Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Analysis

The United States is a capitalist country that thrives off of the American Dream since it promotes the rags to riches idea to force people to believe that through endless amounts of work, they can reach to the top. The American people all have different ideals when it comes to the American Dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote The Great Gatsby, used his novel as a way to promote his version of the

The Nacirema’s are said to be a tribe located between Canada and Mexico. With very exotic beliefs and customs, the Nacirema’s are viewed as vein and selfish. They focus on an obsession and a hatred of the human body. If you have not already figured it out, Nacirema is American spelled backwards. In the essay Body Ritual among the Nacirema, Horace Miner explains American culture and customs which he finds to be very exotic and unusual.

Body Ritual among the Nacirema was written by Horace Miner in 1956. This piece was crafted as an excellent accumulation of the techniques of ironic, symbolism and use of a didactic tone that made this piece a great success. An example of where irony is used in the text is the way he makes us see the tribe as foreign and exotic and we judge it, but then we realize that Nacirema is American spelled backwards and the reader see that it is not a foreign tribe - but indeed the modern American people themselves. There is also mass irony around Notgnihsaw and the chopping down of the cherry tree in which the Spirit of Truth resided, because Notgnihsaw spelled backwards is Washington. Miner is using irony because America is supposed to be built on

Francis Bacon a member of Queen Elizabeth I’s Court, in his essay “Of Studies” wrote “some books are to be read only in parts…and with diligence”. Bacon’s perspective on reading is that no matter the size if done with diligence and a willingness to try can provide great insight. A reader reading the loss of a loved one can gain an understanding of loss without actually having experienced the loss. Reading about other experiences, or situations can coerce readers to empathize with the author’s standpoint.

Horace Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” has many rituals that seem bizarre but are a reflection of their beliefs and what they think is the proper way to address their imperfections be it the way they look, the condition of their health, or their beliefs in attaining luck or fortune. In my opinion, these rituals are, to some extent, similar to our own daily practices and rituals. Their daily rituals seem strange but these rituals and practices are somehow similar to our own daily rituals in terms of what they are trying to achieve. One similarity is how they believe that the human body is ugly so they use the powerful influences of ritual and ceremony. The more powerful members of the society have many shrines in their homes and

In the article " Body Ritual among The Naricema", Horace Miner speaks about a tribe and thier extremely perculiar behaviors. He goes on to explain how this tribe performs odd daily rituals, discussing them as unfamiliar people. By Miner speaking of specific behaviours and these "rituals" performed by this tribe, he allows people to gain an understanding of how cultural misunderstandings can occur by not having the knowledge of a society's basis. In this article it is obvious that Miner is making reference to the American people, but by portraying them as an odd tribe with strange behaviours, you as the reader are forced to try to understand the rituals and customs from an etic perspective. Miner often uses satire to show The Naricema or American people as being obssessed with rituals based on the vanity of the body.

In the article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner, Miner explains, while adding his own critique occasionally, the very unique yet private culture and rituals found among the Nacirema people. Miner explains in this article that the Nacirema people have a very strong magic based belief system in their culture and that belief system, composed of rituals, along with the want for economic wealth is what drives them to complete the tasks in their everyday lives. The article also reveals how the people focus a great deal of time on their body, with a particular focus on their physical appearance, in addition to their economic standing. Miner describes a daily ritual that Nacirema people go through to help them focus on improving their

After reading “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” I believe the Nacirema are the Americans. First Nacirema is American spelled backwards. I also think it is America because it said “North American group living… Little is known of their origin, al- though tradition states that they came from the east.”

Horace Miner, a American Anthropologist wrote an academic essay titled “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema.” In this article Miner described some of the bizarre rituals and practices of the “Nacirema” which the reader comes to find out that he is talking about North Americans. The way Miner goes into detail about how these people live makes them seem foreign. Thus making the norm for an American lifestyle seem odd because the certain type of lingo Miner uses to make this “tribe” more exotic then the actually are. His point in doing this is to show the reader how obnoxious anthropologist can be when they are explain a different culture.

The article “The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” gave me a different perspective of how humans look at the human body. It also surprised me and to be honest, upset me a little. The people of the Nacirema culture look at the human body as ugly, dirty and something to hide, to keep to one’s self. Not only is it ugly but In the Nacireman perspective it is required to make constant changes to the body-increasing or decreasing the size of breasts, attending what we would call dentist appointments to change and alter the mouth, to cure the body. The people of this culture make appointments to meet with “medicine men” who write down ingredients required to heal a sickness and then this list is taken to an ”herbalist” whom then provides the mixture

The American dream is an illusion that is deeply implanted in the minds of the people, it sets a bar for life achievement and offers hope to work hard to achieve their dreams. As for Americans, they are raised in a society to where they are expected to make lots money and to have a healthy family. After all in our society success is largely based off positions of power and financial stability. For example, in The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there were multiple interpretations of the ideal American dream in the 1920s. In the 1920s, due to the growth of materialism, people advertised and fancied the power of money to fulfilling their dreams.

In the study called Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, the author calls the rituals and ceremonies the people perform “excessive”. They are insane rituals that people in America wouldn’t seem to think about doing. They sound so different, and unusual. As one reads the fieldwork, it raises a lot of questions and concerns. To anyone from another country it would seem these rituals are excessive because of the way they are performed, and the things they use to perform them.

Horace Miner, the author of “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, used very interesting and descriptive choice of words to describe the routines that modern Americans go through from an outsider point of view. He gives different terms to describe mundane routines, like brushing your teeth, and exaggerate the details as something that is bizarre. Some rituals Miner described as illogical because there was a low rate of success in what they are trying to achieve. This reveals that what determines something to be socially acceptable is not through logic, but only though the popularity of the community. One of the rituals that Miner described as illogical but everyone still do the ritual was the fact that the people kept going to the “holy-mouth-man”, or also known as the dentist, even if their teeth are still decaying.

Horace Miner's "Ritual Among the Nacirema" is an essay about American practices of taking care of their bodies and the rituals that go with it. "Nacirema" is American spelled backwards. Miner wrote this essay so we can read about the habits of the Nacirema culture from an outsider's point of view, when in fact we are actually reading about our own culture. Miner's satirical view of American health habits includes the Nacirema people's practice of seeing medicine men (doctors), using a charm box (medicine cabinet), doing a mouth-rite (brushing teeth), seeing holy-mouth men (dentists), and getting help from the "listeners" (psychologists). Miner makes these ritual seem like tribal ceremonies, when in fact these practices are all part of

American Dream James Truslow Adams, in his book which was written in 1931 and called “ The Epic of America” wrote about American dream, that American dream is about being richer and living in better life. Also that American dream is more materialistic, that people work a lot of hours to gain things which they want to have. Such as luxury cars, big houses. They want to be wealthy, rich and have all expensive things and live in a world of money and wealth.