Body Ritual Among the NaciremaI fell for it, hog hair and all. “Body Ritual Among The Nacirema,” by Horace Miner had me completely hooked until I began to do some further research into the Nacirema people. What follows this introduction is my opinion on the Nacirema before realizing that I was reading a sat-ire on a particular American way of life in the 1950’s. Minor describes the Nacirema (America, spelt backwards), as a poorly understood tribe living in America who are devoted to economic pursuits and body rituals. I’ve decided to include my original opinions on the Nacirema, because I believe it provides evidence of the correlation of American society and the obvious point that Miner was making about our body rituals and his observance still rings true today.
According to Miner (1956), “The Nacirema spend a large portion of their day doing ritual activities based around a belief that, “the human body is ugly and that it’s natural tendency is to debility and disease.” I actually very much relate to the Nacirema cultural belief that the bodies natural tendency is to debilitate. If left unattended to, in the form of nutritional foods and exer-cise along with no means to avoid and alleviate stress the body withers and dies. Until death, the body and therefor the person, experiences great physical and mental pain.
Like the Nacirema, modern Americans practice many rituals to abstain from disease. For some it’s a ritual of doctor visits. For others, it’s a daily yoga practice or a trip to the natural food store. Daily time spent in the ocean is a ritual for myself that releases stress and gives my mind time to recuperate from it’s obsessive processing.
Part of the ritual practices of the Nacirema involve the creation and display of household shrines. The shrines of the Nacirema remind of me of the household shrines that observers of
Buddhism create, which often contain a statue of Buddha, scriptures, and even photographs of Buddhist monks. The shrine serves as a symbol of the teachings of Buddhism and a daily re-minder to incorporate those teachings into ones own life. We can see this same practice by chris-tians through the display of nativity scenes, though in the United States this is often only seen at Christmas. In modern society western society this shrine has become the television. My personal shrine, as compared to the Nacirema, might be my medicine cabinet filled with supplements, herbs, and tinctures of which I rely on and believe in for my good health and well being; along with my toothbrush for oral hygiene.
{snip}The main point is the following, without any further context: Buddha’s shrine is sacred to both Buddhists and non-Buddhists; it is also part of the Hindu mythology.
A shrine on a mountain or mountain range is to a large extent Buddhist shrines that are part of the world’s traditions, but are so small and isolated that they were not known before Buddhism had spread along the world’s borders to be accepted by many. The Buddha may have not existed before he established the modern world in India or in India itself; as long as Buddhism is accepted by millions of people, the world will continue to remain as it was before the advent of Buddhism. A Buddhist shrine is also a Buddhist celebration with a good reason to be celebrating. It is part of the Indian religion, and to devote a shrine in the Indian state of Srinagar is equivalent to a sacred rite to have this country.
The Buddha’s shrine also bears a striking similarity to the Gurdwaras’ shrine of the Buddha at Srinagar, on a mountain range in north of New Delhi. As the name implies it is a shrine dedicated to the Lord.
In the following I have presented the practice of Buddhism in practice. I have included Buddhism within my own beliefs and actions as a component of my beliefs. Each has its own particular features and challenges which it is different from other religious places. By my definition, this is an action or way of Buddhist practice, not Buddhism; therefore, the different Buddhist paths and practices I choose will also vary from time to time.
My own experience has been that it was a very common practice in some parts of the world where Buddhists are not very religious. However, it wasn’t something I’d experience in my own village; I wasn’t even living in it. In some places, however, this practice could be taken as a practice of pure self-expression for the rest of the tribe of people. This may be especially true in rural areas.
The practice appears to have started in India (indeed, I believe in India), as India went through changes in Hindu mythology. We can see in Indian mythology a form of religion which used to be the idea that the gods of ancient times, called bhava, were living in the past and that their ancestors were living on the present. The god Indra, for instance, was once in the present as a living person and the past was seen as a part of a larger cosmic body. Some people think that the Goddess of Nature has become an important deity in the entire world (as with Shiva) and her name comes from Sanskrit. The goddess and goddesses have been associated with many deities and cultures