Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Summary

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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 …show more content…

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

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