Nacirema is American spelled backwards. Throughout the article, Miner, strived to prove how ethnocentric we, Americans, are through sociological imagination. Reading the article without knowing it is about Americans will put a person in the point of view of an outsider from a different culture. We think the tribe, Nacirema, thinks that the human body is ugly and its natural leaning to weakness and disease is an awful thing, and that their only hope to avoid these characteristic of the human body, is to keep up with their daily rituals. Americans are always trying to come up with new ideas to prevent natural aging, the deterioration, and weakness of the body.
These aspects of life define people of different cultures as a person. These traits impact ones life, define who they are and make them different from any other person in society. Culture forms and bends thoughts of right and wrong and what is accepted and what is not approved of. These identity differences among different cultures is what makes our world so unique, but difficult to control. With so many different influences and ideas directing our paths in life, one must wonder if what they have been taught in their culture is right or wrong.
Body ritual among the Nacirema After reading the required reading "Body Ritual among the Nacrirema" I was surprised and yet disgusted that people actually went through such extremes measures to preserve and care for their bodies. The Nacirema tribe is described by anthropologist Horace Miner, as an old primitive tribe residing in North America with savage and barbaric Practices and rituals. Minor gives plenty of examples that would make the Nacirema tribe seem over obsessive and even animalistic. Minor describes the Nacrirema tribe as performing a special body ritual called the "mouth rite" which is basically the gruesome pulling of teeth, only to put " a special medicine" inside so that it cold fill holes in their mouths. Another example the author describes, is the ritual of certain medicine men who have a temple.
The main point of this reading is to make us realize that there are hundreds of other cultures and everyone is different and be open minded about it. For example Horace mentions that Nacirema fears yet intrigued with the mouths, and believe that they have a lot to do with the social relationships. If they don’t perform the rituals for the mouth they believe that the mouth will fall out and their loved ones will reject them. Horace wrote this article because he wants us to understand the Nacirema culture because it is dissimilar than others. Different people act behave different in similar situation and respect their actions and see their point of view of their belief and their culture.
In summary, two factors were the cause of the current fatherless America: Structural changes of lifestyles (external) and the emergence of this “new philosophy.” (Internal) Even if fatherlessness is an evident reality in today’s culture, is it necessarily bad? Ultimately, if this fact is not harming the society, why should anyone be concerned?
Kozol addresses his readers so that they may spread awareness on illiteracy and eventually resolve the problem. Questions: 1. These explanations confuse the effects of illiteracy with the causes by saying that laziness is the cause of illiteracy, when in reality illiteracy is the cause of innovativeness, that an illiterate has to adopt, that is seen as laziness and stupidity. Kozol refutes these stereotypes with his examples of just how much illiteracy affects a person showing that they become almost immobilized and isolated by it. In his opinion the nation and it's leaders are at fault for not addressing this problem.
But how do we break such a mold? If our parents never taught us right from wrong as kids we would never have learnt otherwise, similarly many people have a racist upbringing as mentioned, and simply need to be educated so that they can learn right from wrong and no longer be ignorant. As we watch scene after scene unfold in McQueen’s movie, slavery comes to life in a much more concrete way as we see for ourselves how truly horrible and heart wrenching their situation was, it brings us to tears and leaves a lasting impression contrary to simply
Reaction Paper In his article Body Rituals among the Nacirema, Miner effectively convinces his reader of the ridiculous nature of America’s obsession with the body’s health and visual appeal by allowing his readers to form an opinion about themselves without realizing they are their own subject. At first glance the reader may be convinced he is reading about magical beliefs and extreme practices of a little know civilization. Miner effectively employs an academic tone as he opens the paper with “[t]he anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different peoples behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs.” Miner continues to use this tone throughout the article. Furthermore his statement “[t]he rites are normally only discussed with children… I was able, however, to establish sufficient rapport with the natives to examine these shrines and to have the rituals described to me” shows superior attitude to place his reader on the level of a scholar observing a native (Miner 503). Still even an inexperienced evaluator soon realizes the connection between the Nacirema and the United States.
“Why We Hate Politics”: A New Twist on the Perception of Politics Name: ******* *** Professor: **** ****** Course: Political Science 1020E Date: 18 November 2008 “Why We Hate Politics”: A New Twist on the Perception of Politics Collin Hay’s “Why We Hate Politics” appears to be the new twist on the political environment of democracy or a democratic country. It renders some vivid portrayal of the political disengagement that shows how “neo-liberal ideas and public choice theory” (Hay) contribute to the alienation of a population from the democratic process. In his book, Hay attempts top draw arguments against the assumption "citizens get the politics they deserve" (Hay). He calculates the evidences in a convincing way to prove that the assumption should be "democratic policies get the levels of political participation they deserve" (Hay). He delves deep into the cause of the public disengagement from politics that is considered to be detrimental to zeal of democracy.
Due to this fact, I was deprived of the stereotype about Indians which was cultivated in the United States from a generation to generation. Stereotyping is a common practice in today’s society. What happens when you use stereotypes is you draw on preconceived notions about certain racial or ethnic groups to define a person or group of people. These preconceived views may not be entirely true. Many races and ethnic groups are often hurt by these stereotypes.