Nacirema Analysis
Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
Having
gone over this piece in my sociology 101 class, I had prior knowledge that
nacirema is American spelled backwards and that this is a satirical piece about
us. This piece shows the analysis of our society through a non-native, outside
or ethnocentric perspective. The “body rituals and medical beliefs” that we do
are made out to seem unreasonable and questionable. For example,
this piece makes out Americans to be obsessive with oral hygiene, and we seek professionals such as dentists or “holy mouth men” to help fix our dental problems and ameliorate the “decaying” process. We put great value in appearance and hygiene, and as a society we give professionals such as dentists and doctors almost this godly power, making the commoners rely on these “magical” roles. A quote from the text states, “No matter how ill the supplicant or how grave the emergency, the guardians of many temples will not admit a client if he cannot give a rich gift to the custodian.” This prompts me to reflect on our current health care system, and Miner’s words makes them seem almost inhumane. Because we have put these rituals at a high value, carrying them out calls for a high price. Moreover, people that can afford these high prices seem to be well-liked in the society because they have the luxury of altering their bodies to meet standards such as Miner’s example of breast size. As a native to this society, the ethnocentric points that were made prompted me to reflect on things that I consider to be normal. However, I do think Miner’s piece made it clear that there should be a native perspective as well in explaining the story.
this piece makes out Americans to be obsessive with oral hygiene, and we seek professionals such as dentists or “holy mouth men” to help fix our dental problems and ameliorate the “decaying” process. We put great value in appearance and hygiene, and as a society we give professionals such as dentists and doctors almost this godly power, making the commoners rely on these “magical” roles. A quote from the text states, “No matter how ill the supplicant or how grave the emergency, the guardians of many temples will not admit a client if he cannot give a rich gift to the custodian.” This prompts me to reflect on our current health care system, and Miner’s words makes them seem almost inhumane. Because we have put these rituals at a high value, carrying them out calls for a high price. Moreover, people that can afford these high prices seem to be well-liked in the society because they have the luxury of altering their bodies to meet standards such as Miner’s example of breast size. As a native to this society, the ethnocentric points that were made prompted me to reflect on things that I consider to be normal. However, I do think Miner’s piece made it clear that there should be a native perspective as well in explaining the story.
Miner, H. (1956). Body Ritual among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist, 58(3), 503–507.
https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1956.58.3.02a00080
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