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. Minor continues, every household has at least on shrine in the shrine room; the family’s economic status is reflected by the amount of shrines a single house possesses and how the shrine room is presented. Ritual is private and is not discussed unless it is to the children who are being initiated into these secrets. The focal point of the shrine is a box that contains charms and potions that were used by the worshipper and now serve as protection. …show more content…
The Nacirema believe that the mouth influences social relationships and without the rituals they would suffer from tooth loss and other grotesque oral conditions.
As a result, they seek out medicine men to preform an extremely sacred and painful procedure to treat such conditions and bring companions. The Nacirema also believe that parents, specifically mothers, can bewitch their children; they look to a “listener” to exorcise the evil within the child. To conclude Minor mentions, ritual to manipulate the natural body to look appropriately, for example ritual fasts make people loos weight and feasts to make people gain weight. Finally, Minor Observes that worshipping magic may seem irrelevant, but without the stipulations and discipline instilled by ritual civilization would not have
advanced. The Nacerima’s strong ritualistic practices regarding the body put them on the extreme side of human behavior. Though their beliefs and practices are extreme, the theories associated with them fit the commonalities of life. The Nacerima fascination with the mouth and the link is has to social relationships is an understandable idea. The mouth and the words that escape it have a considerably strong effect on the social relationships people establish. When they seek the holy-mouth-man to preform an exorcism of the mouth they undergo an extremely sacred ritual of torture; the Nacirema believe so thoroughly in this ritual that they return every year to undergo such torture despite its ineffectiveness. The Nacirema also take part in practices that manipulate the body in order to fulfill expectation, which is a common practice today. While the Nacirema linked good physical appearance to ritual, civilized communities pursue such an appearance to meet the expectations of others. The Nacirema’s belief that the body has a tendency to be ugly and fall to disease, but that ritual can subdue the natural fall is a similar concept of taking vitamins and partaking in physical exercise. They also take part in process to lose, gain, and modify the body. For example, ritual fasts in order for the fat to become thin, ritual feasts for those who are too thin to gain and weight, and processes to make women’s breasts larger. The Nacirema rituals are understandable and applicable to common situations, but utilize an extreme means of fulfilling their sacred beliefs.
The southwest coast of Florida used to be inhabited by the Calusa. “It seemed that by any contemporary measure the Calusa Indian people had been complex when Spaniards arrived in the 1500’s…The Calusa king ruled over all of South Florida from his capital town on Mound Key. According to Spanish accounts, the Calusa had permanent towns, tributary relations, wealth accumulation, social stratification, royal sibling marriage, an elite military, human sacrifice, engineered canals, high mounds, well-developed art and music, and a religion that included elaborate rituals, a trinity of spirits, and life after death” (Marquardt 2)
“…The search for holiness is dramatized by their willingness to suffer terrible pain from snake bite, or even death itself, to get the feeling of God in their lives” (Daugherty pg.82 Para 2). Many individuals seem to search for this meaning, largely due to the fact that most are economically disadvantaged, work in extremely dangerous conditions (miners), and usually uneducated because of their rural isolated backgrounds. In addition, all of the aforementioned characteristics gave cause to the proliferation and acceptance of this faith basis because it’s not a private matter and their strife/frustration with life unites them on common grounds in praise. Mainly, as stated in the article, their powerlessness is taken out of the equation when they’re together in church and filled with the Holy Spirit (Daugherty pg.83 para 2), and in a sense the worship itself is based off of its people gathering together to uphold and uplift each other with their faith. Moreover, beside their ritualistic snake handling, is their tendency to drink strychnine and lye. This ritualistic habit is more puzzling in my eyes, because they’re essentially drinking straight poison that should kill a
In the text “Seeing Red: American Indian Women Speaking about their Religious and Cultural Perspectives” by Inés Talamantez, the author discusses the role of ceremonies and ancestral spirituality in various Native American cultures, and elaborates on the injustices native women face because of their oppressors.
The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into
As far back as Rigoberta Manchu can remember, her life has been divided between the highlands of Guatemala and the low country plantations called the fincas. Routinely, Rigoberta and her family spent eight months working here under extremely poor conditions, for rich Guatemalans of Spanish descent. Starvation, malnutrition and child death were common occurrences here; rape and murder were not unfamiliar either. Rigoberta and her family worked just as hard when they resided in their own village for a few months every year. However, when residing here, Rigoberta’s life was centered on the rituals and traditions of her community, many of which gave thanks to the natural world.
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.
Rituals help many people to feel more in control of their lives. Both American baseball players and Malinowski’s Trobriand Islanders practice some sort or ritual. In each case, the ritual is used to bring comfort in the face of
Rituals are held as a very important part of any society, including ours. They go back to ancient times or can be as simple as maintaining one’s hygiene. Non-western societies have rituals that may seem very foreign to us, but they have been engrained in their communities and are essential to their social structure. This interpretation will focus on the Great Pilgrimage, a ritual performed by Quechuan communities. We will be looking specifically at a community in the area of Sonqo.
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
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
Bloody rituals and moonlit sacrifices define a cult. As long as religion exists, cults also exist. Initiation involves feats of courage and skill and often results in fatality. Once they complete their initiation they gain the status of an official member. Members advance in rank by following the regulations and being faithful to their deity. New recruits rank lowest and the priest or prophet are the highest ranking members; climbing through the ranks takes years. Judith Lorber, the author of “Believing Is Seeing: Biology as Ideology,” assists in understanding the ideas presented in Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber’s article “The Spread of the Cult of Thinness…” ; society gives “cult” members body expectations they must follow for them to secure their places in the “cult” of thinness, or society rejects them.
Native American Ritual Dancing “It has often been said that the North American Indians ‘dance out’ their religions” (Vecsey 51). There were two very important dances for the Sioux tribe, the Sun Dance and the Ghost Dance. Both dances show the nature of Native American spirituality. The Ghost Dance and the Sun Dance were two very different dances, however both promote a sense of community.
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.
By its conclusion, I hope to have shown how magic has developed over the centuries and how its continual evolution has effected not only our culture, but society and attitudes towards Paganism.
While is a common conception that pre-modern societies are primitive compared to their modern counterpart, this is not often the case, theses societies have complex systems within their society especially within their spirituality and religion. It is this complexity that has allowed aspects of pre-modern societies to evolve and adapt into modern societies. Myths, rituals and sorcery have been terms to describe the activities of pre-modern societies, but these activities have also been found to exist within modern society as well. This essay will further discuss the connections between pre-modern and modern societies that has allowed for myths, rituals and sorcery to exist in the modern societies.