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n the article, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, the author’s purpose is revealed through judgemental and magical word choice.…
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1. 1-Butanol and 1-bromobutane are toxic and irritating. Avoid all contact by constantly wearing goggles, gloves and working in the hood. Neither of these compounds can be poured down the drain. Like all products, 1-bromobutane should be turned in to your TA in a labeled vial. Any excess butanol should be discarded in non-halogenated waste.…
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I could only imagine how Horace Miner felt when entering the Nacirema village. At first glance he must have had culture shock when learning about the daily mouth cleansing and the temples where some enter and never return. I came to realize that western cultures share many of the same daily rituals just like the Nacirema. This non-material culture has many reglionist beliefs such has the use of witch doctors, medicine men, shrines and oddly enough the Nacirema woman bake their heads in oven. In evaluating the culture of the Nacirema we can break down each of the beliefs and compare them to…
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He calls hospital, “Latipso”, and he talks about how crazy it is that the Nacireman even their people there because how horrible the care is. He makes some decent points but for the most part is just more crazy tribal exaggeration. He writes again how the Nacirema just basically hate their bodies, and if their fat then they don’t eat and eat a bunch if they are skinny. He talks about boobs how they are either too big or too small and how girls get implants. He also says that some girls with implants show them off to make a good living, a.k.a strippers. Then the last topic he talks about is sex and how were not supposed to talk about it and we try to prevent it but conception is still high (I mean that’s totally true.weve all seen teen…
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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 how it is impacted so much in our lives.…
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The first thing I noticed about the article, Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner is that Nacirema is American spelled backwards. That caught my attention right away and I thought to myself how interesting. Then as I started reading further into the article, I realized that the Nacirema people are us. What I found most interesting about the Nacirema people is how obsessed and focused we are on our health and body. There is always a fad diet that guarantees amazing results or a new cross fit workout that will mold our body like those on American Ninja Warrior. I was bothered by the statement that said “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” (McCutheon, 1). After I read this sentence…
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An important theme is cultural understanding. Another is the miscommunication between Hmong immigrants in the US and American doctors. In the first couple chapters, we learn that the Hmong have very different birthing traditions. They believe that people get sick because something had happened to their soul, or because they have come across a dab, or an evil spirit. They have their own medical beliefs and practices which have caused difficulties for the medical staff. “They won’t do something just because somebody more powerful says do it” (71). One important theme in the book was a culture clash. The Hmong like to be left alone, they do not like to be ruled. Most of the power laid on the Western doctors. Lia’s tragedy is an example cultural clash and shows that cultural understanding and cooperation is very important. This book shows that it is important to understand and respect other cultures and their perspective on health and wellness so we can incorporate it in the way we treat those…
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The Nacirema tribe has many strange rituals in regards to the cleanliness or beauty of the body. They believe the human body is ugly and debilitating. Everything they do is in response to that thought process. They spend a large portion of their day in rituals to cleanse their body. They go to medicine men or witch doctors in order to perfect their body. One such horrific ritual is that they go to a medicine man that performs the decorative body rite.…
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Broadly speaking, Horace Miner, the author of “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”, criticizes Nacirema’s uncivilized culture. In the article, Miner describes how the tribes perform the strange sadism rituals to very extreme level. The holy-mouth-man uses a variety of tool to enlarge the client’s mouth and put magical materials into the holes. What makes Miner more uncomfortable is that women even bake their head in small ovens for an hour. He thinks that “the magical beliefs and practices of Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go.” And Miner calls the Nacirema a masochistic and magic-ridden people.…
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Body Ritual among the Nacirema” tells the story of the “unusual aspect” lifestyle and the rituals of the Americans. Miner uses a unique approach to describe not Nacirema but the Americans by using an outsider's view, a person who does not understand American's lifestyle. Nacirema is American spelled backwards Miner writes about is every household having a “shrine room” and those individuals with more power contain more than one. He remarks that the shrines rituals ‘are not with family but are private”and the box or chest which contains “magical potions”. The “shrine room” Miner describes is the bathroom and the box with magical potions is the medicine cabinet. The most important potions are described to be obtained from the medicine man who writes it down on a piece of paper in an “ancient and secret language” then is taken to the herbalist. Miner is talking about the American culture the medicine men are doctors the ancient writing are the scribbles on the prescription forms that somehow the pharmacist can understand. This helps us (Americans) realize different things about our culture and see how others view our culture.…
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The annual visit to the the “Holy-mouth-man” can be paired with the annual visit a person makes with his or her dentist. The constant need to cover oneself in clothing parallels with the small signs usually seen outside public areas that require a person to wear shoes and a shirt before entering the building. American society has laws to enforce the rule and gives people the right to refuse service to an individual who does not comply. The Nacirema culture would be a small look into the future to modern American culture. There would not be a major difference in choosing to live in either culture. However the biggest difference would be the Namerica culture had a common ancestry while American culture has a mix of different ethnicities from the influx of immigrants and slaves throughout American…
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Treatment is care provided to improve a situation, especially medical procedures or applications that are intended to relieve illness or injury. In the Hmong society, people go to a txiv neeb, a shaman, who is believed to be a “person with a healing spirit” (Fadiman, 1997, p. 21) to cure their illnesses. A txiv neeb knows that to cure an illness you must treat the soul, in addition to the body. This is important to the Hmong because in their society the soul has a great deal of importance. In Anne Fadiman`s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the Lees, a family of Hmong refugees from Laos, are placed in a difficult situation when their three…
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“Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner discusses the ritual practice of Nacirema people, which is an ethnic group of people in America. In freshman year, I had a chance to take freshman seminar class about religion, so I know that even in one religion they have various way of ritual practice. The ritual practices are usually formed very early in the acient period of time, so most of them are unreasonable and superstitious. It is very interesting to read an article about the ritual practice of Nacirema people to understand more about a culture in the religious aspect. I was surprised to see that in every religion they usually have an image of God to worship, but Nacirema people does not. They worship to holy-mouth-man, medicine man,…
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Many of the practices Miner mentions in the article aren’t really strange to the Nacirema culture. But an outsider views the practices as odd. For example, Miner mentions about a shrine box, which translate to a medicine cabinet being strange to the outsider. The charms and magical potions in the shrine box being the medicine needed cure the ills and maladies of an individual. Medicine had a purpose of curing those maladies for many with similar ills. But the outsider views pulling out these magical packets is not something done in their culture or rather not seen as necessary. These charms and magical potions are given to the people by the medicine men, or rather doctors, psychiatrists, and pharmacists. Another strange practice to the outsider is the belief in the…
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“The Body Ritual” was written in 1956, a time when people’s basic understanding of different culture was insufficient. (Hyung Kim, 2012) The article focuses on the Nacirema and the strange beliefs and superstitions that happen within their culture. If someone is reading this for the first time they may not catch on to Miner’s satirical delivery and unknowingly assume the Nacirema is a Native American tribe. “Instead Miner was talking about common behaviors of Americans that he turned into supernatural and magical rituals. What this actually shows is how language can shape the reader’s impression of a culture in a way that causes people to understand in a totally different perspective.” (Hyung Kim). Miner tricked people into thinking that everyday people, places, and things were a part of a foreign culture. For example; calling bathrooms “shrines”, Doctors “medicine men”, pharmacists “herbalists”, hospitals “latipsohs” and thermometers “magic wands in the supplicants mouths.” (Miner, 1956)…
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