Body Ritual Among the Nacirema The observation of the Nacirema society as presented by Horace Miner was enlightening in its reflection of our own societal norms. At first I did feel a sense of culture shock upon reading the essay. After further contemplation, I felt that the cultural relationships and practices were not all that different from my own. I found it very interesting that the social and economic structure of the Nacirema society is the same as that in which we live in. As with our
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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
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Body Ritual among the Nacirema It is a fact that whenever you visit a different culture and try to observe it from an individual's perspective, your first impression of a society is going to be based on what you have heard about it or what you think about it. Each one of us learns certain prejudices, assumptions and stereotypes that alter our perception of others. It is not realistic for somebody who has no interaction with a society to fully understand how and why things are working in that society
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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
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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
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In “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” Horace Miner explores the superficiality and vanity of humans in the extreme and unusual rituals of the Nacirema people. The Nacirema have a fascination that borderlines obsession with the human body, dedicating shrines and ceremonial activities towards it. They believe that their own bodies are naturally ugly as well as prone to disease, so it is extremely necessary to perform various rituals in order to prevent these characteristics. For example, their shrines
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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
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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
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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
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In Horace Miner's Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, he characterized them as a culture based people who very much believe in strange rituals with reference to the vanity of the human physical structure. Doing these practices, in their beliefs, can cure their bodies' problems, debilities, diseases, and other ugly characteristics. Each Nacirema family shares a "shrine" as part of their practice to keep their bodies in good condition. A built-in chest or box is also located inside it where charms are
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