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Nacirema

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Horace Miner writes about the Nacirema, a culture steeped in magic and superstition. Their ways of life are portrayed as uncivilized and barbaric. The Nacirema perform rituals and rites that are strange to us here in the civilized world. The description and portrayal of this tribe make it very hard for the reader to connect or even begin to understand such a strange people. Miner starts of the article creating an atmosphere of wonderment; “if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he(anthropologist) is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe”(Miner:1956:503). And that tribe is the Nacirema, a foreign and strange people to whom we in the western …show more content…

The ‘listener’ or psychologist is another example that Miner uses. The Nacirema, troubled by their childhoods and demons of their minds go to the listener to let out all of their troubles. This is synonymous with trips to the psychologist to talk about one’s problems. The incredulity one feels when Miner writes, “It is not uncommon for the patient to bemoan the rejection he felt upon being weaned as a babe and a few individuals even see their troubles going back to the

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