Anthropology Paper - Module 1 In 1956 a professor from the University of Michigan‚ Horace Miner‚ wrote an article in The American Anthropologist that has become a mainstay of learning for anthropology students. Miner published the article to show a fictional exotic society called “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” as an example of how one’s own limited perspective might affect the perception of a foreign culture (Miner‚ 1956‚ p. 503). The article uses subtle humor to make the reader more comfortable
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in writing this article was not to show the “Nacirema” as an example of how extreme human behavior can become‚ but how an outside perspective can affect your perception of an alien culture. If one were to look at the “Nacirema’s” cultural behaviors regarding physical appearance and health without any insight or knowledge of the specific beliefs or values of that culture‚ they might seem bizarre and even incomprehensible. By showing behaviors and “rituals” performed by this unknown tribe‚ Miner allowed
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Body Rituals of the Nacirema tells a story of a tribal group’s lifestyle and the rituals of it. Miner is actually talking about the American culture. As most of us know‚ Nacirema is American spelled backwards. In this article‚ Miner’s intention is not to express the extreme human behavior with the Nacirema‚ but the way it affects our perception of an unfamiliar culture. If we were to look at the Nacirema’s behaviors with regards to appearance and hygiene without the slightest bit of knowledge about
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In the article “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner‚ he writes about a North American group known as the “Nacirema”‚ who were described by Professor Linton in the early twentieth century. In the article described‚ the “Nacirema” are a cultural group who seem to be obsessed with rituals they perform in regards to the human body on a day-to-day basis. These people believe that the human body is ugly and debilitating and are described to waste great portions of their days performing the
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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
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Professor Emma Linton of the Martian Institute of Interplanetary Cultural Anthropology might have come up with her unexpected conclusions regarding to the body rituals of the Nacirema people. Linton’s report was wildly inaccurate written due to the facts that she does not have any qualitative previous knowledge about the culture and she like to draw a comparison between cultures. She did not follow all the methodological process an anthropologist should follow‚ and a long term of studying of the
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Body Rituals Among the Nacirema Abstract This study examines Horace Miner’s essay “Body Rituals Among the Nacirema. While using the participant observation approach‚ he gives us a new perspective on the daily behaviors within this group of people. Exploring ethnocentrism and how we view cultures outside of our own. Horace Miner was a professor for the University of Michigan. He sought out to teach young people the importance of cultural anthropology. ("Horace Mitchell Miner - Wikipedia‚ the
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Body Ritual among the Nacirema Name Course Sociology Date 6/12/2013 Body Ritual among the Nacirema Horace Miner in the article‚ Body Ritual Among the Nacirema depicts a society that is growing naturally‚ but which has transformed itself into a ritual tribe. In this article‚ the tribe‚ Nacirema‚ is a tribe that has transformed itself naturally and which has incorporated a lot of beliefs and religious tendency for
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#1 Summary of Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” Abstract This paper is a summary of Horace Miner’s paper “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”. It talks about how every culture has a set of rituals they practice religiously‚ and in particular‚ the unusual rituals and beliefs of the Nacirema people from an outsider’s perspective. Amanda Carson Sociology 111 Writing Assignment #1 January 25‚ 2015 Summary of Horace Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema Every society‚ tribe
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January 26‚ 2013 Horace Minor applied satire in his article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema.” to the culture of the American people. Several ways in which “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” relate to the core concepts of sociology are through the use of sociological imagination‚ ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. The American culture is described by Minor in a very unique and humorous way. The author uses satire to examine the rituals that are every day in American culture. The reader thinks at
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