Cultural Descriptions: Body Ritual of Nacirema Part A

Believers: The Nacirema are believers because they believe in magic and supernatural. All there rites are magical rites. They use magical charm and pay for magical rites to be performed on them. They believe that without the use of these magical elements and rites. They will no longer be alive or, for example, they believe that if the mouth rite is not performed “their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them.” They believe all these things because they have been told to believe it and they have faith because they are believers.

 Dedicated: The Nacirema are definitely dedicated to their beliefs and their rituals. They follow the rituals exactly and do rituals daily and they have other special rituals during the year. The Nacirema also endure a lot of pain and torture for these rituals, but they are happy and willing to go through the pain because they believe in it. As the article says, the rituals which are supposed to heal the sick, many times the ritual does not heal the sick person, but sometimes even kills them. This shows even more how dedicated the Nacirema people are to their beliefs and rituals. They have no proof that their rituals work at all, but they are loyal and unquestioning to them.

Formal: The Nacirema people are very formal in their rituals. They perform it an exact way and it has to be performed that way. Gifts have to be given in order for the specialists to give you charms or to perform rituals. As the article says, no matter how sick a person is they will not be treated until payment is received. This demonstrates that the Nacirema treat the rituals more formally.

Private: The Nacirema people are private with their bodies and with their rituals. As the article states, a wife might never see her husband perform excretory acts. They never show their bodies except in the temple, where they are striped naked and they go into psychological shock from being naked in front of other people. They also never talk about intercourse, woman dress to disguise their pregnancy, and it is very private when delivering they baby that friends and family are not present. Not only are they private with their bodies and the natural things about the body, the Nacirema are also private about the rituals. The rituals are never discussed except when explaining them to the children during their period of initiation. The daily rituals are also performed separately by each family member, who is alone in the family shrine.

Barbaric: Finally, the last word I chose to describe the rituals and culture of the Nacirema is barbaric. They are not necessarily barbaric, but to more highly developed cultures they appear so. Of course to the Nacirema they do not think themselves barbaric, but think they are doing everyday normal rituals that must be done to live. To more highly developed cultures, they are barbaric because in there rituals are torturous. They are violated and put through great pain in these rituals and they do not even have proof that they work. They also believe in magical powers and the supernatural. Believing in magic, to more developed culture like ones based of science and factual evidence seems ridiculous and barbaric.

1. As an American, how do you feel about your choice of descriptive words in Part A? (If you are from another country, you can still comment on your choices based upon your first hand experience with American culture but include the fact that you are from another culture.)

            I feel that most of my descriptive word choices partially describe Americans. None of my word choices describe every American. Most of my words describe the minority in the American culture, not the majority. Barbaric is the word that least describes American culture. Most Americans have a life far from barbaric and do not behave barbarically. I would say that the descriptive word private out of all the other words I chose best describes American culture. We are private and only share information about us with family and friends. We stay for the majority to ourselves. I believe that the words believers and dedicated does describe America. We are believers in freedom and democracy. We believe and feel passionately about many topics. So the word does apply to the American culture, but in the same way.

2. Do any of your choices exhibit ethnocentrism on your part? In other words, do any of your descriptive words reveal a judgment of the Nacerima rooted in your own cultural bias? Are any of your words free of bias? Identify the words you feel are biased and unbiased and explain your reasoning.

            Looking back now, my choices definitely exhibit ethnocentrism. The are all biased and reveal that in my word choices I am judging them. The words that may not show bias is dedicated and formal. I was not judging them on that word, but admiring them for their dedication to their beliefs. The other words are all biased, especially, barbaric. Although I did not mean it as harshly as it sounds, I was still judging them in what I saw as their barbaric rituals. Believers is also a biased word. The word is not biased in itself, but in the way I meant it. I used it as though they are somewhat simple minded to believe in magic or that charms and rituals can heal someone.

3. For any of the words that are biased, can you provide alternate words that are free of bias but communicate the same explanatory information and intent of your original word?

            I cannot think of any words that are free from bias to replace the words barbaric, private, and believers that will communicate the same intent. I can think of alternate words, but none that are free from bias.

4. From this experience, reflect on the importance of avoiding ethnocentric judgments when describing other cultures. Why is it important to describe another culture in a manner as free from personal cultural bias as possible? Do you think it is possible to completely avoid personal cultural bias as a Cultural Anthropologist?

            It is important to avoid ethnocentric because who are you to say that your culture is better than their culture. Their methods and beliefs in their culture are completely justified to them. It is relative to cultures what the right way to live and believe is. I do not believe that is completely possible to avoid personal cultural bias as a Cultural Anthropologist because they grew up in a culture believing and seeing things a certain way. It is hard to avoid comparisons between their culture and your culture, but a Cultural Anthropologist’s goal must be to avoid ethnocentrism and to look at things as objectively as possible.