Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Summary

“Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner is primarily for readers who do not know the “unusual aspects” of the Nacirema tribe (316). Miner does a very good job of showing the readers the “fundamental belief underlying the whole system” that “the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease” (317). We learn throughout this ethnography that the Nacirema go through great measures to put magic into their body from the medicine men picking out ingredients for potions to hog hairs mixed with magic powders moved in the mouth “in a highly formalized series of gestures” to even the holy-mouth-men who use an impressive amount of objects for the exorcism of the evils lurking in the mouth (318). To those of us living in the culture of Farmington, these diverse customs seem very unrealistic, something that we do not encounter in our everyday …show more content…
The majority of people could never imagine a culture this diverse that takes such measures to keep magic inside themselves to focus on the human body, the “appearance and health of which loom[s] as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people (317). By writing this ethnography, Miner expands our cultural knowledge base and helps expose us to a society that actually turns out to be the American culture that we live in. The tone of this piece is unbiased and uses a sophisticated tone to compare the similarities of the American culture and the Nacirema. Miner keeps the essay light and conversational through descriptive descriptions that really allows you to visualize in great detail the daily rituals. He is viewing the point of view as an outsider looking in at the American culture and kind of mocks the way we view all the other