The Nacirema people are a North American group that inhabits the territory between the Tarahumara of Mexico, the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles, and the Canadian Creel the Yaqui. Not much is known about the origin of these people, only the information that they came from the east. In the following paper, the Nacirema culture will be evaluated in terms of the expression it leaves. Overall, the Nacirema culture can be described as strange, contradictive, sometimes shocking, spiritualistic, and ceremonial.
Upon learning a few basic facts about the Nacirema culture, a person from the western world may be astonished and even shocked. There are many ideas, seen as a foundation for the Nacirema cultural perceptions, which appear senseless with regards to the facts from modern-day medicine and science. Thus, the first adjective that I would choose to describe the culture under consideration is strange. The choice of this adjective can be supported by many facts. For example, according to Miner (503).
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. Incarcerated in such a body, man’s only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of the powerful influences of ritual and ceremony.
This fact about the Nacirema basic beliefs is simply outrageous to me because I believe in Greek perceptions about the human body which became the foundation of the modern-day western culture. I also share the ideas from the Bible that the human body is a precious gift from above that can be considered miraculous and wonderful.
Next, I think that the Nacirema culture is very contradictory. I can support such a point of view by the information about its washing rituals (Perez 7). In the majority of cases, men must hide their bodies during hygiene procedures, but in the latipso, they must act conversely (Miner 504).
Further, at times the Nacirema culture even seems to be shocking. For example, they believe that their mouths are the sources of decay, immorality, and the spiritual uncleanness, and on this reason, they permit a certain man to make big holes in their teeth. This is not only awkward, but it is very dangerous, and I wonder how they managed to survive for such a long period of time because this lifestyle is dangerous.
Besides, the Nacirema culture is also spiritualistic and ceremonial. These adjectives are also very fitting to describe the culture under consideration because it is fully based on the ideas of spiritualism, and spiritualism, in turn, is the basic ideology behind all the abundance of rituals and ceremonies in this culture.
Critically reflecting on the information learnt about the Nacirema culture, I should say I would not like to live in this society because it is built on the foundations of negligence and spiritualism, its rituals are dangerous, and its ceremonies are disgusting to me. My overall impression about this culture is not optimistic. Actually, I can hardly find some facts about the Nacirema culture that would appear reasonable and might show some piece of ancient wisdom.
In conclusion, the Nacirema culture is full of unusual perceptions, and mind-blowing ideas. An average observer would say that it is strange, at least. I would characterize it with the following adjectives: strange, contradictive, sometimes shocking, spiritualistic, and ceremonial.
Works Cited
Miner, Horace. “Body Ritual among the Nacirema.”The American Anthropologist 58 (1956): 503-507. Print.
Perez, Eduardo. “An Intellectual Omission: The Nacirema Women.” Conference Papers — American Sociological Association (2009): 1-12. Print.