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Nacirema

            In the article "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" Horace Miner goes over the various facts about the Nacirema tribe. This is a very exotic tribe found on North American and of thought to have originated from the East. They are a tribe that has heavy beliefs in magical practices and rituals and shrines. .
             This tribe's fundamental belief is that the human body is ugly and that it's naturally susceptible to disease. This to me is a very strange belief because it is defacing the human body, which all humanity is based on. In each household all families have certain shrines and wealth can be characterized by how large or how many items are in a persons" shrine. The shrines also contain magical powders that the tribe uses to cure certain illnesses.
             Another very interesting fact about the Nacirema is their "holy-mouth-men" beliefs. The Nacirema believe that the mouth is most sacred part of the human body, and should be kept neat and clean to keep friends, or a significant other. People in the tribe go to a holy-mouth-man once to twice a year to get their mouths inspected. The holy-mouth-man will fix any holes in the teeth, gums and lips using magical powder. Like Miner says the tribe people continue to go this holy-mouth-man yearly although their teeth continue to decay worse and worse. .
             The "listener" is another interesting tradition by the Nacirema, this someone who listens to peoples" problems and tries to get the devil out of their head. This is kind of like Catholicism in trying to expunge the devil out of Catholics lives. This to me is very interesting because it is sort of like Catholicism. .
             If I had a chance to encounter a Nacirema tribe member I would want to know more about their fascinating culture. Although some of it I do find incredibly odd I would like to meet them to see why they believe it so deeply. I would also ask them why they subject themselves to pain as shown in the article.


Essays Related to Nacirema

1. Life Among The Nacirema

... that posses the body. The Nacireman temple maidens also perform magical rituals such as placing sharp wires into the body, draining blood and rubbing patients down with mysterious ointment. The Nacirema have an almost extreme revulsion and fascination with the mouth. The condition of the mouth is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships. Several times each day, the ... way. The message "Success comes from someone else's expense" is taught early on and carried through adulthood. It is a moral value taught through enculturation. Competition is also highly valu...

  • Word Count: 2054
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Body Rituals of the Nacirema "

... or an adapted behavior shared by a culture or group. In this article Horace Miner discusses the habits we have adapted to. Miner states that "Each Nacirema family shares a family shrine as part of their practice to maintain the state of their bodies. In the shrine, there is a built-in chest ... where the very sick go."" In this statement miner is discussing the hospital, which we attend when we are very ill. Then he states "The Nacirema also have a "listener ". He or she helps exorcise devils from the heads of those who have been bewitched by letting their patient talk of the ... reprod...

  • Word Count: 959
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography

3. The Nacirema Dlohesuoh Senirhs

... had huge walls that where always painted red and covered with jewels and rhinestones within their shrine rooms. A leader was elected by the Nacirema people. He would have to be the eldest male with no female off-spring within his family. The shrines was important to the leaders because it held what they believed ... water recipes for the potions. They had potions for everything. Potions for sicknesses, potions for worshiping and magic potions for learning, just to name a few. The poor people of the Nacirema tribe could not afford big shrines, so to imitate their leaders, they put potte...

  • Word Count: 269
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Parties And Politics

... and Christmas; while they may be vastly different in appearance, timing and tradition the Moka celebration of the Kawelka and Christmas among the Nacirema nonetheless serve many of the same social-political purposes. Whether or not the population is willing to admit the actual purposes for the ... may now observe business colleagues, employers, and members of society that may help your own social/political status. More and more members of the Nacirema are spending extravagantly and to extremes that they cannot support, causing greater and greater debts. "You can't just throw a little par...

  • Word Count: 1713
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

5. school

The Concept of Culture The article about the Nacirema talks about the ritual they perform on their bodies. The Nacirema live near Mexico and Canada. They believe that the human body is ugly so they perform many kinds of rituals on it. For example, ... the men lacerate the surface of their faces with a sharp instrument. While the women bake their heads in ovens. The Nacirema also believe in magic and medicine men. The article states that although the medicine men usually end up killing the people, the people still eagerly go to then. ... stated that "each culture has an underlying logic of it...

  • Word Count: 311
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

6. American Rituals

... Horace Minor, we are shown some of our faults in a deceiving manor. We are convinced that there is such a tribe as the Nacirema, and as we are told their rituals seem extreme and almost ridiculous. When we finally reach then end we realize that the whole time Minor is really criticizing our American ... (rituals, rites, shrines) are very influential in the extent of how much we buy into this culture. The first thing that affects the reader is Minor's overall tone about the Nacirema rituals, a tone of satire and sarcasm. As the reader starts reading and the tone sets in, the readers the...

  • Word Count: 478
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Analysis about the article: Body Rituals About The NACIREMA

In the United States, there are many cultural practices that we can easily observe throughout other people. People who adapted themselves to believe in follow these cultural practices think that the best thing to do is to get them involved in these kinds of cultural practices. One of the things that we can say that would be weird from people from other cultures to observe can be people's worryness about their weight. For example, nowadays, people care a lot about their weight, may be they are in a good condition but when they get to see themselves in a mirror they see more than what it really...

  • Word Count: 335
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. The !Kung

... !Kung tribes? Human error would play a huge role in our "assumptions- of the !Kung. For example, we might turn around to be just as wrong as the article of the Nacirema. Obviously, there is already a misconception about the bushman. For example, in McNeil's essay, he comments on how a woman was speaking to a bushman and demanded to see one. When he explained ... ...

  • Word Count: 3399
  • Approx Pages: 14
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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