The Nacerima Culture

Body Rituals for the Nacirema

The Nacirema people are a people that practice complex rituals concerning their bodies.  This culture has many levels of medicine men to assist in the body rituals. The medicine men all require gifts for their participation in these rituals. The ceremonies are done in special rooms, in secret, by the people.

This culture is very narcissistic, The article states ‘’ that a considerable portion of the day is spent in ritual activities and the focus of these activities are their bodies,” The article explains that the Nacirema have special rooms where these rituals are done in secret.  Charms boxes, and special substances from the medicine men are included in the ceremonies. The purpose of all these rituals and ceremonies is to secure or prevent loss of friendship and love.  Many activities are needed to help a culture survive and since such an inordinate amount of time and gift-giving are involved with the body rituals , I would conclude that the individuals in this  culture are narcissistic.

The Nacirema appear to be chauvinistic towards women.  The females that are involved with the Latipso ceremonies are poked and prodded and manipulated.  Since the ideal body image for the females are impossible to achieve with a normal female, the females have to have ceremonies performed on their breasts to achieve the ideal size and shape.  When the female achieves the correct breast size, she is put on display and given gifts. Mothers are often accused of bewitching their children while involved in teaching them the body rituals.  The article states that medicine men are involved with the rituals except in the Latipso ceremony, where the female’s position is to serve.  I would conclude that the female roles are subservient to the male roles in this culture.

This cultural displays painful and brutal behavior while practicing their rituals and ceremonies. The example given in the article discusses the holy mouth man.  This person pokes awls into nerves and makes holes in people’s mouths. Large portions of the teeth are gouged out to make room for the magical material that is placed in the holes.  The people who participate in the purification ceremonies for the sick are stripped naked and rolled around on a hard bed.  These examples show that the people are willing to go through pain and humiliation to be purified with the medicine man’s participation.  The people are brutal in their rituals.

The article describes the Nacirema spends much of their time devoted to economic pursuit.  I would describe the Nacirema people as superficial. It appears that most of their labor and time is spent on rituals to help them achieve love and friendship.  The labor is used to be able to gift give the medicine man to improve their bodies and mouths.  Although this may have some benefit to their culture, it does not seem to be a substantial contribution to a culture. I believe this culture is very superficial.

I would describe this culture as being obsessive. The examples given in the article show a culture with special shrines for secret rituals and ceremonies. These ceremonies are done alone.  Many of the ceremonies involve large gifts exchanged.  The more wealthy people have many shrine rooms. The women bake their heads. The article describes an array of rituals from inserting the hog hairs in the mouth, to the daily ablution with the special water. All of these rituals are performed for the purpose to prevent sickness and decay in the body.  The article states that the Nacirema have a fear of loss of love and friendship due to the state of their mouths and bodies.  This is a clear example of a people who value their selves above the people surrounding them.  So I conclude that the Nacierma are self-obsessed with their needs.

Part B

1.   I feel my descriptive words were very harsh.   I feel ashamed that anyone would use these words to describe my culture.  I am not sure the words were inaccurate.  I learned that looking at a certain set of actions is simplistic.  There are many people in our culture, who work hard, helping the other people. Many people do not spend hours with make-up or worry about their body images. The overall lesson I learned is that studying one segment of a culture will not give you the whole story.  The understanding of a culture could take years.

2.  All of my descriptive words contain bias.  My underlying bias comes from my cultural background, valuing the work ethic and productivity.  My assumption is that, pursuing a perfect body image is of no value.  In the context of our culture, body image plays an important role.  My bias has allowed me to judge the Nacirema as self-absorbed.

3 The first word I would change would be narcisstic.  I would change the word to tenacious.  The statement would say: (The Nacirema is very tenacious in practicing their rituals.)  I stated that the Nacirema are chauvinistic.  I would amend chauvinistic to a less biased word.  The statement would read, (that females have specific roles determined by their gender, which entails them displaying their breasts.)  I stated that the Nacirema are brutal.  I would change brutal to a less loaded word.  (The Nacierma are of a strong disposition in enduring the many painful rituals in their belief system.)  I used the word superficial.  This bias could be rephrased as: (In the Nacierema culture the value of love and friendship is so strong that the Nacierma’s daily routines are occupied in upholding these values.)  The last descriptive word I used was, obsessive.  I would change that word to persistent.   (This culture is persistent in following their beliefs through the ceremonies and rituals performed.)

4.  It is important to minimize bias in judging other cultures, because the bias can warp or change the view of the culture.  I think it is impossible to avoid personal bias in learning of other cultures.  We cannot eradicate bias from our worldview, we carry are values learned from our culture, so How can we get away from ourselves?. Any bias at all can alter and change a persons's entire view of a culture and or society.