A Glimpse in the Nacirema Society

Part A

My understanding and readings on Horace Miner's article is about a distinctive tribe called Nacirema tucked away in the Canadian Cree and Mexico(throughout North America). Although not much is understood about this  tribe, but the little information about their customs and behavior given to me is quite foreign to me. My perception on the Nacirema society is that these individuals are distant,uneducated,faithful,barbaric,and similar (to some extent).

 Distant
The Nacirema people show no significance of intimacy, social interaction, and sympathy. The women are not the ones who nurture their very own infants.The expecting mothers hide their stomachs to show no evidence that they are pregnant. The wives are not to see their husbands naked, for they do not obtain an intimate relationship within their very own family members in my opinion. Sexual intercourse is scheduled, and it is seen as just an "act". Intercourse is considered a taboo among the Nacirema people. If I were to observe this tribe, it would look like this tribe consisted of pure robots!

Uneducated
The Nacirema tribe show no sign of intellect nor advancement. For thousands of years, this tribe has had just the holy-mouth-men and witch doctors. Their concept of well-being and health is spiritual fulfillment. The Nacirema has not yet advance in any kind of technology, and their economy is natural habitat. The belief among these people is that the body is propositioned for debility and disease, so their only hope is through rituals and ceremonies.The people are said to carry these charm boxes containing magical packets that can cure illness, and sometimes they tend to forget the purpose of certain packets. They do not seek an alternative solution. This society is limited in critically thinking because their belief system.

Faithful
It seems that these individuals are tremendously faithful and superficial. They spend most of their time on ritual activity. Every household has a shrine. It is shocking that their very own household can be poorly constructed while the shrine are far more better built with stones. They continue to seek the holy-mouth-men year after year regardless if the cure is guaranteed or not. The Nacirema people show an extreme devotion to their beliefs.

Barbaric
The Nacirema culture has showed how far human behavior can go. In my opinion, they show very unusual and pointless behavior. They have what is called a Latispo ceremonies where these ceremonies are so harsh only a few sick individuals have the chance to really recover. Four times on the lunar month, the women place their heads in ovens, and they bake their heads for about an hour. There are such procedures as inserting hog hairs in the mouth. For the men, there are daily rituals where the face is scraped and lacerated.

Similar
One aspect of this tribe I can say they are much like the American society is they seek desirable human appearance. They have what is called ritual fasts where the women enlarge their breasts if they would like bigger breasts. They have ceremonial feasts for those women who are slim who wish to become fat. In the United States going under the knife is becoming more common, so it that aspect this tribe is like the American society.

-Jessica Garcia


Part B


As an American, I strongly disagree that my culture resembles the descriptive words I have provided in my impression for the Nacirema culture. I come from a very loving and caring family,and I would not consider my family to be distant. Yes, I come from a Christian background, but i do not exercise religion the way the Nacirema people center their daily routine around their beliefs. The American society is so modern and civilized, and I strongly disagree that my culture can be defined as barbaric. In terms of human appearance, we are very much alike. In the United States, plastic surgery has become more and more part of the American culture.

I believe my words were a little judgmental and biased. The words I have provided were what "I" believed what was considered distant, uneducated, faithful, and barbaric. I forget that this society might not think of themselves as these words. But because it is foreign and different than my culture, my impression for this culture was what I have described. What might be normal to one culture, it might be completely barbaric to another culture. I can say the Nacirema culture only resembles a certain aspect to my culture(in terms of striving for the desirable physical appearance).

I suppose looking at this culture in a whole different perspective, maybe what is important to the Nacirema tribe is not social interaction and closer more intimate ties between family members, but to be able to survive and be a part of this tribe might be more important to them. Maybe this culture does not want to thrive for a more advanced culture or maybe they are quite comfortable with their lifestyle, and maybe what seems barbaric might be necessary, because if their thoughts and beliefs are real in their conscious, the consequences are real as well.

I believe when it comes to examining and learning about other cultures, it is important to avoid ethnocentric judgments, because we are always going to assume and sum up our understandings and not really LEARN and UNDERSTAND the culture. I would like to say then why would we even bother to study other cultures if we are going to just jump to conclusion? When learning about another culture, it is important to describe the culture in a manner that is free from biased, because what might seem to be something, it might not be what we believe it is. I'd imagine it is completely hard for Anthropologists to learn about different tribes, because it is hard to sit back and allow different perspective on how or what has to be done.