The rituals that are used by the Nacirema people definitely caught me by surprise and some even made me recoil. I am not trying to sound too judgemental but this group of people has a classic cause of following their faith very closed minded. For example, we have the Holy Mouth man and their mouth rituals. Due to the strong believes that if they do not take care of their teeth by going to these Holy men, they will lose their friends and loved ones, the Nacirema people submit to the tortures that come from these dental visits. With no Anesthesia, these Holy mouth men open up holes caused by decay and stick “magical materials” into them. The article also says that even if a client has no naturally occurring holes in his teeth, large sections of one or several teeth are pulled out to create room for these “supernatural substances”. Now here is what makes me come to the conclusion that these people are brainwashed by their beliefs; even though their teeth do not improve and instead keep on decaying, they still go back to these Holy mouth men. Another example of this is the ritual performed by women, where they bake their heads in an oven for about an hour. I would not bake myself alive for money, let alone for a belief where I receive no benefit at all. Lastly we have the Temple of the medicine men, the Latipso. The very sick are taken here, where certain rituals are performed exclusively. The main thing that gets to me with this temple is that it is unlikely that people will recover from their sickness, but nonetheless, the Nacirema people are not only willing to go through this terrible experience, but also eager to go there when they are sick. Why would anybody even want to go to a temple to be tortured, if their sickness will most likely not be cured, and it is a place that is known as “where you go to die”? The Nacirema people are brainwashed, but it is easy for me to make these accusations looking at the issue from my point of view, but I can imagine that being raised in these traditions, you know nothing else but these rituals. I'm just glad I wasn't born there!
I agree that the actions of the Nacirema people also caught my attention, but they did so in a different manner. If you examine the name closely, you will notice that the word “Nacirema” is actually the word American backwards. Miner seems to write in a satirical manner; though he describes the rituals as being supernatural powers, Miner is essentially describing the culture that all Americans follow. For example, when Miner talks about the “Holy Mouth Man” removing people’s teeth that are decaying, Miner is actually describing the profession of a dentist. The same goes for the “charms” “Medicine Man” and “Latipso.” The Nacierma people claim that the “human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease.” Thus Medicine Men, are known as doctors, are needed to provide “charms”, medicine, to those who are ill. If you examine the way Miner describes the Latipso, you will notice that he is actually describing a hospital; Miner writes “more elaborate ceremonies [are] required to treat very patients,” as well as that the temple is a place “where you go to die.” When you hear of the word hospital the first two definitions that will arise is either a place where people go to get treated for a severe disease or injury or a place where people die. I believe that Miner writes this article in a satirical manner in order to engage the reader to realize that we often overlook the rituals we do every day because they have become a norm to us.
The first time I read this article I totally missed that the author was talking about the American culture as a whole. After discussing it in class and acting like I knew what was going on, I went back and read the article one more time. It was like I was reading a whole new article. It was shocking how many revelations I had while reading. I started to understand how this article related to what we were doing in class. The author looked at our culture from such an obscure angle that I wasn't even able to recognize it. This would help us to create our ethnographies because their purpose was to examine a subculture from a different perspective. All of the things that Horace Miner examined whether it be the bathroom, doctors or dentists, were all taken out of their common contexts and represented in a way that was unfamiliar to us. The first time that I read the article I thought about how weird the rituals of the nacirema were. My mind was blown after realizing the true identity of the nacirema, as well as witnessing the power changing points of view has on your perception of something.
The rituals that are used by the Nacirema people definitely caught me by surprise and some even made me recoil. I am not trying to sound too judgemental but this group of people has a classic cause of following their faith very closed minded. For example, we have the Holy Mouth man and their mouth rituals. Due to the strong believes that if they do not take care of their teeth by going to these Holy men, they will lose their friends and loved ones, the Nacirema people submit to the tortures that come from these dental visits. With no Anesthesia, these Holy mouth men open up holes caused by decay and stick “magical materials” into them. The article also says that even if a client has no naturally occurring holes in his teeth, large sections of one or several teeth are pulled out to create room for these “supernatural substances”. Now here is what makes me come to the conclusion that these people are brainwashed by their beliefs; even though their teeth do not improve and instead keep on decaying, they still go back to these Holy mouth men. Another example of this is the ritual performed by women, where they bake their heads in an oven for about an hour. I would not bake myself alive for money, let alone for a belief where I receive no benefit at all. Lastly we have the Temple of the medicine men, the Latipso. The very sick are taken here, where certain rituals are performed exclusively. The main thing that gets to me with this temple is that it is unlikely that people will recover from their sickness, but nonetheless, the Nacirema people are not only willing to go through this terrible experience, but also eager to go there when they are sick. Why would anybody even want to go to a temple to be tortured, if their sickness will most likely not be cured, and it is a place that is known as “where you go to die”? The Nacirema people are brainwashed, but it is easy for me to make these accusations looking at the issue from my point of view, but I can imagine that being raised in these traditions, you know nothing else but these rituals. I'm just glad I wasn't born there!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the actions of the Nacirema people also caught my attention, but they did so in a different manner. If you examine the name closely, you will notice that the word “Nacirema” is actually the word American backwards. Miner seems to write in a satirical manner; though he describes the rituals as being supernatural powers, Miner is essentially describing the culture that all Americans follow. For example, when Miner talks about the “Holy Mouth Man” removing people’s teeth that are decaying, Miner is actually describing the profession of a dentist. The same goes for the “charms” “Medicine Man” and “Latipso.” The Nacierma people claim that the “human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease.” Thus Medicine Men, are known as doctors, are needed to provide “charms”, medicine, to those who are ill. If you examine the way Miner describes the Latipso, you will notice that he is actually describing a hospital; Miner writes “more elaborate ceremonies [are] required to treat very patients,” as well as that the temple is a place “where you go to die.” When you hear of the word hospital the first two definitions that will arise is either a place where people go to get treated for a severe disease or injury or a place where people die. I believe that Miner writes this article in a satirical manner in order to engage the reader to realize that we often overlook the rituals we do every day because they have become a norm to us.
DeleteThe first time I read this article I totally missed that the author was talking about the American culture as a whole. After discussing it in class and acting like I knew what was going on, I went back and read the article one more time. It was like I was reading a whole new article. It was shocking how many revelations I had while reading. I started to understand how this article related to what we were doing in class. The author looked at our culture from such an obscure angle that I wasn't even able to recognize it. This would help us to create our ethnographies because their purpose was to examine a subculture from a different perspective. All of the things that Horace Miner examined whether it be the bathroom, doctors or dentists, were all taken out of their common contexts and represented in a way that was unfamiliar to us. The first time that I read the article I thought about how weird the rituals of the nacirema were. My mind was blown after realizing the true identity of the nacirema, as well as witnessing the power changing points of view has on your perception of something.
ReplyDelete