Body Ritual of the Nacirema
Upon reading an excerpt of "Body Ritual of the Nacirema" by Horace Miner, a few words came to mind.
The first descriptor that came to mind was "familiar." I found the majority of the text to be very reminiscent and descriptive of American culture. One of the examples of this is the way in which the author describes the Nacirema women's bodies being treated in the latipso, where the author writes, "Female clients, on the other hand, find their naked bodies are subjected to the scrutiny, manipulation and prodding of the medicine men." This experience of women being mistreated in a healthcare setting is very familiar to an American lens.
The second word I would use to describe the Nacirema culture is "idealistic." A focus of the article is the body ritual that is embedded in Nacirema culture. This body ritual is idealistic in its approach, with what would appear to be less focused on health in some instances, though not all, and more focused on outward attributes. This is shown in the author's descriptions of rites which, "are used to make women's breasts larger if they are small, and smaller if they are large." This is done for seemingly no other benefit than aesthetics.
The third descriptor I would use is "obsessive." This is similar to the above point in the degree to which the Nacirema people idealize aesthetics, but this obsessiveness in furthered in other rituals. The Nacirema people engage in rites every day, even if they are not aware of any benefits the rituals provide. Miner states, "The magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use them again. While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box, before which the body rituals are conducted, will in some way protect the worshiper." Although a charm's power may be forgotten, there is an obsessive need to retain the object in hopes it will bring forth benefits.
The fourth word that came to mind while reading the article was "inconsistent." Although the Nacirema people avoid exposing their body and its natural functions, when they present to a latipso they must strip their clothing, and are attended to by vestal maidens. This inconsistency in the treatment of modesty in the culture can result in psychological shock to those that enter the latipso.
The final word I would use to describe the Nacirema culture is "unnatural." I do not intent to use this word to refer to something as wrong or other, instead I intend to use it to mean an action that differs from the natural inclination of the body. The Nacirema have many rituals, including a ceremony where women bake their heads in an oven, and one that includes men "scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument." Both of these would seem opposed to one's natural inclination.
Part B:
Before making this post, I was aware that the article in question was describing American culture. Being American, I think this made me somewhat harsher in the words I used than I would have been had the culture been unknown to me. Knowing the practices, specifically medical practices and women's relationship to them, I think I fell more into criticism.
My first word, “familiar,” I believe is unbiased in that it is not making a judgment, although it is bringing up a direct comparison. My second word, “idealistic,” is biased in that it centers an American view of aesthetics and what would be the ideal body. An alternative could be “appearance focused.” My third word, “obsessive,” I believe is also biased because it centers an American value system of what deserves time and what doesn’t. A better replacement would simply be “ritualistic.” My fourth word, “inconsistent,” I believe is biased because it assumes more knowledge than is given. Because I was aware the article was describing American culture, I felt more able to comment on the inconsistencies of certain practices and beliefs, but had I been an outside viewer of this culture, this assumption would have been misplaced. A replacement would be “complex” which would leave more room for the underlying reasons for each practice to be understood before being labeled as inconsistent with each other. My final word was “unnatural.” I believe this is again biased, although my intention in using this word was trying to veer away from that. Even in an attempt to separate the word from its othering tendencies, it still falls into an American view of what is natural for a person. I think an alternative could be “curated,” which would relive some judgments that are baked into the previous word.
I believe avoiding bias completely is impossible, as almost all our thoughts and views have been impacted and influenced by the culture we grew up in. However, it is possible to check our own bias and try to unpack our assumptions, which is important for both genuine learning and also honest representation of any culture that differs from our own.
(Edited previous text background color because it was a mistake. Made no other edits to Part A.)
Part A submission recorded and scored. I will offer more feedback after your Part B submission.
ReplyDeleteI like the words you chose with how you understood the article Miner made. I think using obsessive was a very unique word to use and I understand why you used it. The way the Nacirema use charms and various rituals to make sure their appearance is perfect shows how obsessed they may be with their visuals. I did mention the charms in my post, but I completely went past the idea of obsession.
ReplyDeleteFirst I want to say your post is really well written and thought out. I like that you've stated that you knew that the article we read was a satire on American society, and that you admit that it may make your words harsher than if you were reading about an unknown culture. The words you chose were really good too, a lot of the other blogs I read had come up with similar words, but yours are some of the most unique. I also think that the alternative words you came up with were really good as well. Complex and curated are both excellent substitutes for the original words. I also agree with your final statement, and I think that sums up the whole point of this exercise.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to include this information for all students and then provide more personalized feedback after that.
ReplyDeleteSo the purpose of this assignment is to put students into the position of feeling what it is like to have an outsider describe and perhaps judge their own culture. But it is also to grasp the dangers of using one person's description of a culture to learn about it.
With regard to your word choices, when you were asked to evaluate (in part B) any bias indicated by your words, two issues should have come to mind:
1. Do your words imply *judgement* of the behaviors describe?
2. Do your words *accurately* describe those actual behaviors.
The first issue is the easier of the two. You probably came into this course expecting to explore the matter of ethnocentrism and cultural anthropologists avoiding their own bias.
The second one is possibly something you didn't consider but is just as important. When you describe a culture, you not only want to be unbiased, but you want to accurately communicate a behavior to others.
So let's start here by exploring what it is Miner is actually describing in this article:
1. Self-care and hygiene at home.
2. Dental care by a professional dentist.
3. Visits to a hospital and medical professional.
There are a few other things that Miner references, but let's start with these three.
So in addition to the issue of bias/judgement, do your word choices *accurately* describe these practices? Can a person reading your words better understand these practices?
Let's work through your Part B responses:
Delete1. "Before making this post, I was aware that the article in question was describing American culture."
Yeah, there is always a risk that students have read this before. :-) Your reaction of being "harsher" was curious, however. I thought it would have made your word choice more *accurate*. Instead, you seem to have gone the other way. Why is that?
2. "Familiar" makes sense given your prior experience with this article.
For the rest, however, while there are some references in Miner's article to more superficial "beauty" practices, much of it reflect more medically/health-based practices, including brushing teeth, going to the dentist, and receiving health care in hospitals. Would you describe those as "obsessive", "ritualistic", "inconsistent" and "unnatural"?
The word "inconsistent" is interesting. While I get your point, even in the doctor's office, we are behind closed doors and garbed in a horrible cloth gown to protect our privacy. Our emphasis on privacy and modesty is still met while allowing the medical staff access to whatever body part they might need, correct?
And the word "unnatural" is a curious thing. It implies something arising from nature instead of man-made, but aren't nearly all human practices "man-made"? We can debate whether it is sound to separate out humans as distinctly different from other animals (that is a fascinating discussion), but it can be argued that most cultural practices are themselves "non-natural" and "man-made", so does this provide us any unique insights into the behaviors Miner is describing?
3. I sympathize with the difficulty in locating unbiased, descriptive words. That said recognize that the difficulty in choosing alternate words may not lie with the words themselves but the process of describing this culture in the first place. Part of what I want you to understand here is that you chose these words based upon a biased narrative...Horace Minor's narrative was designed to be a biased outsider's view of this culture, so nearly all words you choose are going to perpetuate that bias. It might be better to recognize that this attempt to define a culture with individual words isn't possible in the first place. It is a futile and biased practice and doesn't reflect what anthropologists are trying to do in their jobs. As an anthropologist, your job is to not describe from an outsider's perspective but to understand a culture.. and that means starting to see it as insiders do.
4. I would have liked a bit more exploration into the last section. While Anthropologists can strive to avoid bias and practice this skill, I suggest it is just as important to be aware that our biases are deeply ingrained in our psyche and are likely impossible to avoid completely. Better to be aware of this and be receptive to those who point it out when it happens. This is one of the reasons anthropologists collaborate with others... so that they can watch out for each other's bias seeping into their work.
An additional question: Is describing a culture as we have done here useful for an anthropologist? Or should our focus instead be on *understanding* a culture and explaining practices instead of just superficially describing?
Hi Jessica, I really appreciated how you realized that you had a slight bias because you had outside knowledge which is why it is almost impossible to be unbiased completely, but it is nice to see how you really feel about the American culture. We can have a bias against our own culture because there are things we disagree with present in our society, just because people conform to the societal "guidelines" down not mean they 100% believe it. I agree that it is important to want to genuinely learn about another culture with honest representation and an open mind.
ReplyDelete