BODY RITUAL AMONG THE NACIREMA

The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema is a shocking article by Horace Miner about the Nacirema culture and their fundamental beliefs and rituals. This group of people can be found in North America living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Taqui and Taraqhumare of Mexico. Their fundamental belief is that the human body is ugly and unhealthy, so they use powerful rituals, daily ceremonies, and household shrines to make their bodies look a certain way. For example, they have rituals to increase and decrease the size of a women's breast, as well as rituals to make them thin or fat. In our society today, the mindset of some people have not changed. Women are still under going breast surgeries and both men and women get bypass surgeries to lose weight. Rituals are somewhat equivalent to surgeries, both are being performed to help someone maintain an ideological image. 

At first glance the Nacirema seems to be a very uncivilized culture because of the type of things that it involves, but by the end of the article you begin to realize that the Nacirema is very similar to American culture. Things such as their shrine can be interpreted as a bathroom. The potions and charms they use can be interpreted as medicine. The shrine box as a medicine cabinet. The latipso which is where they do the surgeries, as a hospital. The holy mouth man who does gouges their teeth out, can be interpreted as a dentist. The maidens who help them, as nurses, and the cutting of body pieces as surgery. All of these rituals are simply their everyday life and each ritual can be portrayed as a different perspective of American culture. After all, Nacirema is American spelled backwards!