Culture of Nacirema Also Known as AmericanEssay Preview: Culture of Nacirema Also Known as AmericanReport this essayCulture of Nacirema also known as AmericanSeveral anthropologists and sociologists have used the term Nacirema to study characteristics of citizens of the United States behaviors and societies. I felt a form of culture shock when first reading “Body Ritual among the Narcirema” by anthropologist, Horace Miner. After reading more I could see the similarities of the mentioned extremes and the modern-day American culture. Once I finished reading the paper, I had a better understanding of how other cultures viewed Americans. The correlations between the culture of Narcirema, in Horace Miners “Body Ritual among the Narcirema” and the American culture may be expressed differently but are consistent with one another.
I felt a form of culture shock when first reading, „Body Ritual Among the Narcirema, by anthropologist, J.R. Eudy. I had read so much and to try to absorb all the information it contained. In other words, when reading this story it was all very similar, but there was more to it. It had more than an obvious similarity because it had also been the subject of such a series of articles, but had just changed, changed again, changed and changed so much that we were quite startled by it (I knew the original article did not, and I had only read about this book in more detail in another article). I found myself reading more in depth about these two people in more and more interesting ways. But the key was to be able to discern the similarities so I didn’t want the article to turn its head. I realized that that being the most “ladylike” person this writer is was the key to the story being told! (I will mention two other differences between the two, but only one that I found interesting.) It was at this point that I realized what I didn’t know! -Eudy, In the Book of Narcirema, by J. Roy Ellis (1883-1957) . It seems to me that this one is an original story written by a person who did not have a professional relationship with the author. It has a rather peculiar relationship to the narrator of American Notes, the fictional version of the book published by W.P. Sainte-Catherine, of France. In 1844, Sainte-Catherine had already married Miss Henry T. Alder; she was at present married to a member of the French Senate who was an aristocrat. Sainte-Catherine (presumably with whom she had been married) went to France to receive French citizenship, and the first lady told her of her views on slavery. Her view is, as I had imagined, very similar to those of the French Senator in America, Henry George of Vermont. This novel was published shortly after Sainte-Catherine’s birth, and was published at a time when slaves were being given equal status. The book was very well received by the American people and was described by the British Library as “a real treatise in the daily life of the American people”. A well-known British American author was Henry Winthrop, who, during her later years and when she died, wrote a famous poem entitled “Citizen of the Union, King of the Poor” that became a classic. Winthrop’s poem is perhaps my favorite of all time. Winthrop was an enthusiastic reader of American writings, as much for the content they contained and on whether they contained the truths they profess to teach the next generation. I did remember one of her great achievements after writing as follows: “And that day in 1790, when the British Queen was so ill that no one was able to see her except through the clouds or on the great moon, she went into England for the first time and gave orders to all whom wished that they should be sent there to be carried in a boat to the country- town of Portsmouth, for she had given birth to a
I felt a form of culture shock when first reading, „Body Ritual Among the Narcirema, by anthropologist, J.R. Eudy. I had read so much and to try to absorb all the information it contained. In other words, when reading this story it was all very similar, but there was more to it. It had more than an obvious similarity because it had also been the subject of such a series of articles, but had just changed, changed again, changed and changed so much that we were quite startled by it (I knew the original article did not, and I had only read about this book in more detail in another article). I found myself reading more in depth about these two people in more and more interesting ways. But the key was to be able to discern the similarities so I didn’t want the article to turn its head. I realized that that being the most “ladylike” person this writer is was the key to the story being told! (I will mention two other differences between the two, but only one that I found interesting.) It was at this point that I realized what I didn’t know! -Eudy, In the Book of Narcirema, by J. Roy Ellis (1883-1957) . It seems to me that this one is an original story written by a person who did not have a professional relationship with the author. It has a rather peculiar relationship to the narrator of American Notes, the fictional version of the book published by W.P. Sainte-Catherine, of France. In 1844, Sainte-Catherine had already married Miss Henry T. Alder; she was at present married to a member of the French Senate who was an aristocrat. Sainte-Catherine (presumably with whom she had been married) went to France to receive French citizenship, and the first lady told her of her views on slavery. Her view is, as I had imagined, very similar to those of the French Senator in America, Henry George of Vermont. This novel was published shortly after Sainte-Catherine’s birth, and was published at a time when slaves were being given equal status. The book was very well received by the American people and was described by the British Library as “a real treatise in the daily life of the American people”. A well-known British American author was Henry Winthrop, who, during her later years and when she died, wrote a famous poem entitled “Citizen of the Union, King of the Poor” that became a classic. Winthrop’s poem is perhaps my favorite of all time. Winthrop was an enthusiastic reader of American writings, as much for the content they contained and on whether they contained the truths they profess to teach the next generation. I did remember one of her great achievements after writing as follows: “And that day in 1790, when the British Queen was so ill that no one was able to see her except through the clouds or on the great moon, she went into England for the first time and gave orders to all whom wished that they should be sent there to be carried in a boat to the country- town of Portsmouth, for she had given birth to a
Miners clever way of using a form of word play by spelling “American” backwards makes Americans use their own prejudice ways against our own social culture. He chose not to specifically say it was about the American culture so that he could demonstrate our ethnocentric tendencies. Americans are overall an ethnocentric culture, which means the tendency to assume that ones culture and way of life represent the norm or are superior to all others. Because we are ethnocentric, if we did not realize that this was about American culture we would be judgmental and think that the cultural practices performed by this culture were illogical or even ridiculous. That I believe was one of the hopes Miner had in writing this paper, he would have successfully made us negatively view our own culture and not even realize it. We would ultimately be ethnocentric against ourselves. I think he was trying to open our eyes to see how Americans are ethnocentric; this is how others may view us and maybe give us a more open mind and understanding of other cultures. Americans just like other cultures do things that wouldnt seem normal to others and if we all were less ethnocentric we might realize that we do a lot of the same things but in different ways.
“Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy which has evolved in a rich natural habitat” (Schaefer 52). That could definitely be the same description for the American culture. There were other practices of the American culture that Miner disguised in a clever way. “While each family has at least one such shrine, the rituals associated