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Introduction to the benefits of healthy habits
Introduction to the benefits of healthy habits
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Culture is the way society expresses itself in an ever-changing world. Most people are so familiar with their own culture that they do not easily recognize their culture’s uniqueness. People may face some opposition when observing how different a culture’s practices are from their own. Horace Miner’s article “Body Rituals among the Nacirema”, provides insight of how odd another culture may seem when people view it from their own perspective.
For hundreds of generations, the Nacirema culture has inherited and followed a set of hygiene rituals that they have deemed necessary for everyday life. From time spent at a household shrine to regular visits to holy-mouth men, the Nacirema’s behavior indicates the displeasure with the natural human body,
The Nacierma culture was mentioned in this article because, according to anthropologists, they have a variety of human behavior practices which are considered as being highly unusual and extreme compared to other diverse cultures who also have unusual and bizarre forms of human behavior. The Nacierma practice these strange behaviors in order to keep their bodies clean, healthy, pure, and disease-free, where they go through intense measures in order to do so. This culture was also mentioned because, according to anthropologists, they are
Human needs are similar- health, physical appearance, human body and economic resources to meet these needs. Nacirema culture bears some semblance to more civilized culture. While reading this article it seems most of the practices are similar with modern culture. A major difference is the magic, ritual and the crude method of doing things. One of the cultural practices that stood out for me is the “holy-mouth-men” ritual, which seems like what a dentist will do. I also find interesting the diagnostic ability of the diviner.
If one were to look at the Nacirema’s cultural practices and behaviors without any insight or context on the specific beliefs of that culture, they may appear to be radical and incomprehensible, as was the case of the reader reading this article. Another point of the article brought up by Miner is the Nacirema’s propensity to engage in seemingly masochistic practices in order to enhance the superficial body. These practices however, are done in our society on a daily basis, and include sticking hog hairs into the mouth, or better referred to as brushing the teeth, and “lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument” (Miner 1956, 505), or shaving. This goes to show that we often make wrong assumptions about a culture just because what the other does isn’t homogeneous. The main point of Miner’s article is to emphasize the issue regarding society’s superficial tendencies as well as their ethnocentric approach when talking about other
One of the fundamental beliefs of the Nacirema is that “the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease.” According to the Christian tradition, the human body is fallen and is therefore prone to disease and weakness; so in that respect, I do not completely disagree with the Nacirema. However, they seem to take the ugliness of the body to a whole new extreme. Their fascination with the mouth is extremely interesting. In today’s society we don’t necessarily see the mouth as an evil device, but more as a tool for communication and sexuality. The relationship between oral and moral characteristics is an interesting way to see the world. I had a lot of cavities before the age of 16, and I can honestly say that I wasn’t an overly evil child; it’s just a byproduct of not brushing and too much sugar. The Nacirema seem to read a lot into things that are just repercussions of a life lived.
In reading one, Body Rituals Among the Nacirema, since this is my second time reading this article this year I have a clear understanding of what the Nacirema tribe believes to be deviant and how they seek to get the deviance out of their daily lives. This community believes that their bodies are deviant, hence men and women would visit a godly like medicine man to perform what we would consider as deviant medical
In “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, Horace Miner (1956) revisits the rituals of a North American group, the Nacirema, as first described by Professor Linton in the early 1900s. Miner depicts these people as quite vain; obsessive over money, appearance and health. While the economic status of a Nacirema individual is extremely important, nothing compares to the significance of the rituals of the body. These rituals tend to involve various steps that allow the Nacirema people to present themselves to the world in their fittest, most beautiful form. The majority of these rituals are performed by the individual in their own home, in extreme privacy. The body is viewed as a disgusting vessel, in need of constant upkeep to be presentable to others. The Nacirema home contains one or more ‘shrines’, devoted to transforming the body into the definition of health and beauty. The main purpose of the shrine is to hold charms and magical potions, bought from
In Benedicts point of view, rituals are driven by the need to have higher status, also from an inherent need for competition and superiority. While in Rappaport’s point of view in the context of the Tsembaga, materials are far more important than status, especially because they live in an egalitarian society.
Miner does an exceptional job in disguising the Nacirema as Americans. Some of the things he disguises are the bathroom, which he says is a cleansing shrine. He disguises the medicine chest as the main device in the shrine, a bundle of hog hairs on a stick as a toothbrush, and magical potions as medicine (Miner).
In his essay titled "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema," Horace Miner introduces us to a mysterious tribe of people and their strange daily rituals. According to the author, the Nacirema tribe members subject themselves to various daily tortures and ritualistic behaviors in hopes of achieving the ‘perfect' body. The article mentions several comparisons of the Nacirema tribe habits to the actions of today's society. One of the easily recognizable elements is the extreme mouth rituals referring to today's obsession with oral hygiene. Another example is the fixation with medicine men; a reference to today's fascination with doctors, psychiatrists, and the use of various medications. One of the aspects of today's culture that is similar to the ones
He then states that man 's only hope is to change their unwanted characteristics with the help of various rituals and ceremonies. In order to perform these ceremonies a shrine which is present in every household is necessary. This leads one to believe that as individuals, we are going to make mistakes and have imperfections in life. However, through our beliefs, church, and faith; then we are able to get through or survive our circumstance. Miner later becomes more in depth in his thinking and reporting. He discussed various “rituals” performed daily by the Naciremas. An example is the use of shrine. Miner states, “The family enters the shrine room which I see as a bathroom. In the bathroom each member bows his head before the font or sinks and begins a rite of cleansing”. Shrine use can be interpreted as the daily routine of waking up, entering the bathroom and removing items from the medicine cabinet to wash face, and brush teeth. Miner continues using cliché’s throughout his article. In another part of the article, he describes “holy mouth-men” in my opinion, viewed as medical or witch doctors. A phrase used in the article, “Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friend 's dessert them and their lovers reject them.” Basically, he is referring to a dentist. Most of Nacirema culture makes it a routine/ritual to make sure a dentist is seen yearly to make sure their teeth are clean, cavity free, gingivitis free, etc. The Nacirema’s might take this for granted other cultures or (outsiders) may not have this opportunity and see it as a need. The few examples sighted would illustrate the vanity side of Nacirema’s in which so much is expected and taken for
What is culture? Many people ask themselves this question every day. The more you think about it the more confusing it is. Sometimes you start leaning to a culture and then people tell you you’re wrong
Both the mouth rite and latipso were extremely compelling and astonishing to me. The Nacirema partake in daily body rituals, one of those being a mouth-rite… but it not the daily mouth rite that includes putting hog hairs and other assortments into the mouth, done along with particular hand movements, that astonishes me but the private mouth rite. The private mouth rite involves having a practitioner make any hole in the mouth bigger and or ripping teeth out then filling the holes made with some type of magical material. This is done to stop decay and to aid friendships and is done two times a year! The latipso ceremonies are ceremonies done in medicine men temples to help the sick that involve torture type treatments. Upon entering the temple, the Nacirema men must take off all clothing and is taken to preform his natural functions into a vessel, which I can only assume to be some sort of masturbation to produce ejaculation. While the Nacirema women are subjected to remove all clothing as well but then watched intensely as they are poked and prodded by the medicine men. These are so striking because the Nacirema are so engrossed with doing these rituals and undergoing these treatments to rid the body of its ugly and diseased tendencies, that they do them repetitively but they still do not stop its innate ugliness and
When you submerge into a ritual bath, you are appreciating a beginning to open yourself up to soul. Ritual cleansing, otherwise called a ritual bath is the procedure when water and supplication wash away any profound dreary. You are demonstrating that you need to tune into your higher self, tolerating something else, all things considered. You are also demonstrating that you are opening up to the universe with the hope to better yourself sooner rather than later. Entering a ritual bath is getting an individual arranged into a custom affair. A ritual cleansing is a recuperating procedure that finds the inward body soul. It is a drug that is helping a great deal of social individuals all
The Toraja’s people pertain to ethnic groups and reside in the mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Torajans have certain series of unique rites, which they perform on some one’s funeral. They have pledged allegiance to their ethnological rituals and ceremonies and they feel that it’s their prestigious pride to complete ceremonials with their heart and soul. Torajans have quite astonishing and surprising customs so that people come to attend death feast from around its neighbor villages, and even tourists also prefer to visit.
Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects and behavior. It includes the ideas, value, customs and artifacts of a group of people (Schaefer, 2002). Culture is a pattern of human activities and the symbols that give these activities significance. It is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold and activities they engage in. It is the totality of the way of life evolved by a people in their attempts to meet the challenges of living in their environment, which gives order and meaning to their social, political, economic, aesthetic and religious norms and modes of organization thus distinguishing people from their neighbors.