By What was Horace Miner attempting to illustrate with this article?
‘ What was Miner attempting to argue? Horace descirbes a culture where they have many strange rituals and traditions; this culture is the Nacirema. Some of the Nacirema’s rituals include things such as visiting herbalists and medicine men who do things to treat and purify their people.
What was the purpose of Horace Miner’s article on the nacirema?
Miner’s account of the NaciremaAmerican spelled backwardswas instead a pointed criticism of anthropologists’ tendency to hype up the perceived weirdness of other cultures. His aim, as i09 puts it, was to show that “everything that’s normal to us seems weird to someone else.”
What is the purpose of the nacirema?
The main belief of the Nacirema appears to be that the human body is ugly and that the only way to prevent it from growing weak and diseased is to practice powerful rituals devoted to this purpose. Every household has one or more shrines devoted to this goal.
How would you describe the nacirema culture?
Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy, which has evolved in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people’s time is devoted to economic pursuits, a considerable portion of their day is spent in ritual activity.
What is the secret of nacirema?
The Nacirema believe that parents bewitch their own children. Mothers are particularly suspected of putting a curse on children while teaching them the secret body rituals. The counter-magic of the witch-doctor is unusual in its lack of ritual.
What is the strangest thing about the nacirema culture?
Culture is all around us. The rituals performed there are done in secret, yet natives detail these rituals to Miner. They involve various potions and charms, including the “mouth rite”, where a person puts hog hairs and special potions in their mouth for cleansing.
What is the basic focus of nacirema society?
The basic focus of the Nacirema is to focus in the appearance and health of the human body. The basic belief is that human body is ugly and sick as time go, but you can avoid that doing their rituals and using magic potions.
What are the most important values of the nacirema?
The most important values of the Nacirema are teeth, breast, and appearance. Members of the society exemplify their wealth and power by how many shrines they have. Because they think it has a supernatural influence on your friends.
What does the story about the nacirema teach us?
It should, because Miner is talking about the American culture. Nacirema is American spelled backwards. This story is trying to get us to look at our own culture from the outside sine we are always thinking we are normal but other cultures are very strange.
What made it hard to identify who the nacirema are?
The word Nacirema is the word american spelled backwards. It is a term used in sociology to describe the behaviors and cultures of american people. What made it hard to identify who they are? Their cultural believes were complicated and poorly understood by many.
Who is the most powerful of the practitioners in nacirema culture?
There are a variety of practitioners. The medicine men are the most powerful. When they assist you, you must give them a present. Below the medicine men are the “holy-mouth-men.” (P 112) they believe that if the mouth rituals weren’t performed their teeth would fall out and their gums would bleed.
Are the nacirema civilized?
The Nacirema have developed an advanced civilization due to a highly successful economy and to new engineering feats that have allowed them to build some of the largest, most complicated structures any humans have ever conceived.
What is America spelled backwards?
Nacirema (“American” spelled backwards) is a term used in anthropology and sociology in relation to aspects of the behavior and society of citizens of the United States of America.
Who is the holy mouth man?
In the Nacireman culture, there are also people known as “holy-mouth men,” who the people must visit twice a year. A holy-mouth man’s job is to enlarge any holes that decay might have caused in the mouth.
How do the nacirema feel about the human body?
How do the Nacirema feel about the human body? Human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease. Secondly, regardless of a short-term usefulness, the long-term prevention of the illness is impossible although the application of potions on a regular basis.
How are we different from the nacirema?
Another difference between our culture and the Nacirema is that every aspect of the body ritual and even the body itself is kept a secret. This is very bizarre and unusual of how the body ritual is so important in their tribe that they go through extreme risk such as putting a curse on the children.
What is the name of the cultural hero of the nacirema?
Notgnihsaw
What kinds of words are used to describe the nacirema?
2. The five words I used to describe Nacirema are: discontent, obsessive, naive, painful, and supernatural.
What do the nacirema say about mouth rituals?
Without the visits to the holy-mouth-men, the Nacirema believe that their gums will bleed and teeth will rot, causing them to become social outcasts of their communities. Their expectations of beauty are so extravagant that the hygiene of their gums determine beauty.