Brief view of the Nacirema
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Part A
1.Ritualistic
The Nacirema culture places a heavy emphasis on ritual activity, particularly related to the human body.
"The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures."
2.Secretive
The rituals of the Nacirema are highly secretive, conducted in private and only discussed with children during their initiation. The private nature of the rituals, performed in the household shrines away from public view, highlights the secretive aspect of their culture.The specialized knowledge of medicine men and herbalists, who communicate in a secret language, further adds to this secrecy. This closed-off approach to their rituals and the guarded nature of their practices reflect a culture that values privacy and confidentiality in their ceremonial activities.
3.Hierarchical:
The Nacirema society is structured in a hierarchical manner, especially in terms of health and ritual practices. The medicine men hold a prestigious position, wielding significant power over the population due to their control over health rituals. The latipso temples are exclusive spaces where only those who can afford the costly ceremonies can gain admission. Furthermore, the permanent group of vestal maidens who assist in the temple rituals have distinctive roles and costumes, indicating a structured hierarchy within the ritualistic practices. This hierarchy is evident in the way access to health care and rituals is determined by one's ability to provide substantial gifts.
4.Faithful
5.Suffering
The text describes how few supplicants are well enough to do anything but lie on their hard beds, enduring daily ceremonies that involve discomfort and torture. For example, the vestals roll the miserable patients about on their beds of pain and perform ablutions. Medicine men also jab needles into their clients' flesh, causing further pain. Despite the lack of guaranteed cures and the potential for harm, the Nacirema continue to endure these rituals, indicating a profound level of suffering ingrained in their daily lives.
Part B
1.As a foreigner, it might be strange that people always say hello or smile to everyone to the people they met even it's the stranger met in the grocery storeFrom an "insider" perspective on American culture, the descriptions Miner provides might initially seem bizarre or offensive. But I think Miner’s satirical work encourages readers to reflect on their own cultural practices and question what might seem normal or mundane. It serves as a mirror, showing how certain behaviors might appear to an outsider, prompting a deeper understanding and potential critique of one's own cultural norms.
2.Suffering: This word may carry a negative connotation and judgment, suggesting that the Nacirema are enduring unnecessary pain, which reflects a bias from the perspective of an outsider who might not understand the cultural significance of these rituals.
Secretive: This word implies a judgment that the Nacirema are hiding or being unnecessarily private about natural processes, which can come off as a critique of their cultural norms.
3. Suffering can be replaced with enduring. "Enduring" still conveys the persistence through hardship but without as strong a negative connotation.
Secretive can be replaced with private. "Private" conveys the same sense of keeping certain practices away from public view but in a more neutral way.
4. Describing other cultures in a manner free from personal cultural bias promotes cultural sensitivity and appreciation, which is essential for meaningful intercultural dialogue and cooperation.
In my perspective,completely out of the personal bias is impossible,but if we can learn the world's culture
deeper,there might be possoblity that we can learn that from the other side.
The more we learn about ,the easier we will have the awareneess of our culture bias and avoid it.
Part A submission recorded.
ReplyDeletePart B comments: I'll start by listing your five words from Part A.
ReplyDeleteRitualistic
Secretive
Hierarchical
Faithful
Suffering
1. While I understand your point here, you aren't really addressing the prompt questions asked of you here. The idea is to take this (what should be new) information that Minor was actually describing health care aspects of American culture and reflect on your word descriptors chosen in Part A. Also, what do you think about how Minor, as an "outsider" is describing a culture you are part of or are familiar with. Are his descriptions accurate? Or misleading? Even biased?
2. Actually, I though suffering was relatively unbiased. Saying someone is "suffering" doesn't imply the pain is unnecessary. It may be entirely reasonable to feel that pain. For the most part, I could see how a lot of the words you chose fairly reflected some aspect of medical or dental care in the US. We tend to be secretive of our health problems. Many of us faithfully attend doctors appointments and brush our teeth daily, which also goes to the point on "ritualistic". "Hierarchical" is the only one I can't see from Minor's description, but our health care system certainly is hierarchical in nature, so it could apply.
3. I appreciate your attempt to find better words. That said, recognize that the difficulty in choosing alternate words may not lie with the words themselves but the process of describing this culture in the first place. Part of what I want you to understand here is that you chose these words based upon a biased narrative...Horace Minor's narrative was designed to be a biased outsider's view of this culture, so nearly all words you choose are going to perpetuate that bias. It might be better to recognize that this attempt to define a culture with individual words isn't possible in the first place. It is a futile and biased practice and doesn't reflect what anthropologists are trying to do in their jobs. As an anthropologist, your job is to not describe from an outsider's perspective but to understand a culture.. and that means starting to see it as insiders do.
4. "The more we learn about ,the easier we will have the awareneess of our culture bias and avoid it."
I think this is a fair point. Learning about other cultures builds empathy, which counters bias and ethnocentrism.
But let's look at this from an anthropologists perspective. While Anthropologists can strive to avoid bias and practice this skill, I suggest it is just as important to be aware that our biases are deeply ingrained in our psyche and are likely impossible to avoid completely. Better to be aware of this and be receptive to those who point it out when it happens. This is one of the reasons anthropologists collaborate with others... so that they can watch out for each other's bias seeping into their work.