The Nacirema: Another Look
Written by Horace Miner, this essay of the people group Nacirema is an interesting look at their everyday functions. The tribe Miner describes is seemingly primal and uncivilized, and yet somewhat familiar. The entire account of these mysterious people describes unusual and strange behaviors and activities. The brief overview on the Nacirema is graphic from Miner’s point of view. When the meaning of the story becomes clear, the purpose for writing it becomes either humor or disdain.
In this article written by Miner, he describes the tribe of the Nacirema vividly and descriptively. The Nacirema are a tribe known for only twenty years. When they were discovered there was almost no information on them. They are a North American tribe that exists between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles (Miner). This area, with further investigation, is the area of the United States of America. The location alone causes the reader to be alert for Miner’s motives.
The Nacirema are unique followers of the market system, and live in a rich natural habitat. This primitive market system takes up much of the inhabitant’s time. However the people spend a large block of time in daily ritual activity. This tribe does not worship the soul like prominent religions but they worship the body. They believe the body is ugly and prone to injury and sickness. So to alleviate the problem they perform many rituals and ceremonies. In each home there is a ritual center where these actions take place. These centers are so important that all wealthier tribesmen have more than one. The shrines are located in the family home but the performance of ...
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...es, his point is well taken. If his purpose is a tongue in cheek look at our culture and ourselves, job well done. If his purpose is to criticize and discredit a successful culture, exception is taken.
If nothing else is gleaned from this article, when we look at the “Nacirema”, American spelled backwards, we learn to have a more forgiving attitude when viewing other cultures we are unfamiliar with. Rituals that appear barbaric, or even silly can and most probably have a logical purpose within that particular people group. This change in the prevailing American attitude will go far to mend the fences that have been broken and heal the bonds of cooperation all without the need of a “latipso” (hospital).
Works Cited
Miner, Horace. "Body Ritual among the Nacirema, American Anthropolgist 58:3,
June 1956. Rpt., <http://www.msu.edu~Ejdowell/miner.html>
... A few photos of Tenochtitlan and warriors headdresses, clubs and obsidian blades would increase the pleasure 10 fold. Also in places the author tends to divert to other Ameriindian cultures and use their ritual practices as examples. These comparisons can bring the ritual practices of a 500 year extant culture into modern day belief.
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.
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This paper addresses the results of interviews, observations, and research of life in the Ottawa tribe, how they see themselves and others in society and in the tribe. I mainly focused on The Little River Band of Ottawa Indian tribe. I researched their languages, pecking order, and interviewed to discover the rituals, and traditions that they believe in. In this essay I revealed how they see themselves in society. How they see other people, how they see each other, what their values were, what a typical day was etc. I initially suspected that I would have got different responses from these questions but in reality the results in the questions were almost completely the same. I studied this topic because mostly all the people that are close to me are associated in the Ottawa tribe. I additionally love the Native American culture, I feel it is beautiful and has a free concept.
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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
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