Question

Article: Body Ritual Among the Nacirema

Please read the article and answer the following. Thank you

1. List some of the things that are important to the Nacirema, and the ways in which they get others to conform to socially approved, but rather odd behaviors.

2. What do you like about the Nacirema and which aspects of their culture/way of life, would you promote or, advocate for our society today? Explain.

3. From the text, which examples of the following concepts: Value, norm, and sanction can you give?                                       

4. Would you want to live and raise your children among the Nacirema? If no, why?

Answer 1

From an anthropological perspective, Miner offers a stranger's view on the members of a North American tribe. He describes some rituals common to tribal members and their invid- ious relationship to the natural appearances and processes of their bodies. Disdaining their ordinary functions, Naciremans collect and revere objects through which they transform and disguise their ordinary sight, smell, and feel, going to great length to conform to mainstream cultural norms.They also dogmatically share common cultural beliefs about the existence of spiritual bodies, healing powers, and important sacred practices, particularly those concerned with their physical essence. Miner's description and analysis, although not a complete por- trayal of the group, offer fascinating insight into the way outsiders perceive and interpret dis- tinct native cultures.