1. What are the main ideas of these two readings? (list at least 3)
• In the American Cultural Configuration, Holmes emphasizes that American society is a culture full of fallacies and paradoxes in American logic. Some headings state a topic on how Americans believe in one way, but in reality, perform the opposite. For example, the paradox of education in America would be that while we value practical majors such as law, medicine, business, etc., they don’t really have the motivation to obtain it. A poll regarding with reading habits showed how many people were currently reading a book and discovered that “the U.S. had the lowest out of five countries with a pathetic 17 percent (Holmes and Holmes 10).” Moreover, while many citizens have no …show more content…
The topic goes on stating that “the root of these cultural contradictions can be understood by self-reliance, which is primarily manifested in a fear of dependency (Holmes and Holmes 14).” Nevertheless, it is because of this self-reliance that Americans have prospered and progressed to a superior technological and industrial society.
• Miner wrote the Body Ritual Among the Nacirema to inform the readers on how different cultures may perceive our American culture. It informs the Americans that while they think some subcultures are weird for doing certain actions in part of their subculture, those same subcultures may analyze Americans that they are just as uncanny. That is why the article is convoluted by such terms like shrines with chests filled with strange potions (bathrooms with toothbrush and toothpaste, performing mouth-rite (brushing teeth), and holy-mouth-men (dentists).
3. Do you think the values, attitudes and behaviors the authors identified are still important in American culture? Can you think of anything different you might include if you were writing these essays in
• In the American Cultural Configuration, Holmes emphasizes that American society is a culture full of fallacies and paradoxes in American logic. Some headings state a topic on how Americans believe in one way, but in reality, perform the opposite. For example, the paradox of education in America would be that while we value practical majors such as law, medicine, business, etc., they don’t really have the motivation to obtain it. A poll regarding with reading habits showed how many people were currently reading a book and discovered that “the U.S. had the lowest out of five countries with a pathetic 17 percent (Holmes and Holmes 10).” Moreover, while many citizens have no …show more content…
The topic goes on stating that “the root of these cultural contradictions can be understood by self-reliance, which is primarily manifested in a fear of dependency (Holmes and Holmes 14).” Nevertheless, it is because of this self-reliance that Americans have prospered and progressed to a superior technological and industrial society.
• Miner wrote the Body Ritual Among the Nacirema to inform the readers on how different cultures may perceive our American culture. It informs the Americans that while they think some subcultures are weird for doing certain actions in part of their subculture, those same subcultures may analyze Americans that they are just as uncanny. That is why the article is convoluted by such terms like shrines with chests filled with strange potions (bathrooms with toothbrush and toothpaste, performing mouth-rite (brushing teeth), and holy-mouth-men (dentists).
3. Do you think the values, attitudes and behaviors the authors identified are still important in American culture? Can you think of anything different you might include if you were writing these essays in