The Nacirema and the American
The Nacirema culture as described by Horace Miner creates a very mixed impression. In the beginning one may think that the rituals described in the article seem truly horrific and unusual. But, as soon as one realizes that Miner has chosen a very unusual way to describe the culture of modern Americans, one gets to appreciate the unusual humor of the author. The Nacirema focus on the cleansing rituals, which at first seem unusual and somehow even unbelievable and unusually masochistic, seem to be pretty normal if looked at from a different angle. The author shows how presentation of one theme from a different perspective an a bit of imagination totally changes the perception of a reader.
The new angle at which Miner sees and describes the modern society makes one to take another look on the everyday life of Americans. It is truly amazing how a new perspective changes the perception of things that are considered to be normal. Miner managed to turn some ordinary activities into ghastly and unthinkable acts performed by representatives of an exotic tribe. Therefore, this article makes one to stop and think of the perception of the common acts and deeds by representatives of different cultures and societies.
Miner’s paper is a very interesting piece of work that makes the US citizens look at their own actions from another perspective. Although all the actions described by the author are quite common and have been performed by each person at different moments in life, there’s something that totally changes the beliefs and strongly influenced judgments. The actual question is why do all the boring and common actions of an average American seem so perverted, unnatural, and even deviant when described by Miner.
The author has managed to replace all the cultural and social background of the actions performed by people. In fact, he left only the action itself, added a bit of color and drama, and totally changed the reasoning of all the actions. The altered cultural and social background of all the actions performed by the Nacirema tribe is the main reason for the changed perception of a reader. Moreover, by adding a bit of magic the author has moved the tribe even further into some Dark Ages. In fact, no one will disagree that “efforts are made to avoid pregnancy by the use of magical material or by limiting intercourse to certain phases of the moon” (Wardsworth 2011:22) because contraception is widely used in modern society. But, while in the Nacirema world everything is based on rituals, beliefs and magic, modern Americans rely more on science and results of various researches and studies.
In fact, a great change was made only by replacing science with sorcery. If one looks closely at Miner’s work, it is clear that all the elements of the society and all the actions of people that are usually based on science, are in this case deeply grounded in illogical beliefs, superstitions, and magic. This lack of logic and its’ replacement with myths is one of the major factors that creates an unusually dark impression from Miner’s description of the modern society.
Along with the cleansing rituals described by Miner, Americans have a number of other beliefs that are connected with body, time, work, family etc. For example, if one continues the topic of body rituals, there is a point to talk about clothes in lives of people, as dressing up seems to be an essential element of the American lifestyle. People shop a lot for clothes, no matter what type – everyday, party, sports outfits etc. Women are usually more into shopping than men, although this tendency is currently growing among the male population with the development of the metrosexuality concept. This ritual of Americans is another one that can be used as an illustration of the shame of one’s body. Clothes are used not as protection for one’s body, but rather as a way to hide or modify it using various shapes and patterns.
