Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Summary

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The paper by Horace Miner “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” is considered one of the most popular articles in social sciences. It even has its own page on Wikipedia, which increases its popularity among not only anthropologists and scholars, but also ordinary people. There are certainly some reasons why this article became so illustrious, and the major ones are the direction of satire, language choice and academic validity. Undoubtedly, the author wrote “Body rituals among Nacirema” in a satiric way in order to ridicule particular group of individuals. Strictly speaking, there are two fractions the author wanted to satirize: USA of mid-twentieth century and contemporary anthropologists. The first target is easy to identify, as the mysterious word “Nacirema” is simply “American” turned the other way around. Miner claims “the focus… is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people” (Miner 1956, 503). Such claim is probably a reference to a social situation of the time the text was written. Victory in World War II, Marshall Plan and hence economic and social growth led to an increasing level of American self-confidence. People started to care more about their appearance; they finally were able…show more content…
The core of that satire is their ability to describe an absolutely ordinary thing in the way everybody will believe it is something outstanding, which Miner uses throughout the paper. In other words, the author replaces common words with unusual ones and creates a cryptic atmosphere, e.g. “medicine man” instead of doctor, “holy-mouth-man” instead of dentist, “vestal maiden” instead of nurse, etc. The implicit conclusion of this satire is a claim modern anthropologists idealize traditions and customs of tribes they describe in order to raise interest of a potential
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  • Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Summary

    569 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema,” the author, Horance Miner, tells us about a North American tribe living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. The Nacirema has shown to truly be a magic-ridden culture. It is hard to understand how they have managed to exist this long under the burdens, which they impose on themselves everyday. The Nacirema must follow such exotic rituals that we are not used to experiencing

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