Symbolic Elements In Horace Miner's 'Nacirema'

In Nacirema, Horace Miner uses satire and wordplay to teach us how easy it is to judge cultures that we don’t know much about. Miner is sneakily describing American culture, their entire way of life including both material and symbolic elements, the whole time77. Miner is trying to teach us that ethnocentrism, using your own culture as a standard to evaluate another, leads to the belief that other cultures are inferior78. Instead, we should be using cultural relativism, understanding other cultures on their own terms78. He is trying to show us that the American way of life is not the “correct” way of living. I would explain Nacirema to a stranger as wordplay on American norms, rules regarding what kinds of behaviors are acceptable and appropriate