Nacirema background:  Horace Miner (1912 to 1993) is best known to American anthropologists for his writings about the Nacerima (American spelled backwards). In this article he describes American culture from a non American viewpoint. This article illustrates the ethnocentric ways that cultures can be misrepresented and the importance of understanding the cultural context behind the actions of people. Miner’s essay, meant to be a kind of tongue-in-cheek satirical look at a highly unusual culture, “denaturalizes”or makes strange the familiar so that we may better perceive the contours of a particular society.

Copy of Nacirema Reading

Without knowing Miner’s satirical look at American Culture many of you shared your perspective about the Nacirema:

“The baking your head in an oven thing is actually kind of creepy”

"The rituals are painful and odd"

"The rituals are bizarre and gruesome, also very unecessary"

"Something out of a horror movie or cult"

"Messed up a really gross"

"Very interesting, but incredibly barbaric"

"Brutish, harsh, strange, and painful"

“This is just a different culture. I'm sure at first when our culture was developing that it was different. It's just important that we embrace different cultures so we many expand our culture and grow.”

"I think these are interesting people..they're priorities are funny (to me of course, who is not used to it). They see the body as trying to do bad things, and working to prevent said things. In a way, what they describe is kind of like a religion-the way and daily ritual of these people. The end of the reading was a little disturbing ..... I kind of have no comment."

Some of you started to crack the code about the Nacirma

“The article was interesting, the people who belong to that culture probably look at our culture the same way as we view theirs, bizarre.  Did anyone notice that  nacirema is american spelled backwards?”

“I do believe that this may have been a bit satirical...actually I am almost positive that this was a mockery of the lifestyle and culture that we have developed within the United States”

This pretty much seems to describe our culture. Many of you were saying that you were "weirded out" by some of the rituals because they were "unfamiliar" but this is what I connected them to."

1.  A chest built into the wall storing magical potions= Medicine cabinet. It also says that many of these potions are "imagined maladies." How many products on television aren't approved by the F.D.A. How do we know that all of these weight loss products and acne treatments really work? We don't.
2. Medicine man= Pharmacist
3. "Holy Mouth men" = Dentist
4. "The water temple" = Showers/sinks etc.
5. "Teeth being gouged out" = Teeth extractions. I just had them done because I am getting braces. Yet that is commonplace, and no one would think that is weird.
6. "Women bake their heads in small ovens." = Tanning booths.

 http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1053723

"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema"

 By Horace Miner

ANALYSIS

THE NACIREMA CULTURE

Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy(CAPITALISM)  which has evolved in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people's time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of the fruits of these labors and a considerable portion of the day are spent in ritual activity. The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people. While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its ceremonial aspects and associated philosophy are unique.

The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease. Incarcerated in such a body, man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony. Every household has one or more shrines (BATHROOMS) devoted to this purpose. The more powerful individuals in the society have several shrines in their houses (BIGGER HOUSE , MORE BATHROOMS, MORE $$$) and, in fact, the opulence of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses. Most houses are of wattle and daub construction, but the shrine rooms of the more wealthy are walled with stone. Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine walls.

The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest (MEDICINE CABINET) which is built into the wall. In this chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live. These preparations are secured from a variety of specialized practitioners (DOCTORS) The most powerful of these are the medicine men, whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts. However, the medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their clients, but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language. This writing is understood only by the medicine men and by the herbalists (PHARMAISTS) who, for another gift, provide the required charm.

The charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose, but is placed in the charmbox of the household shrine. As these magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or imagined maladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to overflowing. The magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use them again. While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box, before which the body rituals are conducted, will in some way protect the worshiper.

Beneath the charm-box is a small font. Each day every member of the family, in succession, enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablution. The holy waters are secured from the Water Temple of the community, where the priests conduct elaborate ceremonies to make the liquid ritually pure.

In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine men in prestige, are specialists whose designation is best translated as "holy-mouth-men."  DENTIST The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships. Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them. They also believe that a strong relationship exists between oral and moral characteristics. For example, there is a ritual ablution of the mouth for children which is supposed to improve their moral fiber. TOOTHFARY

The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious [6] about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.[7] BRUSHING TEETH

In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a year. These practitioners have an impressive set of paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of augers, awls, probes, and prods. The use of these objects in the exorcism of the evils of the mouth involves almost unbelievable ritual torture of the client. The holy-mouth-man opens the client's mouth and, using the above mentioned tools, enlarges any holes which decay may have created in the teeth. Magical materials are put into these holes.CAVITIES  If there are no naturally occurring holes in the teeth, large sections of one or more teeth are gouged out so that the supernatural substance can be applied. In the client's view, the purpose of these ministrations [8] is to arrest decay and to draw friends. The extremely sacred and traditional character of the rite is evident in the fact that the natives return to the holy-mouth-men year after year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay.

It is to be hoped that, when a thorough study of the Nacirema is made, there will be careful inquiry into the personality structure of these people. One has but to watch the gleam in the eye of a holy-mouth-man, as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of sadism is involved. If this can be established, a very interesting pattern emerges, for most of the population shows definite masochistic tendencies. It was to these that Professor Linton referred in discussing a distinctive part of the daily body ritual which is performed only by men. This part of the rite includes scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument. SHAVING Special women's rites are performed only four times during each lunar month, but what they lack in frequency is made up in barbarity. (HAIR SALON) As part of this ceremony, women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour. The theoretically interesting point is that what seems to be a preponderantly masochistic people have developed sadistic specialists.