Summary:
The central point of Horace Miner's "Body Ritual among the Nacirema," is to portray the lengths that the human people of Nacirema will go to in order to keep their cultural morals and rituals, however strange they may seem. Although the culture of the Nacirema is left mostly unexplained to anthropologists, Miner was able to to uncover many rituals that are performed by these people.
The first ritual is the physical maintenance of their bodies, which comes second only to making money. There are shrines, or "ritual centers" (p. 503), in each home dedicated to this physical maintenance, in which each individual performs the rituals privately. The shrines also contain charm-boxes in which the household keeps magical potions purchased from "medicine men." These men are of high rank in the community and their charms and potions are expensive, but the people will pay because they believe that they cannot live without them.
Another ritual that the people of Nacirema are extremely obsessed with is the care of the mouth. The rituals of the mouth are so important, it is believed that without them, "their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them" (p. 504). As part of the mouth care ritual, a person must put a small bundle of hog hairs with magical powders into their mouth and move it around (p. 504). Once or twice a year, the people must also see a "holy mouth man," who is just below the "medicine men" in ranking. Although the process that the "holy mouth man" uses to care for the mouth is painful, this ritual is strongly believed in.
There are also rituals that differ between men and women. The men take part in a daily ritual of "scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument" (p. 505), while the women place their heads in "small ovens for about an hour" (p. 505) once a week. These rituals are believed to support the importance of the physical maintenance for the people of Nacirema.
If a person of Nacirema is extremely sick, they must go to the latipso. In the latipso, there are many "medicine men" and also "vestal maidens" who assist in care of the sick people. Being treated in the latipso by the "medicine men" is very expensive, but again, the people of Nacirema feel that the cost is worth it, otherwise they might die. While in the latipso, people might also fall under the care of someone known as a "listener." The "listener" is able to help people get better, basically by listening to them.
Miner concludes that he does not know how the people of Nacirema have managed to survive, since their rituals seem to be somewhat self-destructing. However, he does acknowledge that these customs and rituals seem to work for them, so he can understand why the people believe and continue to follow tradition.
Reaction:
I actually laughed out loud when reading certain parts of this article. Particularly when the author describes the "holy mouth man," which I can only assume he is referring to what is known to us as "the dentist." Personally, I don't like dentist visits, but I still go at least once a year, because I was taught all of the bad things that can happen if you don't get your yearly cleanings! At first, I thought that his paragraph about oral hygiene seemed a little exaggerated, especially when he said that "their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them" (p. 504), but when I really started thinking about it, this is pretty true! The first thing that I'm attracted to in a person is their smile, including straight white teeth. I know it sounds very superficial, but like the article implies, society has made us to think this way. Having good oral hygiene equals having more friends, being more successful, and overall living a better life. As bad as that sounds, I get it.
Another point I found amusing was when he suggested that the personality structure of these peoples should be investigated using an example of, "One has but to watch the gleam in the eye of a holy-mouth-man, as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of sadism is involved" (p.505). Most of the dentists that I've been to are actually extremely nice, but there was one in particular that I went to one time who extracted 7 of my teeth -- 3 wisdoms and 4 others to make room since I was getting braces -- and I swear as soon as I read this line, I immediately thought of this dentist! Because laughing gas is so expensive, I elected to do novacane injections instead... bad idea! I had to get a total of 7 shots and by the 4th I was in tears. Not only was it painful, but the dentist was singing some song about how he was born to inflict pain on people which really creeped me out, although I believe he was trying to be funny.
Another section that interested me was the bit about the "charm box." The first time reading through, I didn't really understand what it was. Upon reading a second time, I realized that he was referring to a medicine cabinet. I can especially relate to, "The magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use them again." My medicine cabinet is packed to the brim with leftover pain killers, muscle relaxers, and miscellaneous other prescriptions from doctors. A few weeks ago, I finally cleaned it out and there were prescriptions written from 2009! Why do we tend to keep these medicines? I don't really know. I think we just put them in the cabinet, thinking we will use them at a later time, then forget about them, and then later, when we need medicine, we go to the doctor again and get prescribed something else. Thus, the medicine cabinets become fuller and fuller.
This article was a very interesting read. Once I started seeing the parallels between Nacirema and Americans, the article took on a different meaning, and I found it very amusing, mostly because it's all true. I am able see how from the outside, the things we see as important as Americans are not really logical and to others may even seem ridiculous; however, I also know that I wouldn't be able to stop acting this way unless I made a conscious effort to, but even then, I wouldn't want to because I believe in our "crazy" ways of thinking.
