Body Ritual Among the Nacirema - 948 Words

January 26, 2013 Horace Minor applied satire in his article â€Å"Body Ritual among the Nacirema.† to the culture of the American people. Several ways in which â€Å"Body Ritual among the Nacirema† relate to the core concepts of sociology are through the use of sociological imagination, ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. The American culture is described by Minor in a very unique and humorous way. The author uses satire to examine the rituals that are every day in American culture. The reader thinks at the beginning of the article that they are reading about some uncivilized tribe of people but soon realized that the â€Å"rituals† that are being performed are just everyday events that take place in every American household. Miner describes the†¦show more content†¦In the 1950’s, medical facilities were not what they are today, and I think Miner wanted to raise awareness regarding issues in medical clinics, psychiatric practices, and in dental offices. At that time there were many bizarre treatments in psychiatric facilities and most were just a place to lock up mental patients to remove them from society. Starting in the 1950’s, there has been major changes in the medical community. Practices performed in psychiatry and dental offices have changed dramatically as well and certainly wouldn’t compare to the procedures described of the Nacirema tribe. One could feel sorry for the tribe being written about and disapprove of our own culture when viewing it using the sociological perspective. Miner writes in one of the introduction paragraphs that â€Å"the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go,† (Minor, 1956) Teeth brushing, dental visits, and hair drying are things that seem like normal behaviors. Even the obsession of women’s breast sizes are accepted as normal and certainly haven’t changed since the 1950’s. Minor’s description of these behaviors make them sound foreign and we feel sympathy towards the behavior’s in this â€Å"tribe†. In the end, while some may not relate popular American culture with the article,Show MoreRelatedThe Body Ritual Among the Nacirema737 Words   |  3 Pages The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema As an individual coming to investigate American civilization through the observation of cultural activities, I find the ritual of medicine men and women (doctors, psychiatrists and pharmacists) very interesting. â€Å"Medicine man or medicine woman are  English  terms used to describe  traditional healers  and spiritual leaders among  Native American  and otherRead MoreBody Ritual Among the Nacirema1031 Words   |  5 PagesBody Ritual among the Nacirema Name Course Sociology Date 6/12/2013 Body Ritual among the Nacirema Horace Miner in the article, Body Ritual Among the Nacirema depicts a society that is growing naturally, but which has transformed itself into a ritual tribe. In this article, the tribe, Nacirema, is a tribe that has transformed itself naturally and which has incorporated a lot of beliefs and religious tendency forRead MoreBody Rituals Among the Nacirema1097 Words   |  5 PagesBody Rituals Among the Nacirema Abstract This study examines Horace Miner’s essay â€Å"Body Rituals Among the Nacirema. While using the participant observation approach, he gives us a new perspective on the daily behaviors within this group of people. Exploring ethnocentrism and how we view cultures outside of our own. Horace Miner was a professor for the University of Michigan. He sought out to teach young people the importance of cultural anthropology. (Horace Mitchell Miner - Wikipedia, theRead MoreBody Rituals Among the Nacirema Essay925 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"Body Rituals Among the Nacirema, â€Å" by Horace Miner, is an essay written about the Nacirema, or American people, from an outsider’s perspective. Miner gives an insight on the Nacireman people, which he describes in his essay as an unknown tribe, and the completing of the Nacireman’s magical beliefs and practices, which involve daily, involuntary body rituals that cause much pain and discomfort. Miner shows how an outsider’s perspective can affect the way a culture is seen. In his essay, Miner usesRead More Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Essay699 Words   |  3 PagesBody Ritual Among the Nacirema What is the precise geographical location of this strange tribe, the Nacirema? The Nacirema is a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, though tradition states that they came from the east. What are the private and secret shrines of the Nacirema? In the Nacirema, the belief is that the human body is ugly andRead MoreBody Ritual Among the Nacirema Essay822 Words   |  4 PagesWould you want to live among the Naciremas? Why or why not? After reading Horace Miner’s Body Ritual Among the Nacirema I cannot say that I would want to be part of the tribe. A huge reason would be that I could never go from my own Christian faith to the religious practices of the Nacirema. My second reason for not wanting to be part of the tribe is that I could never be subjected to the horrific medical practices and â€Å"magical potions† used on every citizen in the tribe. One of the fundamentalRead MoreBody Rituals Among the Nacirema Tribe421 Words   |  2 PagesBody rituals among the Nacirema tribe The story relates to how we seek perfection on our bodies. It demonstrates how people will perform extreme procedures to achieve perfection, and even after this they will still feel they are ugly and not perfect. The rituals performed by the Nacirema tribe may seem inhumane, but if compared to our current culture and the procedures people perform on their bodies there is no much difference. I viewed the things they did as bizarre, but on close analysis of ourRead MoreSummary of Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Essay726 Words   |  3 Pagesâ€Å"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema† Summary In the essay â€Å"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema†, anthropologist Horace Miner depicts a group of people known as the â€Å"Nacirema†, but is referring to Americans, whose cultural beliefs are deeply rooted in the perspective that the human body is prune to sickness and disfiguration. Consequently, a substantial part of their lives is spent on unusual rituals and customs to improve conditions of the body that are filled with magical components. Moreover, Miner usesRead More Horace Miner’s Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Essay596 Words   |  3 PagesHorace Miner’s Body Ritual Among the Nacirema In Horace Miner’s article, â€Å"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema†, he talks about a tribe and describes their odd behavior. He tells about how the tribe performs these strange daily rituals and how their peculiarity is extreme, but in fact he is actually speaking of Americans as a whole (Miner). Miner uses this style of writing to more effectively prove his point: that Americans are ethnocentric. Miner does an exceptional job in disguisingRead MoreAnthropology Analysis of Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Essay996 Words   |  4 Pagesin writing this article was not to show the â€Å"Nacirema† as an example of how extreme human behavior can become, but how an outside perspective can affect your perception of an alien culture. If one were to look at the â€Å"Nacirema’s† cultural behaviors regarding physical appearance and health without any insight or knowledge of the specific beliefs or values of that culture, they might seem bizarre and even incomprehensible. By showing behaviors and â€Å"rituals† performed by this unknown tribe, Miner allowed