Cultural Anthropology, Nacirema

Lens Alexis
Cultural Anthropology
01/22/2015

We Are Formed by What We Desire

In 1956, Nacirema was written by Horace Miner and published by The journal American Anthropologist. The Nacirema culture believe strongly in maintaining a cleanse and healthy body despite the long painful process they have to endure. But, the ritualized actions done to ensure the health of the human body are both unorthodox and bizarre. According to Miner, The rituals included, women baking their head in the oven for several hours, the latipso, long painful process of cleansing the mouth, and "There are ritual feasts to make fat people thin and ceremonial feasts to make thin people fat. Still, other rites are used to make women's breasts large if they are small, and smaller if they are large" (Miner, 1956). All Naciremas have at least one shrine in their household, the rich has several; the more the merrier. The Naciremas are so ingrained in their rituals that it is indispensable to go through with them, despite the fact that it has detrimental effect on their health.
The Naciremas fabricated these rituals because they believe that "The human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease" (Miner, 1956). Without the ability to realize that by invariably going to the holy-mouth-men for the yearly mouth cleansing, they are putting their mouth at a far more perilous state than it was before. The obsession with the mouth is believed to be helping them, as Miner remarked that, "The condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships" (1956). The sick visits the latipso for healing and the process is extreme and harsh, so very few people make it out because of the harsh treatments; they keep coming back, ad infinitum. Miner stated that, "The latipso ceremonies are so harsh that it is phenomenal that a fair proportion of the really sick natives who enter the temple ever recover" (1956). The motive behind their inane rituals have always been for the greater good of the appearance and health.
The natives were deftly examined. According to Miner, "I was able, however, to establish sufficient rapport with the natives to examine these shrines and to have the rituals described to me" (1956). It is a great advantage to be able to see first hand the process these people had to go through to maintain the illusion of a cleanse and healthy body. For special women's rites, it is conceivable how much pain the women endured by baking their head in an oven for a long period of time. There is ritual feast for almost everything, even the ability to make a woman's breast larger, or smaller, make fat people thin, and thin people fat. The latipso was very costly even though the people going there were basically paying to kill themselves. Upon arrival, a rich gift had to be given to the custodian and another one when leaving, if they had the luxury to walk out of there alive.
The bizarre rituals kept their society running smoothly because everyone was engaged in the same lifestyle. Even when the methods fail to work, they still perform the rituals, setting a precedent for the future. The Nacirema culture has strong beliefs and they are willing to travel great lengths to maintain a cleanse and healthy body despite the long painful process they have to endure. Furthermore, their health were put a far more perilous state than before starting the rituals. Especially the yearly mouth cleansing, even though their teeth continued to decay, they still returned to the holy-mouth-men. The process will carry on in perpetuum because the adults will regurgitate what they're told to the younger generation. The truism that Naciremas have strong faith in their rituals, regardless of the pain.




















References
Miner, H. (1956). "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" Retrieved January 22, 2016, from https://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html