The Body Ritual Of The Nacirema Analysis

By reading “How to Read Literature like a Professor” and “The Kite Runner”, the reader is aided in his or her ability to understand the true meanings behind the text. One is able to decipher how the act of coming together to eat can mean anything from a simple meal with family, to an uncomfortable situation that leads to anger or stress in an individual character. The reader is able to understand the use of rain or other weather in a novel to transform the mood and tone of scene, or understand the cleansing or destructive qualities that weather may have on the overall plot of the story. The use of illness can be transformed, as it can lead to the reader discovering veiled means behind tuberculosis, cholera, a simple cold, or even cancers such

How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster, gives the reader insight on how to look at a novel in a different perspective. This book truly changes the way the reader views a book. In Chapter 11 of How To Read Literature Like A Professor, the topic of death is introduced. Every death in a novel has a deeper meaning which helps mystify the plot. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, has 3 significant deaths that occur in the novel to develop the story.

The Influence of Literature Capturing a reader within every word, a strong piece of literature holds the power to reshape a reader’s perspective. Readers of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Joe Fassler’s article entitled “How Literature Inspires Empathy,” discover how quality literature can improve humanity. Bradbury and Alaa Al Alswany display literature’s capability to transform the compassion, knowledge, and vision of a person. Aswany says, “‘Literature is not a tool of judgment— it’s a tool for human understanding’”

In this essay, I was taught how to read from a different perspective. I learned how to deconstruct, and reconstruct writing to learn the thought process of the author.  Mike Bunn shows his readers a how-to process of analyzing any form of literature, explaining the purpose, context, and language.   Throughout the essay "How to Read Like a Writer,” Mike compares analyzing writing to an architect analyzing columns, or a carpenter analyzing homes.

In the 1900’s, Winston Churchill said “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” (Kutner, The Illustrious History of Misquoting Winston Churchill,”). This quote stands out for a number of reasons. When people read books, people slowly gain more character, courage, and more curiosity. First of all, reading helps people develop character to know the good choices from the bad ones.

In Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, Horace Miner develops a weird, quirky society called the Nacirema that is made up of natives who go about their day doing odd rituals and tasks. The purpose of the story was to have people judge other cultures less harshly by making them step back and think about what they were perceiving. Additionally, Miner calls attention to how similar cultures are from region to region without even knowing. Sociologists from the perspectives of functionalism, conflict, and symbolic interaction would interpret Nacirema society differently and in a unique way. Throughout the story Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, many ideas that align with the three theoretical perspectives are blatantly displayed by the Nacirema natives.

Body Ritual of the Nacirema by Horace Miner is a clever piece that describes a foreign sounding culture only to be realized that the group being described is one that is much more familiar. Through his process of describing conventional habits or “rituals” in an unconventional way, he allows the reader to look at this culture through a very unique lens. The Nacirema are the Americans and a representation of the American culture. Although this might not be immediately apparent to the reader, there are a number of hints throughout the text to help come to this realization.

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.

Horace Miner’s use of irony, satire, and invective help the piece succede. If the author did not use all three of these satiric devices, the paper would not make sense. Throughout the paper, the author uses these three devices which make the reader laugh. It also helps us to understand the article. First off, the article, Body Ritual among the Nacirema, the author states “...Notgnihsaw, who is otherwise known for two great strength- the throwing of a piece of wampum across the river Pa-To-Mac and the chopping down of a cherry tree in which the Spirit of Truth resided.”

It is very important that writers are able to send a message to their reader with their book. Authors best do this by bringing about empathy. In order to send this message, authors often develop strong characters that go through various problems and struggles. The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, shows this very well with its characters Scout Finch and Tom Robinson. This book helps the readers learn from the character’s reactions to their problems.

In the essays, “Reading to Write” by Stephen King, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, “Learning to Read” Malcolm X, and “Learning to Write” by Frederick Douglas have three things in common. In each essay Reading has contributed towards the authors life leading to benefit from learning to read, allowing them to leave a legacy behind. In each essay the authors has thought their self how unlike Frederick Douglass. For Stephen King, reading has done a lot for him. King stated, “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (221).

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.

This outlook is reflected in national surveys, the number of literary non-readers in the United States is starting to outweigh the number of readers and, this has slowly been proceeding over the past 20 years (Gioia 421). Reading is a fundamental part of life. It’s a major way of expression, imagination, learning and being the best person