What Is The Nacirema Tribe

In 1956 a professor from the University of Michigan, Horace Miner, wrote an article in The American Anthropologist that has become a mainstay of learning for anthropology students. Miner published the article to show a fictional exotic society called “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” as an example of how one’s own limited perspective might affect the perception of a foreign culture (Miner, 1956, p. 503). The article uses subtle humor to make the reader more comfortable in examining cultural behaviors, physical appearance, and health as the reader soon discovers that the actual society being examined is the American society. To the reader, the article begins to sound very familiar after each paragraph is

In my opinion, this article about the Nacirema people was very fascinating. These people have a very different culture than we do, which I find very intriguing. They believe that the human body is ugly, and describe it as weak and prone to disease. Due to many aspects of the nonmaterial culture in America, I was raised to believe that the human body is beautiful and can accomplish incredible things. Therefore, I find it hard to see the meaning of their rituals, however, I do respect our cultural differences. The Nacirema people also build shrines within their houses. These shrines contain chests full of previously used magical healing potions and charms. The Nacirema people perform personality ceremonies at the shrine daily in order to ensure

"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" is significant as it establishes the issue of representation in ethnography. The purpose of the article is to raise the question of how can we study a different culture from the outside and how can we understand our own culture from within. Culture can be defined in many ways, Tylor (1871) stated that culture is; “…that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Therefore, the article presents the topic of cultural relativism, arguing that there is no impartial viewpoint from which to assess cultures, that every culture should be interpreted and understood from the

The Cherokees were one of the five largest Indian tribes. This tribe came from the Iroquoian descent. Iroquoian is a family of North American Indian languages of the eastern part of Canada and the United States that includes Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Tuscarora, Cherokee, Erie, Huron, and Wyandot. They had begun, speaking Iroquoian, in 8000

The Timucua Tribe was once a thriving group of Native Americans. They lived in the northern parts of Florida. In the cooler winter months, they migrated inland to the forests where they worked as farmers, growing crops of all sorts. In addition to farming, they also hunted animals for food. In the warmer summer months, they migrated closer to the coasts where they fished for food.

Although the Nacirema tribe has very unique methods and focus on the human body and appearence, they are similar to our society. I feel like this tribe's beliefs are particularly similar to ours because they try to achieve "beauty" just like we try to be "prettier" or "perfect". The Nacirema can be described as a weird/unique tribe because they use torture to achieve their beliefs. One thing that striked me as particularly odd was the "mouth-rite" and "latispo" rituals because the people knew that they might die if they went through them and they still do it. They do this because they want to fit in and it is also something that has been tought all their lives. In a way, we also go through a type of torture when we decide on changing the way

1. The Nacirema culture gradually developed into a market economy that is extremely devoted to daily rituals. The tribe's perspective towards the human body shows unusual and strange behaviors that they possess. They believe that the human body is hideous and is prone to illness and weakness. The Nacirema tribe also have an irrational fear regarding the mouth, because they believe that their teeth would fall out or their gums would bleed which shows their behaviors are vaguely eccentric. From my perspective, the ritual activity that involves washing a child's mouth to enhance moral behavior is fascinating, because they believe that a strong bond exists between oral and moral traits. The ritual ablution they perform on children is supposed to improve the ability to do what is right, no matter the situation.

The Nacirema is a North America group who lives around the area of Canadian Cree, the Yaqui, Tarahumare of Mexico, the Carib, and Arawak of Antilles. The ritual activity is a big part in the Nacirema's lives. They spend a considerable amount of time performing a secretive ceremonies and posses a great amount of tolerance. Their focus is on the human body appearance and health. It is to their believe that human body is viewed as ''ugly'' and ''debility and disease.” Hoping to eliminate those undesirable characteristic traits, the Nacirema's only hope is to do so through ritual activities hence the shrine is built inside of every house.

By keeping reading this article, I do understand that Nacirema is a tribe with a deep and unique connection with their culture. For example, they have a created a special structure of society for their ritual and ceremony of the human body. Indeed, the Nacirema tribe has a deep believe in their religion, culture and their belief. We understand from this perspective that our diversity makes us certainly different, but connected. For example Horace mentions that Nacirema body cleansing is a must for social recognition, and mouth rituals make them (the Nacirema) more accepted by others. These rituals may look odd to some point of view. In this logic, one may argue that the author emphasizes the fact that diversity acknowledgement can be complex.

My Native American Tribe are called The Anasazi. The name of their culture group is Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Puebloans. The Anasazi lived in the Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, in what is now northern Arizona, southern Utah, southwestern Colorado, and northwestern New Mexico. They farmed beans, squash and corn, ate wild plants and hunted mice and rabbits. The Anasazi also hunted deer and bighorn sheep less frequently.

The rituals of the Nacirema culture are very unique when it comes to the different forms of beliefs and remedies. According to the article, “The fundamental belief underlying the whole system of the Nacirema appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease” (4). With that in mind, the Nacirema have come up with a bundle of ways to keep the body healthy and pure. Of those ways, most are included with the belief that magic is the key component in the use of ritual and ceremony. Houses in the Nacirema culture have shrines dedicated to the purpose of these ritual ceremonies. Homes with one or more shrines often mean the family is considered wealthier. The focal point of a shrine is a box or chest

The author begins the article by preparing the audience what is about to come. Telling the audience that cultures around the world have unusual customs and an anthropologist would even seek out a culture that has one when everyone seems to agree. He then talks about the Nacirema tribe and the extremities of their practices.

About halfway in the reading I realized the article is talking about American. Nacirema’s rituals share many similarities to what we do daily. Nacirema “inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle

The ethical views of the Navaho tribe are somewhat similar to our basic morals. They generally frowned upon actions such as lying, losing your temper, stealing or cheating. They praised generosity and shunned stinginess. However, they did not hold to many abstract ideas to support their morals. They had a primarily practical reason to the way they acted. For example, one would avoid lying so that they would be trusted in their community. Although the foundation of honesty in most situations was a key in their morals, lying was almost excused if you could get away with it in certain circumstances and white lies were frequently overlooked. Also, a person would rarely feel a sense of guilt if his crime went unnoticed. This fact, in my opinion,

Ritual is a religious ceremony that involves a series of activities performed in a particular order by those who subscribe to the religion. Sacrifice is the act of giving something to a supernatural being to please it. The word sacrifice also means the offering given to the supernatural human being. The essay is going to discuss rituals and sacrifices in Confucianism, which is one the largest religion in China.