Horace Miner on the Nacerima People

 (Part A)
If I were to describe the Nacirema people based on Horace Miner’s description of them, these are the five words I would chose.

1. punctilious: First word to describe the Nacirema people is punctilious, which is strict or exact in the observance of the formalities or amenities of conduct or actions. Most things the Nacirema people did involved a certain ritual; it involved a strict or exact way to do something. One ritual they have involves a mouth-rite because they had a fascination with the mouth. Miner does not specifically say what the Nacirema people do in order to perform the ritual, but it does state that “the daily body ritual…” which implies everyone does this ritual everyday. The text does state that the ritual involves “small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.” The fact that the Nacirema people had plenty of rituals makes me believe they can be describe as punctilious.

2. ceremonious: Although the Nacirema people do not necessarily do rituals or other honorable things in extreme ceremony (celebration/ party), I do believe that they do ceremonies in a more quiet way. Nacirema people do have plenty of rituals and Miner names a few, but one ceremony that was mentioned was about the shrines. Again, although this “ceremony” is not loud like what some of us may be accustomed to, I do believe it is their way to celebrate. This certain ceremony is based on power. If you carry more power you in the society, you would have one or more shrines on your household. Miner says, “in fact, the opulence of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possessed.” Even those who are poorer try to “imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine walls” says Miner. This may be different to our everyday ceremonies, but none the less, I believe the Nacirema people have a different way of doing things.

3. unique: Reading the previous two paragraphs, one can already get an understanding on why I chose to describe the Nacerima people as unique. I am not implying that unique is bad or good, but rather different. I would say especially different to what I personally am used to. Never have I heard about a ritual in which people put hog hairs into their mouths. To continue about the topic on teeth, the Nacerima people go to a “holy-mouth-man” for exorcism rituals. According to Miner, this ritual “involves almost unbelievable ritual torture of the client.” He continues to say that tools are used to “enlarge any holes which decay may have created in the teeth.” I do not remember the last time someone went to another person (even a dentist) in order for a mouth ritual to be preformed. This is just one other way in which the Nacerima people are unique. They have strong believes in something, I personally do not believe in.

4. private: Despite the fact that Nacerima people go to other people for help (such as a holy-mouth-man), I would say they are private people. “While each family has at least one such shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies, but are private and secret” says Miner. He also says that the shrine rituals are actually just shared with children and only when they are concerned about the mysteries. Miner got an exclusive explanation on a shrine ritual. The fact that the Nacerima people keep something so sacred (or so secretive) allows me to believe they are private people. There is nothing wrong with being private, but personally I would love to share something that means so much to me with more than just my family. Here it says that the Nacerima people do not even do a ceremony that involves their family.

5. dissatisfied: My previous paragraphs can also explain why I believe the Nacerima people can be described as dissatisfied. They have mouth rituals (because of decaying teeth) and they have shrine rituals (based on power). Both of these examples show ways in which they want to make themselves seem different. Even the poor try to imitate the rich. Most of the rituals involve gifts to whomever worked their “magic” on them. The sick go to a temple (or latipso) in order for people to perform ceremonies in which help them get better. These people are so dissatisfied with being sick that they are willing to go and spend money on places that children would describe as ‘that is where you go to die.’ I understand we may go to doctors and spend plenty of money there, but we know we are going to get help, not get worse. Last example would be that the Nacerima people are not satisfied with their naked bodies. They only expose themselves when it comes to body-rite rituals.

-Araceli


(Part B)
 

1. As an American, I feel I have chosen five words that I do not personally would describe Americans. I describe Americans (according to part a) as punctilious, ceremonious, unique, private, and dissatisfied. Although the words themselves are a way to describe Americans, the explanations on why are not entirely what I would think about them. I wrote punctilous and I still agree with that because Americans like things done a certain (struct) way. I continue to believe Americans are ceremonious, but I would not necessarily describe their ceremonies as “quiet.” On the contrary, I believe their (our) ceremonies are loud. I still would consider Americans to be unique, private and dissatsifed. Americans are different and follow certain ways of doing things and therefore they’re unique. Although Americans have ceremonies that I said are “loud,” I still think they can be private at a certain extent. I mean social media is a big thing. Lastly, I do think Ameicans are dissatisfied because I believe they always want more (which I do not consider to be bad).

2. I would say that some of my word choices exhibit ethnocentrism. I would say all my words are free of bias, but the explanation used for each one may be biased because I compared the Nacerima people to what I an accustomed to.

-I would not necessarily say calling Nacerima people punctilious is biased. Saying that they have rituals in which everything has to be perfectly and strictly done may be bias because Americans are this way and I compared it to the way Americans are.

-Again, I would not say calling Nacerima people ceremonies is based on bias thoughts. What I would say is bias is comparing Nacirema way of celebrating verses my way of celebrating. I said Nacerima people are quiet in celebration verses what I am accustomed to, which is loud celebrations.

-Nacerima people are unique and I would not call this biased. Also my explanation, I would say is not bias either. I even stated that being unique is nothing good or bad, just a different way of doing things. There is nothing wrong with being differet.

-Being called private I would say is not a bias description. Although I did compare the Nacerima to what I am used to and therefore I say the explanation is biased. Being private is not bad, but it is not something I am entirely used to.

-I would say neither being called dissatisfied or my explanation to it is biased because it is just the mentality. There is nothing wrong with people wanting more and trying to accomplish more.

3. I could change punctilious to precise. Also I could change ceremonious to formal. Changing these two words could make the description seem less bias.

4. Based on this experience, I say it is important to avoid ethnocentric judgments when describing other cultures. If you do not take yourself out of the equation and focus on the other culture you are studying,, I do not think there would be room to learn. Every piece of information presented to you would be me vs them (or me compared to them). I think it is important to grab the other cultures information and ask why rather than compare it to ourselves. I think with a lot of practice it is certainly possible to be unbias. 100% unbias is probably hard to accomplish just because our own culture will always be in the back our heads, even as anthropologists. Like the article stated even when we think we are not being ethnocentric, we just might be because it comes out naturally.