Truth Exposed in Body Rituals among the Nacirema

Truth Exposed in Body Rituals among the Nacirema

“Body Rituals among the Nacirema” is a document written by Mr. Horace Miner. Miner was a graduate of the University of Chicago, with a degree in anthropology. Throughout his life, Miner was dedicated to his studies ranging in anthropology to sociology. He was very interested in the study of anthropology, but Miner disagreed with the way that other cultures were represented. He thought American anthropologists believed that the American culture was “normal” and, that the other studied cultures were misrepresented (Hoogland). Miner was convinced to prove otherwise. He wanted to prove to other anthropologists that to other cultures the American culture could be viewed as unusual.

In Miner’s document, “Body Rituals among the Nacirema,” he spoke of what would be considered strange rituals performed by the people of the tribe. The people in which he was describing was actually the American culture, hence the name that Miner referred to them as the Nacerima….the backwards spelling of American. Miner went on to discuss some of the rituals in which we as Americans perform on an every say basis. Rather than describing the rituals in ways that sounded accustom to Americans, Miner instead created a more “primitive language”. The reason Miner wrote the essay was to allow the Americans to read it, and lead them to believe that they are in fact reading about a culture elsewhere. Miner accomplished his goal well.

Miner went on to describe the rituals performed by the Americans. He described our dentist visits, but rather referred to the doctor as a “holy-mouth-man.” The people visited the holy-mouth-man twice a year to prevent the decay in the mouth. There wer...

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..., he instead studied the rituals of the American culture. He then produced his research in such a way that made it seem as if we were reading about a tribe located somewhere in America.

The reason that Miner wrote the essay was to allow Americans to read it, and lead them to believe that they were in fact reading about a culture elsewhere. I believe that Miner’s idea of creating a sort of illusion to the reader was accomplished. I am sure that the anthropologists who have read Miner’s essay were left speechless. I believe that Miner did an extraordinary job at giving the reader an outside perspective of the American rituals of society.

Works Cited

Hoogland, Josh. “Horace Mitchell Miner.: 29,October 2003

Miner, Horace. “Body Rituals among the Nacerima.” American Anthropologist

58.3, June 1956. Rpt. <http://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html>.