Nacirema Research Paper

Would you live among the Nacirema, according to Horace Miner they are a tribe in North America who live their lives believing “the human body is ugly and that it’s natural tendency is to debility and disease”. In order for them to cope they must perform bizarre rituals. Miner states that these ceremonies take up the majority of their daily lives and that they seems to even range as torturous. Miner first speaks of the shrine in which varies in different household. Those who are rich have stone walled shrines while those who come from a poorer family imitate the rich with pottery plaques. The most important part of this shrine is the box or chest in which holds various charms and magical potions. They are given to the people by practitioners known as …show more content…
These men perform ceremonies that are uncomfortable and torturous such as injecting them with magical needles that may kill the Nacirema but doesn’t waver their faith. There are also witch doctors who have the power to eliminate the demons residing in ones head just by listening to ones problems. The body rituals in which Miner describes in the end all turned out to be a contorted version of daily tasks in which Americans perform. To begin with he uses various word plays such as spelling American backwards to get Nacirema and also spelling hospital with out the h as latipso. Further on one one comes to the realization that the shrines and chest with various potions are the bathroom and cabinet used to put miscellaneous products. In the Nacirema tribe the magical practitioners are simply doctors, nurses, dentists and psychiatrists. Even though this article was written a couple of decades ago our practices are still very much the same. We are a society who are blinded by those who we believe to know better and still obsess in keeping or changing ourselves no matter the risk we may