There are large areas of cold, snowy terrain as well as locations that seem to get rain daily. A desert inhabits part of the territory and a large river serves as a geographical landmark. Strangely, the people of Nacirema have not settled all of their territories equally and instead choose to live very close together in organized villages called Seitic. The Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed economy that has produced extreme wealth. The Nacirema are weirdly possessed with a demon that drives them to spend most of their time and efforts to collect certain material goods. Even though most of the people's time is dedicated to the economic hunts, a large part of the labors and a significant portion of the day are spent in ceremonial activity. The main focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which appears as a major concern in the character of the people. By worshipping their deities, many of the Nacirema confront and may even cause large social problems throughout the civilization. Nacirema culture is unique in that it has many different forms of worship and though these forms are all accepted by most, the moral problems...
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...The article “Body Rituals of the Nacirema” by Horace Miner was interesting and different, because there’s a question before the first paragraph in the article asking if they were more like us. By “us” I would assume he is talking about the American people and if you could find similarities in our culture and practices with theres’. I am also raised in a Filipino household, which will probably make me interpret a few things differently, but it won’t greatly affect how I answer the question. The Nacirema are a North American group living between Canada and Mexico, and that they came from the east. Miner further writes about the Nacirema “mythology” stating that their nation was founded by a culture hero named Notgnihsaw. After reading that statement, I noticed how...
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...Nacirema Rituals and its influences on society In the article Body Ritual among the Nacirema, by Horace Miner, the author vividly describes the elements and rituals incorporated into the Nacirema society. The rituals practiced by the Nacirema have an unique underlying fundamental belief as does all rituals in other cultures. The Nacirema believed the human body to be flawed, ugly, and has a “natural tendency to disease.” Therefore, daily rituals including the rite of ablution were conducted in order to purify the body using holy water (washing of hands). The holy water was kept in the community “Water Temple” for the public to use. In addition, every household has a “shrine” which includes a chest as the focal point (bathroom cabinet)....
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...The Nacirema tribe is a group of people from North America, whose practices and beliefs are very extraordinary and usually involves pain and torture. The most important belief they believe is that human bodies become weak and acquire diseases. Due to their belief, they practice certain types of rituals and ceremonies to prevent themselves from being ill. The mouth, which they believe have a strong influence on their social relationships, draws them to have these mouth rituals. They believe that by performing these rituals, their mouths will have less complications and their relationships will blossom. Their daily body ritual consists of a small bundle of hog hairs with magical powders and they insert it into the mouth. Once or twice a year,...
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...Nacirema would visit the “holy mouth man” and endure the feeling of drills, probes, and picks entering into their mouths (p.504). Sacrifice was made each time the Nacirema visited the “holy mouth man.” The amount of pain that they had to endure in order to rid their mouths of unwanted spirits to prevent tooth decay or the loss of a loved one is a sacrifice that not many people would do. Third, the main sacrifice the Nacirema endured, was when they visited the “medicine man.” Upon entering the temple, the Nacirema’s knew there was a chance that they wasn’t going to return to their families. Nacirema’s kept their heads up, along with their belief in the “medicine man” to continue healing them and that is why they kept going to the temple (p.506). Another sacrifice they had to deal with when going to see the “medicine man” was “forking up” gift before and after leaving the temple. If the Nacirema was poor, that would have been a huge sacrifice made to achieve possible...
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...Research and Background The Nacirema tribe and their strange behaviors were first documented by Horace Miner in “The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” in 1956. Considerable effort has been extended to the study of this most unusual tribe in the years that followed and many print articles and lectures were devoted to trying to understand these people and their strange customs. Recently, many new research techniques combined with a host of motivated anthropologists and a fresh source of both corporate donations and governmental funds have uncovered new information about the Nacirema. Although there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of Nacirema rituals, ceremonies, and practices that merit intense study and analysis, the focus of this research paper is perhaps one of the most bizarre and poorly understood of all their rituals. This ritual has it’s roots in many different cultures dispersed across the world dating back hundreds of years. This most interesting ritual has been celebrated in a very concentrated region of Nacirema for hundreds of years located in a few costal cities north of the body of water “Gulf of the Land of Maize”. Although this ritual is celebrated to some degree in selected Nacirema cities of this region, the epicenter of this ritual and it’s many strange customs is the city that straddles the end of the big river Ojibwe. This city is “Crescent City”, aptly named for the villages of the city that followed the curvature of the big river Ojibwe. Once per...
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...1. What is Miner’s purpose (argument) in writing about the behaviors of the Nacirema? The Body Ritual among the Nacirema serves as an illustration of how American culture could be perceived by those who are entirely ignorant to our way of living as strange and ritualistic. The work is written specifically from the viewpoint of an anthropologist who is oblivious to the “rituals” in our society, however familiar with many others. Miner’s substantiates how foreign our lives could be to others by offering numerous and vivid descriptions of routine Nacirema activities. While describing these actions, the tone of the anthropologist is nearly condescending, perpetuating the idea that said activities are extreme and very alien to the speaker. The activities described include brushing teeth, going to see a doctor, and taking medicine among other examples. Miner contends that “The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease.” (Miner 503) Which is an accurate deduction despite its cynicism. Miner compares the use of a bathroom to a shrine that’s purpose is to aid in remedying this belief. The shrine contains all things necessary for masking our supposedly faulted bodies. These things are all referred to by words to help dissolve the familiarity of the objects themselves, such as calling medicine “potions.” The wealthy are also referenced in the account. Miner says that those can afford...
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...Horace Miner from the University Of Michigan wrote of the Body Rituals among the Nacirema, in which he described the customs of the Nacirema people. The culture of the Nacirema people has been brought to the attention of anthropologist as their rituals and habits concerning the body are uniquely distinct. Their culture is depicted as strange and centered on the human body; appearance and health are prioritized, and modification is widely used. The Nacirema people have a peculiar habits in which their appearance is altered. One of which involves “scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument”. This ritual consist of an uncanny description of a practice that Americans preform on the daily. Shaving is an act that everyone...
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...HRM582 The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema As an individual coming to investigate American civilization through the observation of cultural activities, I find the ritual of medicine men and women (doctors, psychiatrists and pharmacists) very interesting. “Medicine man" or "medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples (Unknown 2012 ¶2). Native Americans held the “medicine people” in very high regard. It was believed that the knowledge they possessed was privileged and linage was restricted to remain in particular families. The power bestowed upon and held by the “medicine people” made them mystical. They were viewed as having supernatural powers allowing them the ability to cure disease and control the spirits. This led to the term of “witch doctors”. Witch doctors were used to describe African traditional healers, as in Nacirema. The “witch doctors” were known for their connection to the spiritual world. Through their intimate relationship with the spirits they were often called on to heal disease or the psyche. They were believed to have the ability to bridge the natural world and spiritual world and provide inner harmony. These practices opened the door for herbalists, acupuncturist, and other alternative approaches to healing...
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...Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Running head: THE NACIREMA Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Running head: THE NACIREMA BODY RITUAL AMONG THE NACIREMA The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema was written by Horace Miner in which he describes the culture of a tribe a people that would make most Americans think that the Nacirema people are barbaric and mysterious when in fact we are more common than one may think. The Nacirema people are much like modern society Americans but uphold ancient traditions and language. Myself being of Native American culture I could relate with some of the descriptions given in the article written by Mr. Miner. Most people have the misconception that Native Americans believe in...
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...Body Ritual Among the Nacirema. Courtney Moore Writing Assignment 1 1/25/15 The Nacirema culture is one that isn’t found to be too popular in most cases; in fact I had no education on the Nacirema before doing research on it. Nacirema culture is a magic based culture characterized by a highly developed market economy which has evolved in a rich natural habitat, one that may be looked at as absurd to outsiders. After reading about the shocking culture of the Nacirema I was left with many questions, about the culture as a whole and about the individuals and the activities/rituals they participate in every day. As I thought about all the possibilities and endless questions something came to my mind; would the Nacirema culture still be around if the people were placed with other culturally diverse people and expected to live their “normal” life and would they continue to believe what they’re doing is normal or would the social norms around them prove otherwise? I believe that the Nacirema culture is so strong today because most people who chose the Nacirema culture have also chosen to live in an area populated with others who have chosen the same culture. As with any culture, if you are surrounded with people who have the same beliefs as you, then you will feel more comfortable sharing your beliefs with the people around you. Although many people don’t realize, you are extremely influenced by what is going on around you, and you are more likely to do the things that others...
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