Body Ritual Among the Nacirema

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HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 582 DeVRY UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR SPECTOR Tajuna Shape Tajuna629@gmail.com In reading Horace Miner’s article, “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” he describes the extreme rituals, customs and beliefs of a group of people North American people living the region between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Upon further reading and understanding of the article, as an anthropologist, I came to understand that Miner use of the word Nacirema in the title was deliberate. Nacirema is America spelled backwards. Miner was describing America’s extreme cultural and rituals on their physical appearance and maintaining a youthful lifestyle. In the article, Miner describes how a considerable amount of time is spent daily in ritualistic activities, preparing the body’s appearance and maintaining its health. These customs and rituals are in contrast to the fundamental belief that the body is ugly and diseased. Upon my observations of the Nacirema people, what struck me the most is that there are “ritual fasts to make fat people thin and ceremonial feasts to make thin people fat.” Most Americans are obsessed with their weight and appearance. People are judged upon their appearance before they utter a word. Americans view people who are physically fit, athletic and thin as more attractive and believe that they take better care of themselves and typically those people have a higher status amongst their peers. You can never be too thin, unless you are too thin. Then you are viewed as someone who may not be taking proper care of yourself. You could possibly have an eating disorder, taking diet pills, spending too much time exercising or used plastic surgery to alter your appearance. This truly is the irony of a society obsessed with appearance and attractiveness. The women are also held to a

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