Body Ritualls of the Nacirema

A detailed Summary of Body Ritualls of the Nacirema

In Horace Miner's essay "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema," he uses an interesting way of describing some rituals that Americans do. He portrays Americans as a tribe that go through their daily life by performing painful and torturous rituals to their bodies. It is not obvious at the beginning that the tribe Miner is talking about is about the American people. If one is to look closely and try to relate what he reads with the American culture, they are almost identical.

To begin with, if the name "Nacirema" is read backwards, it spells "American." Also the territory that Miner says the Nacirema live in is situated between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carid and Arawak of the Antilles, which is the United States. Another word play that Miner uses is that of the mythological hero that was believed the nation of the Nacirema was originated and his name was Notgnihsaw, which if read backwards it spells "Washingt

on." Also the economy of the nation is free market, which has been the United States economic state for more than two hundred years.

In the Nacirema tribe there are magical practitioners such as medicine men, who are doctors, and specialists called "holy-mouth-men" who are dentists. The people seek out the holy-mouth-man once or twice a year, which is what Americans do in order to get a check up or a cleaning of their teeth. The Nacirema use a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain powders, and move the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures in order to wash their mouths. Even if now the toothbrushes that are made are not from hog hair, at the time when the easy was written, in the fifties, toothbrushes were made from hog hair. This ceremony is exactly the same as Americans do when they go to brush their teeth. Mine also mentions that kids consider the temple where the holy-mouth-man performs his ceremonie

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Approximate Word count = 641
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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