Preview

The Extreme Rituals Of The Nacirema People

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
259 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Extreme Rituals Of The Nacirema People
The Nacirema people value developing a religious connection with their deities because every family possesses at least one shrine in their home. They garnish and decorate their shrines with charms and other accoutrements and commune with them on a daily basis. The Nacirema people also put a lot of faith in their Medicine Men and Listeners, as a means of communing with the Divine through their rituals as a means to heal the sickly.

Maintaining good health is also a pinnacle to Nacirema society. The Nacirema people feel that, "the human body is ugly and has natural tendency to debility and disease". Therefore, the Nacirema people put high emphasis on maintaining good health through their daily devotion to their Divines. Their extreme rituals

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    n the article, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, the author’s purpose is revealed through judgemental and magical word choice.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    that depicts a society whose focus is solely on the enhancement of the human body. In the text, the characters are the their Nacirema people, who live in northern America. The Nacerima people center around this idea that the human body is ugly and that it is prone to sickness and aging. Horace Miner describes several rituals the Nacirema people partake in to better their physical health and appearance. Some of these rituals take place in a shrine, the rituals consist of brushing teeth and excreting. Other rituals are services the Nacirema people go to a specialist to get done. Horace Miner describes these services as…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This takes place in the shrine located in the home. Many in the USA, handle similar daily function in there shrines also called the bathroom. Mouth care is very important to both cultures. Nacirema place herbs in their mouth to provide care and freshness, western cultures enter there shrines and place a dab of tooth paste on a small brush and move it around the inside of the mouths. While they may seem different they are meant to accomplish the same purpose, keeping the mouth clean and free of Bactria. The use of medicine men, holy mouth men and herbalist in the Nacirema tribe is very interesting. The medicine men find the perfect diagnoses for the client and write down a prescription for the client and this is than filled by the herbalist. In the western culture this would be the job of the doctor and pharmacist. Holy mouth men are the ones, who remove the evils of the mouth and treat the client, visit from these holy mouth men are due twice a year. In Western culture these Holy mouth men would be known as dentist, these men handle different tools to extract cavities and any tooth decay. Many visit the dentist every six month or like the Nacirema twice a year. The temple or…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the article Body Ritual Among The Nacirema by Horace Miner, he makes fun of people’s weaknesses, mistakes, foolishness, and wrong behavior. He uses confusing vocabulary words to make it hard for use to know who the article is talking about. Miner refers Nacirema as to America. He wanted to make Nacirema seem magical and silly by describing them as born with behaviors. Miner also, believes that Nacierma do bizarra thing because he does not understand the meaning behind their behavior. One of the behavior is the belief in the ugliness of human body. In society, we are told what is pretty from what is ugly. This is determined by models, hairdressers, barber shop, spa, and infomercial. As a society, we have the power to decided what is right…

    • 195 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    After observing the Nacirema customs, I found it to be crazy that they had shrines with a box or chest built into the wall full of magic potions. Medicine men prescribed these potions which they felt without they could not survive. In this shrine they performed all of their daily rituals in private. Miner explained the mouth rite each individual followed religiously on a daily basis…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nacirema Tribe Summary

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages

    After reading the article, I conclude the author is trying to teach or inform us about the Nacirema tribe and their way of life. By writing about their civilization the reader can learn how they live through rituals and what they practice. Miner discusses about Nacirema’s exotic customs, ritual activities, the shrine, their magical practitioners, oral care, harsh physical ceremonies, witchdoctors, breast rituals, thoughts on intercourse, and magical power. Once I read about these aforementioned topics, I realized just how different their society is than from my own. Perhaps Miner also wants the reader to notice contrasts with their life compared to Nacirema. I definitely did as I read through the article.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In this paper I discuss what point Horace Miner was trying to make is his paper titled "Body Ritual among the Nacirema". Horace’s paper is about America but in the perspective that America is a tribe of third world country or such. I go through the individual topics, which mostly make fun of American’s vanity, and I describe what he is really talking about. I try to summaries Horace’s paper and put it in “American” terms.…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” Miner writes about the rituals within a tribe. The tribe he talks about is America. Nacirema spelt backwards is America and it is located between Canada and Mexico. This article discusses about Americans and their everyday activities relating to their body and health. Although Miner’s analyses of Americans are absurd it is quite true. He disguises the bathroom as “cleaning shine”, medicine as “magical potion” and a psychiatrist as a “listener.” Cultural norms are certain behaviors that a society accepts as an entire. As it is accepted within the society it becomes a norm. There are different norms according to each culture. I found this article most interesting because Americans have many cultural beliefs…

    • 173 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The most interesting topic that was covered this quarter was in Week 2, Chapter 2: Culture and Society. This was also when the class read the article Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner. This whole week was so intriguing and diverse, one in particular term made a large impression on me, and this was “rituals” as explained by Barken (p. 36) This term and act initially brought a sense of familiarity among all cultures, ethnicity groups, and societies, because each one of us performs a ritual daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. These may vary from extreme acts, or conform to the social normality of going to the dentist every six months for a checkup. The mutual properties of this term is what I found to be the most interesting. From…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cultures, Belief and Behaviors. In review of the article by Horace Miners “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” I would evaluate this culture’s belief and behaviors provides a direct evident that the attitudes or characteristics of human body has an extensive influence on variety of institutions in Nasiriya society. Throughout the reading, he provides the reader an understanding perspective of the American rituals from a different point of view. The key word that is emphasized is the word ritual and how it is impacted so much in our lives.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Body Ritual among the Nacirema” tells the story of the “unusual aspect” lifestyle and the rituals of the Americans. Miner uses a unique approach to describe not Nacirema but the Americans by using an outsider's view, a person who does not understand American's lifestyle. Nacirema is American spelled backwards Miner writes about is every household having a “shrine room” and those individuals with more power contain more than one. He remarks that the shrines rituals ‘are not with family but are private”and the box or chest which contains “magical potions”. The “shrine room” Miner describes is the bathroom and the box with magical potions is the medicine cabinet. The most important potions are described to be obtained from the medicine man who writes it down on a piece of paper in an “ancient and secret language” then is taken to the herbalist. Miner is talking about the American culture the medicine men are doctors the ancient writing are the scribbles on the prescription forms that somehow the pharmacist can understand. This helps us (Americans) realize different things about our culture and see how others view our culture.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The research article about the Nacirema culture focused on a heavily religious society. In which the indualives shape their whole lives around it. Most people in the culture have at least one shrine dedicated to their physical health. It’s custom for all of the household members to pray to the shrine at least once a day. Praying is a secluded activity in the Nacirema culture and it is believed to reinforce the individual’s relationship with the divine. There is a major emphasis on the mouth and how it relates to a person’s social interaction and relationships. The mouth was so empathized that the Nacirema people visit the “Holy-mouth-man” once or twice a year, who inspects their mouths of any evil spirits using special instruments. The ancient traditions of the Nacirema culture seems to have influenced western culture.…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Nacirema Ritual

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner discusses the ritual practice of Nacirema people, which is an ethnic group of people in America. In freshman year, I had a chance to take freshman seminar class about religion, so I know that even in one religion they have various way of ritual practice. The ritual practices are usually formed very early in the acient period of time, so most of them are unreasonable and superstitious. It is very interesting to read an article about the ritual practice of Nacirema people to understand more about a culture in the religious aspect. I was surprised to see that in every religion they usually have an image of God to worship, but Nacirema people does not. They worship to holy-mouth-man, medicine man,…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Body Rituals

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The author makes use of countless comparisons to primitive native culture to explain the obsession with health, hygiene, and anti-aging. Miner refers to dentists as holy mouth men and bathrooms as shrines for odd ritual practices. His language is clearly satirical and creates the notion of the "Nacirema" as vain and self obsessed. Also, they seem to be a masochistic society built around willingly subjecting themselves to pain…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Nacirema Culture

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Nacirema are a culture of vast ethnic diversity, yet the majority still share numerous similarities despite their unique trace origins. In the Nacirema culture there are many conventional values that most individuals try to adhere to, albeit the varying degrees of adherence due to their unique sub-cultures. The most prominent values are: treating all adult(18yrs) individuals equally with regards to making decisions about their leaders and allowing individuals to follow their own spiritual beliefs, providing they do not infringe on beliefs of others. However, many members of the Nacirema tussle over these basic principles as they lack the proper educational awareness or their beliefs cloud their judgment. Furthering the complexity of this…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays