First, read Horace Miner's "Body Ritual among the Nacirema." What was your first reaction to Miner's article? What do you think Miner is writing about? When and how did you finally realize what his subject was? What seems to be the writer's attitude toward the Nacirema? What aspects of the culture does he address? Why do you think he chooses such a strange approach to his subject?

"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" is a book written by Horace Miner, an anthropologist, born on 26th May, 1912. The book focus on a tribe of North America, "Nacirema."

Explanation:

Nacirema is "American" spelled backwards. According to Nacirema, the body is ugly and sick.

"The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease."

And to avoid its uncleanness they perform ritual and ceremony. The rituals of Nacirema was first brought to light by Professor Linton in 1936. Miner in his article describes about the peculiarity of Nacirema culture. He asserts that Nacirema men scrape their face.

"This part of the rite includes scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument"

and women bake their heads in oven four times during each lunar month.

"Special women's rites are performed only four times during each lunar month, but what they lack in frequency is made up in barbarity. As part of this ceremony, women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour."

Reaction to reading of the Miner's article is very much astounding. The subject of his article is "Cultural Relativism."

"Looking from far and above, from our high places of safety in the developed civilization, it is easy to see all the crudity and irrelevance of magic. But without its power and guidance early man could not have mastered his practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man have advanced to the higher stages of civilization"

Miner had used this sarcastic approach to explain the theory of cultural relativism.