Body Ritual of the Nacerima by Horace Miner Part A
Ritualistic
The Nacerima conduct several types of rituals to rid their bodies of impurities. Daily cleansing rituals are the norm, every home as at least one shrine dedicated to this purpose. "The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease." Much of their life is dedicated to their practices. Even near death the Nacerima people will pay and provide gifts to the Medicine Men in order to enter the temple, or latipso. "The more elaborate ceremonies required to treat very sick patients can only be performed at this temple."
Superstitious
The Nacerima people are plagued by the idea that their bodies and its functions are are something they need to rid themselves of. As a part of their rituals they hold onto charms that have been given to them by Medicine Men. "The charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose, but is placed in the charmbox of the household shrine. As these magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or imagined maladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to overflowing."
Meticulous
"Each day every member of the family, in succession, enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablution." The Nacerima people are extremely meticulous with their rituals and beliefs. Every day acts like bathing are scrutinized and only preformed in private.
Masochists
The Nacerima people have deep seeded rituals, most of which might be deemed barbaric, sadistic or masochistic. As part of the Nacerima daily rituals men will scrap and lacerate their faces. Woman will bake their heads in small ovens for an hour four times a month. "The Nacirema have an almost
pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have
a supernatural influence on all social relationships" "there is a ritual ablution of the mouth for children
which is supposed to improve their moral fiber."
Oppressive
Overall the Nacerima people are consumed by their culture and the need to purify their bodies. From the article you get the sense that they feel over come by the pressure to abide by these rituals no matter the consequence or severity. "The fact that these temple ceremonies may not cure, and may even kill the neophyte, in no way decreases the people's faith in the medicine men." They are shamed by what most cultures deem to be normal or even happy occasions. "When pregnant, women dress so as to hide their condition."
Ethnocentrism by Ken Barger Part B
1. I feel as an American that is was very difficult to not be biased or judgmental while reading about the Nacerima. However, when writing about them I tried to set aside my bias and describe them in a way that most people (or other cultures) might understand.
2. Based on the description of ethnocentrism by Ken Barger and the literal definitions of Ritualistic, Superstitious, Meticulous, Masochists and Oppressive I feel that my descriptive words are unbiased.
3. I do not feel the need to replace my descriptive words.
4. In order to gain an understanding of another
culture you need to be able to put aside your own biases or be able to
recognize when your judgement is clouded. I think it is impossible to avoid personal cultural bias, although I feel it is possible to over come your own bias.
I'm not convinced you read the explanation in Part B that revealed that the Nacerima are actually the American culture. ("Nacerima" spelled backward is "American".) Miner was describing the health and beauty practices of the American culture. Does that change your view of the words you chose to describe them, knowing that they are being used to describe you?
ReplyDeleteOf your five words, three of them strike me as possessing bias and judgement: Superstitious, masochistic, and oppressive. All three not only describe, they also have a negative connotation that is automatically attached to them. Can you think of words that describe the same ideas but without the negative judgment?
Admittedly I did this assignment at work and must have missed the description. However, looking at it now I think Minor's description of "Americans" is pretty far fetched. I might have also noticed the word play if Nacerima wasn't spelled incorrectly, if it's supposed to be American spelled backwards it should be "Nacirema".
ReplyDeleteNow reading the article back I am trying to piece together what Minor was actually describing. For example, the house shrines must be bathrooms, but since when has shame been associated with showering?
I originally was going to argue that either all or none of the words could be be described as biased. The first word I choose was ritualistic, which someone from the outside might describe an American's morning of getting ready to go to work.. But an American wouldn't describe getting ready ritualistic. If I don't apply a layer of make-up to my face I don't feel shame or feel I didn't do my part to ward off something bad. Ken Barger (who we were basing part of this assignment on) said "In this sense, ethnocentrism can be defined as: making false assumptions about others' ways based on our own limited experience." By Barger's definition all of my descriptive words could have been considered biased.
So for an assignment based on my opinion about the "Nacirema" I stand by my decision.
Keep in mind that Miner was describing the American culture of the 1950's, and the point of the article was specifically to give American's (and even more specifically, American anthropology students) the opportunity to feel like the "other" being described in an anthropological ethnography.
ReplyDeleteKeep the date and the intent in mind when reading the article. But at the same time, I'm not saying your descriptive words are inaccurate, or even wrong. But they do carry with them our own cultural bias. That isn't an issue if you are having a conversation with a friend or family member. It is an issue if you are an anthropologist describing a culture for academic purposes.
Thank you for the response.