The Reality of the Nacirema

"Body Rituals among the Nacirema" is a document written by Mr. Horace Miner. Miner was a graduate of the University of Chicago, with a degree in anthropology. Throughout his life, Miner was dedicated to his studies ranging in anthropology to sociology. He was very interested in the study of anthropology, but Miner disagreed with the way that other cultures were represented. He thought American anthropologists believed that the American culture was "normal" and, that the other studied cultures were misrepresented (Hoogland). Miner was convinced to prove otherwise. He wanted to prove to other anthropologists that to other cultures the American culture could be viewed as unusual. In Miner 's document, "Body Rituals among the Nacirema," he spoke of what would be considered strange rituals performed by the people of the tribe. The people in which he was describing was actually the American culture, hence the name that Miner referred to them as the Nacerima….the backwards spelling of American. Miner went on to discuss some of the rituals in which we as Americans perform on an every say basis. Rather than describing the rituals in ways that sounded accustom to Americans, Miner instead created a more "primitive language". The reason Miner wrote the essay was to allow the Americans to read it, and lead them to believe that they are in fact reading about a culture elsewhere. Miner accomplished his goal well. Miner went on to describe the rituals performed by the Americans. He described our dentist visits, but rather referred to the doctor as a "holy-mouth-man." The people visited the holy-mouth-man twice a year to prevent the decay in the mouth. There were medicine men that were visited when a patient was sick. The jobs of the men were to cure the sick and ailing, but it came with a price. There were "listeners" or witch-doctors, who were there to listen to people who were having difficulties, and needed to seek help. Miner described each of

Cited: Hoogland, Josh. "Horace Mitchell Miner.: 29,October 2003 Miner, Horace. "Body Rituals among the Nacerima." American Anthropologist 58.3, June 1956. Rpt. .