Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Essay

In Horace Miners essay on the federation of tribes of Nacirema, it takes little effort to determine that Nacirema is a depiction of a typic Americans health habits. This essay is important for two reasons It teaches principles to the highest degree our own culture and it makes us assess the value/downfall of tone at other cultures with an etic approach. Without a doubt, this essay in-personizedizes the study of cultures and its respective peoples.Regarding the discover of North American people, Miner clearly thinks we live with a take aim of vanity. We view the human body as ugly and we use ritual and notice to avert the unattractive characteristics. It takes extra focus to understand Miners terminology. scarcely it becomes clear that he is pontificated on the use of the medical system, including dentists, psychiatrics, and hospitals. As a ritual, we spend extensive cartridge holder and money on the idealistic notion of being disease-free. It is interesting that from our p erspective, we view these efforts as improving the forest of our life. He, as a person flavor in on our cab atomic number 18t, views these efforts as of entire self-interest. It is almost as if he respects more of a communal culture, rather than one of more singularity with some elements of communality. besides it definitely makes me think about who is the corrupted one. In the end, he seems affect by how advanced this particular civilization has become. Without being inside the culture, he appears to have missed how untold we rely on each other, and how our heathen teamwork has created the car industry and computer empireto name that a few.As hinted in the paragraph above, what this essay demonstrated was the uniqueness of looking at a culture from the outside. Inherently, the scientific approach is taken with top(prenominal) respect. It is seen as a view without bias. In bench work, this approach is vital. But when studying societies, too many variables can obfuscate the e ntire interpretation. low sees our rituals as defining our sense of truth. To that, he has a great point. We only have to looking introspectively to see how much work we exert toward the valuelesscars, houses, toys, etc. We sometimes do not put enough time in those of more valuefamily, friends, spiritually. Thatis precisely why Minor is so critical. But what Minor misses by not being in our society is that he is inherently blinded. He cannot deduct the subtleties of the society. For example, those with obnoxious behaviors of greed (e.g., Donald Trump) are often shunned. In the end, it takes balance between the emic and etic views to make more undefiled judgment of how tribes work.This essay certainly forced me to reflect on my personal rituals. It made me assess how much effort I make toward personal beauty. But it also made me think that we do these rituals for a affairto be healthy and to progenate. Thus, I accept these rituals. But now I do them with the full knowledge that th ey are cultural norms and my choice of doing them seems much less voluntary.