n the article, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, the author’s purpose is revealed through judgemental and magical word choice.…
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…
In the article Body Ritual Among The Nacirema by Horace Miner, he makes fun of people’s weaknesses, mistakes, foolishness, and wrong behavior. He uses confusing vocabulary words to make it hard for use to know who the article is talking about. Miner refers Nacirema as to America. He wanted to make Nacirema seem magical and silly by describing them as born with behaviors. Miner also, believes that Nacierma do bizarra thing because he does not understand the meaning behind their behavior. One of the behavior is the belief in the ugliness of human body. In society, we are told what is pretty from what is ugly. This is determined by models, hairdressers, barber shop, spa, and infomercial. As a society, we have the power to decided what is right…
In this paper I discuss what point Horace Miner was trying to make is his paper titled "Body Ritual among the Nacirema". Horace’s paper is about America but in the perspective that America is a tribe of third world country or such. I go through the individual topics, which mostly make fun of American’s vanity, and I describe what he is really talking about. I try to summaries Horace’s paper and put it in “American” terms.…
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.…
The analysis of the article Body Ritual Among the Nacerima by Horace Minor uses key principles to help decipher the hidden meanings behind his work. The article is based off of Americans but written in a primitive manner to help show readers the importance of keeping an open mind. Cultural relativism is crucial when researching a new topic. This culture is different than others based on their obsession with physical appearance but it does not make them wrong. Also, the culture that practices different rituals has a different belief system. One culture may place great importance on preserving the land while…
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…
Much of the article depicts the “Nacirema” people as pathological and obsessive in their rituals. Hoarding potions and creams, whether they are old or useful, rituals to fix imperfections of the body by “medicine men” of different types. Telling their problems to listeners instead of sharing with their families. Is this to make themselves happier, or to justify their actions? It seems that the Nacirema have lost the site of being individuals and must strive to be like all others. People are…
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.…
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.…
Adversity tends to bring and develop one's character through hardships such as financial and political ones. The Roman poet, Horace, said that prosperous circumstances do not necessarily come from making good choices. During these tough times, adversity has the effect to bring out talents in one's developing character.…
1.) The Nacirema excerpt is written by Horace Miner from the etic or outside perspective describing a ‘backward’ culture with weird beliefs and rituals. The purpose of this essay is to address some critical questions and desire at the heart of anthropology. How do we understand other people who are strange, odd, and different. Why do people do what they do. How do we know our descriptions are accurate?…
“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,…
In "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" Miner is ridiculing how much society cares about their appearance. He talks about the unnecessary rituals that we go through just to please society.…
First, the Nacirema have a "highly developed market economy which has evolved into a rich natural habitat" ("Body Ritual among the Nacirema, p. 1). The same might be said of Americans, where virtually everything is bought and sold. The ritual activities for the human body with which the Nacirema are obsessed could be compared to the elaborate grooming rituals of average Americans: bathing and showering, blow-drying hair, brushing and flossing teeth, applying underarm deodorants and colognes or perfumes, shaving the face (for men) and legs and underarms (for women), putting on make-up (in the past, for women only, but sometimes, now, for men, too), and cutting, trimming, bleaching, brushing, coloring, curling, or otherwise manipulating the hair. Increasingly, many Americans go so far as to but sticky, gooey little strips of some substance or other on both the top and bottom layers of their teeth and leave them there for up to half an hour each day, to make them whiter. Americans complain often of extreme tooth sensitivity due to this practice, but refuse to cease this ritual. Clearly, between grooming and attending to their advanced market economy, Americans, like the Nacirema, have little time left over for any, more idle endeavors. Also Americans, like the Nacirema, consider the human body fundamentally ugly and in need of…