Preview

The body ritual of the Nacirema

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
810 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The body ritual of the Nacirema
The Body Ritual of the Nacirema discusses the habits of Americans and medical professionals to someone outside the culture. The article is meant to make the Americans health habits seem like a new discovery. In the article it examined health habits that Americans follow, it also examined the bathroom habits of the Americans, and it also examined the medical professionals that treat them. But the distinction of the habits of the Americans in the article is that the author worded them as if they were originated from an Eastern Civilization; perhaps China or Native American cultures even though they’re ordinary American habits. For example the author talks of a shrine box or chest that is built in the wall. Within the chest are many charms and magical potions without no native believes he can live. This could be related to how the Chinese believe in homeopathic remedies and the same with the Native Americans. Within the shrine is a box or chest that is a built into the wall is a symbol of American’s belief that their prescriptions should be hidden within confines of their homes from their guests. The shrine and the box which is built into the wall that contains many charms and magical potions are symbols of the bathroom, medicine cabinet, and prescription medications. The medicine cabinet is also located where Americans do most of their private business such as bathing, relieving themselves, and grooming that takes place in the shrine (bathroom). The utilization of the word shrine is considered many things a memorial, a place where people worship, a temple, a holy place, and a sanctuary. The idea of a shrine is to put faith into a religion (believing in a deity or multiple deities that will help you in troubling times and in the afterlife where the worshipper meets the deity after completing good deeds that pleases the deity) hoping it works. Thus people put blind faith into the prescription medications charms and magical potions) hoping that the medications would

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The other reading was an article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, after reading the article, I realize that it was specifically referring to the American culture in a strange way like for example the latipso temple is a hospital, medicine men are doctors, laceration of the face is simply shaving, women baking heads in small ovens is simply going to the salon and putting their heads under the hair dryers and other things that you can relate to our culture.…

    • 2609 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    After reading Laura Bohannan’s Shakespeare in the Bush and Horace Miner’s Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, a common theme presents itself between the two articles. Ethnocentrism, particularly within the U.S., is elucidated through the actions of Bohannan while in West Africa, and the reaction of any American reading Miner’s piece about the “magical” Nacirema culture. In Bohannan’s piece, she struggles to prove that Hamlet is a universal story that any culture can easily understand. She speaks to the elders of the Tiv people, and is shocked to conclude that they do not understand Hamlet the way Americans understand it. In Miner’s piece, he cleverly presents the idea of the culture of the Nacirema people who are sadistic in nature, and lack logic and independence. By the end of his article, you realize that…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nacirema, American spelled backward, is a satire paper attempting to force Americans to evaluate their culture and look at it in a different way. By using words that are obscure, atypical and abnormal to describe very common American practices, the paper offers a strange way of defining our culture. One instance in the paper was how Americans hold importance in oral hygiene and use tooth brushes and tooth paste to brush our teeth daily. The author describes this as a “mouth-rite” and a “revolting” daily body ritual. What we understand to be brushing our teeth is illustrated as “inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures” (Miner,…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sociology Nacirema

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “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)…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Nacirema Tribe

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages

    After realizing “Nacirema” is American spelled backwards, it becomes evident that Miner is criticizing American culture. He describes the “tribes” behavior with a focus on changing personal appearance and magic-based rituals. Everybody goes to the “Latipso” to see “medicine-men” when they are sick and often are given potions or end up dead. This is like a looking glass into American culture. In our culture, there is a huge focus on physical features, but we don’t pray to fix it. Instead we take vitamins, apply make up, shave and wear nice clothes. Oftentimes when we are sick, hospital visits result in doctors writing prescriptions or performing surgery. We usually don’t know what the pills do for us, but are told it will correct the ailment and invest a lot of trust into the doctors no matter what.…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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…

    • 195 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nacirema Culture Analysis

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages

    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…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nacirema Tribe

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Over 50 years ago, Horace Miner published a study on the Nacirema Tribe. In the study he talked about their body rituals, and revealed to the world every strange ritual these people had. After reading this study, I decided to do one for myself. So I visited the Nacirema tribe. The things I observed still puzzles me.…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This statement, “The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people,” is parallel to how we, as North Americans, think. (Miner, 1956) Appearance has become an increasingly large issue for many in our society and it affects people of all ages, beginning in our youth. There are issues with body weight, height and colour. There are also issues with certain body “areas” such as the breasts, nose, or legs. The people of the Nacirema go to a medicine man with a concerning issue. The man then accepts gifts in exchange for his knowledge and ingredients for a cure. I can go to a plastic surgeon, have him trim my legs of unwanted fat, and he will receive my money as a fee owed to his work performed. If I do not pay him, he will not “cure” me.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rituals of the Nacirema

    • 1106 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To most of us, hospitals are a place to help you when you’re in need or want to get healthy. But for the Nacirema, it’s quite the opposite. According to the Nacirema ritual article, they call hospitals a latipso, which is hospital spelt backwards without the ‘H’. They discuss and caricature the repulsive viewings on what they think goes on in hospitals (latipso’s), or what they think they do. I will now tell you how in Miner’s perspective, the body is ugly and how the body is dirty.…

    • 1106 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Nacirema Culture

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Nacirema are a culture of vast ethnic diversity, yet the majority still share numerous similarities despite their unique trace origins. In the Nacirema culture there are many conventional values that most individuals try to adhere to, albeit the varying degrees of adherence due to their unique sub-cultures. The most prominent values are: treating all adult(18yrs) individuals equally with regards to making decisions about their leaders and allowing individuals to follow their own spiritual beliefs, providing they do not infringe on beliefs of others. However, many members of the Nacirema tussle over these basic principles as they lack the proper educational awareness or their beliefs cloud their judgment. Furthering the complexity of this…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Horace Miner in his writing of the article, Body Ritual Among the Nacirema present a situation where the society in the world has abandoned their natural tendencies to adopt modernity. At one point, the society is seen to maintain its natural stature; but on the other side is seen to adopt new ways of keeping the body pure and good; for example, believing in the powers of medicine and holy water from the church.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    This takes place in the shrine located in the home. Many in the USA, handle similar daily function in there shrines also called the bathroom. Mouth care is very important to both cultures. Nacirema place herbs in their mouth to provide care and freshness, western cultures enter there shrines and place a dab of tooth paste on a small brush and move it around the inside of the mouths. While they may seem different they are meant to accomplish the same purpose, keeping the mouth clean and free of Bactria. The use of medicine men, holy mouth men and herbalist in the Nacirema tribe is very interesting. The medicine men find the perfect diagnoses for the client and write down a prescription for the client and this is than filled by the herbalist. In the western culture this would be the job of the doctor and pharmacist. Holy mouth men are the ones, who remove the evils of the mouth and treat the client, visit from these holy mouth men are due twice a year. In Western culture these Holy mouth men would be known as dentist, these men handle different tools to extract cavities and any tooth decay. Many visit the dentist every six month or like the Nacirema twice a year. The temple or…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the midst of all our accomplishments lies the wonder of culture and ritual. Societies around the world use these phenomena to express their beliefs and establish a profound way of life. More often than not, it is these practices that education individuals and groups the truth behind their society. However, a culture and its rituals differentiate from the rest of the world. Many groups fail to understand the way in which other cultures function based the biased opinion of their own. Horace Miner, mastermind of the work, Body Ritual Among the Nacirema illustrates this notion and reveals the truth behind understanding cultures beyond one’s own. Furthermore, Miner’s work explores deep into the twentieth century American culture and how it’s…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miner tells us that the Nacirema are “a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles.” They have a “highly developed market economy”, but appearance seems to take command of their peoples’ priorities. The fundamental belief of the Nacirema people is that “the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease”, so they do all these unusual rituals to try to keep their bodies healthy and good-looking.…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays