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The impact of globalization on culture
The impact of globalization on culture
The impact of globalization on culture
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At a surface level the native people of Nacirema are foreign, barbarous, and outlandish. Scenes of cosmetic torture and life-threatening practices instill a sense of recitation and awe in readers of Western values. This is exactly what author, Horace Miner, intended in his essay, Body Ritual Among the Nacirema. His critique of Western culture, specifically the United States, is apparent in several aspects beyond the one-layer deep reverse-spelling of “American”, Nacirema. Miner opens the door for discourse on Eurocentrism by his critiques via extended metaphors of physical vanity, medical obsession, and fixated materialism.¬¬¬
In Miner’s essay there exists a large focus on the immense and self-depriving issue of physical modification. The native people’s culture believes “that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease” (Miner 471). This is a comment on American, and perhaps on a broader scope, Western, society’s involvement in body enhancements and modifiers. This shows that Miner argues that humanity is from nature, but society places them apart from it, thereby allowing for this modification. The Nacireman view of weight loss, weight gain, breast enlargement, and breast
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reduction also reflect modern principles of American cosmetic body modification (475). This also comments on how the ideal image is perpetually never achieved. The practices are referred to as “inhuman,” which further perpetuates Miner’s commentary (475). Miner also focusses his commentary on the enormous industry of medicine in American society by paralleling it to the role of potions in the Nacirema.
Though the parallel is not as explicit as the aforementioned physical modifications, Miner’s use of them is characteristic of his commentary toward the focus on vanity. The people are convinced they cannot live without the potions; they are economically bound, to the point that they forget the intended purposes (471). This comment is directed toward the capitalistic exploitation of medicine, vitamins, supplements, etc. The charm box − medicine cabinet − is praised (472). This places medicine as being a false idol, due to the foreign atmosphere, which furthers Miner’s claim of the unworthy focus on medical
drugs. Magic is a popular metaphor used by Miner to describe the materialistic obsession of American society. Beyond the focus on the supernatural physical vanity and magic potions, it become evident that Miners principle critique is that on the capitalistic focus of society. The natives undergo life-threatening procedures to become more aesthetically appealing (474). In this case, life-threatening refers to the economic sense. Miner comments that people are willing to risk their livelihood in return for material possession. This is met by harsh diction such as barbaric and masochistic, which illustrate how absurd these practices are in Miner’s view. Miner uses layers of extended metaphors to critique American popular culture. Commentary toward the American focus on medicine, materialism, and physical ideals, opens discourse of, the broader, Eurocentrism. By placing the reader in an exotic view point, these critiques are more easily achieved, as they are no longer central to the reader. By the use of subtle textual hints, Miner’s message is delivered in a mind opening fashion.
The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into
In Horace Miner’s article, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”, he talks about a tribe and describes their odd behavior. He tells about how the tribe performs these strange daily rituals and how their peculiarity is extreme, but in fact he is actually speaking of Americans as a whole (Miner). Miner uses this style of writing to more effectively prove his point: that Americans are ethnocentric.
He describes the American health system and many aspects of the an American’s personal health as inhuman and uncivilized. Simply changing the way a word is spelled makes this culture seem far away and distant but in reality it is the culture in which we live every day. The article, “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner makes the readers think about what they know to be true and evaluate how strange the many aspects of their lives
MacClancy states, “Wrenched out of normal routines by the continuing assault on their mouths, they concentrate on the sensation and ignore almost everything else” (287-288). On the topic of body art, Ruggia states, “The skinny obsession is spiraling out of control as more people risk death to be thin through diet pills and gastric bypass surgery” (318). These statements support that the essays both unveil an underlying message of the endless human search for self-gratification. Using diferent writing styles, the authors similarly impress their person opinion on the
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.
'The Body Ritual of the Nacirema' was written by Horace Miner for shock value. The article describes the rituals of a people which on the surface seem to be barbaric and highly out of date for that time at which the article was written. Some of the rituals described were women voluntarily baking their heads in ovens and visits to a 'holy-mouth man', which were extremely painful and costly, in order to gain social acceptance from their peers. Another unheard of tradition described in this essay was that of the sick people going to a temple where they had to give very large gi...
In Horace Miner’s “Body ritual among the Nacirema.” Miner writes about the strange customs and rituals practiced amongst the Nacirema tribe. These rituals revolve mostly around the human body which is seen as “ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease” (Miner, 1). In order to treat their natural afflictions, the natives put themselves through a daily series of seemingly sadistic and brutal rituals that include visiting a holy-mouth man who ”opens the client's mouth and enlarges any holes which decay may have created in the teeth”(3) and “scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument.”(3). Upon closer inspection, the reader soon realizes that the exotic Nacirema tribe that Miner describes is in fact our own culture (Nacirema is American spelt backwards) and that these bizarre rituals are daily actions that we ourselves take part in regularly.
The author Horace Miner’s article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” is a comment on the vanity that is present in the American culture. He focuses on a North American Group, which he considers Naciremas which is Americans backwards. Horace Miner demonstrates that attitudes or daily rituals have a convincing sway on numerous establishments in Nacirema society. The writer uses many metaphors to describe this vanity including his statement that “women” try to cover up their impurities by applying makeup in addition to getting surgeries and other things to fix what they think is wrong. However, in reality Miner uses this metaphor to show that the American culture is vain and always tries to fix its faults and mistakes. Basically, Miner uses the
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
The reading, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”, shows the strange and torturous culture traits of the Nacirema of North America. This people are extremely barbaric in their practices, and often torture themselves just to look good. In our modern society, it seems nearly impossible to us to understand, or even partake in these horrific actions. But there is something hidden within the Nacirema culture that would shock the modern American world.
The satire Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner, bring up the fact of the rituals among the people in North America. Morace Miner calls the people a group called the Nacirema and goes about the rituals they perform. They go into their “ritual activity” at a shrine. The shrine is only discussed by their children. Miner talks about the medicine cabinet and how it holds “many charms and magical potions,” but he calls it a box or chest on the wall. “Human body is ugly” so the people need to go to the “shrine” and fix the problem like women do with makeup. The “tribe” brushes their teeth with “a small bundle of hog hairs and magical powers”. “Holy-mouth-men” are considered to be the dentist to this tribe. The shrine is not all Minor had to say, Minor continued with many everyday things. Women going to the hair salon is “women make their heads in small ovens”. “Fat people thin... thin people fat. ...women's breasts larger if they are small, and smaller if they
The article, “Body Ritual among the Nacircema” by a Horace Minor, brings the unusual beliefs and practices of these people to light. Minor begins by introducing the North American group and how little is understood about their beliefs. These people lived in a thriving market economy; despite being dedicated laborers, much of their day is set aside for ritual activity that focuses upon the appearance and health of the body. The Nacirema partake in ritual activities in hopes that it will over power the tendency of the body to be ugly and frail, making them healthy by standard.
Obsession with self-image in American culture was best presented in Horace Miner’s essay, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” which used satire to illustrate American society through an outside viewpoint. Miner asserted through his essay that American people spend a large amount of time and money on improving the human body due to the fact that they are never truly satisfied with themselves. He claims a fundamental belief among these people is that the human body is “ugly”. Therefore, in order to maintain their body and appearance, people make frequent visits to doctors and dentists
The fascination with the body as noumenon can be attested to have taken true momentum with new technologies, particularly in the field of genetics and medicine which resulted in the epiphanic hype that humans themselves had the capacity of altering human bodies. Moreover the range of photographic representations of the body expanded through media globalization and divergence. Thus, photographs of human bodies were caught up in social, racial, gender and ethical struggles in the interpretation of their meanings and uses.
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