Nacirema
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Body Ritual Among the Nacirema is a satire of anthropological papers on other cultures, and the culture of the United States. The paper was written by Horace Miner, and originally published in the June 1956 edition of American Anthropologist.
In the paper, Miner describes the Nacirema, a little-known tribe living in North America. The way the paper is written, about supposed curious practices that this group performs, distances readers from the fact that the North American group described actually correspond to modern-day Americans. The article is sometimes used as a demonstration of a gestalt switch with relation to sociology.
The Nacirema are described as a group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. The paper describes the typical Western ideal for oral cleanliness, as well as providing an outside view on hospital care and psychiatry.
Miner's article is a popular work, and is reprinted in many introductory anthropology and sociology textbooks. The article itself received the most reprint permission requests of any article in American Anthropologist, but is now in the public domain. You can find the text on Wikisource.
The Mysterious Fall of the Nacirema
In 1972, Neil B. Thompson revisited the Nacirema after the fall of their civilization. Thompson's paper, unlike the original, was primarily a social commentary focused on environmental issues. Thompson paid special attention to the Elibomotua Cult and their efforts to modify the environment.
- The high esteem of the cult is demonstrated by the fact that near every population center, when not disturbed by the accumulation of debris, archeologists have found large and orderly collections of the Elibomotua Cult symbol. The vast number of these collections has given us the opportunity to reconstruct with considerable confidence the principal ideas of the cult. The newest symbols seem to have nearly approached the ultimate of the Nacirema's cultural ideal. Their colors, material, and size suggest an enclosed mobile device that corresponds to no color or shape found in nature, although some authorities suggest that, at some early time in the development, the egg may have been the model. The device was provided with its own climate control system as well as a system that screened out many of the shorter rays of the light spectrum.
External link
- Body Ritual among the Nacirema (PDF) (http://www.aaanet.org/pubs/bodyrit.pdf) from American Anthropologist, June 1956
- The Mysterious Fall of the Nacirema (http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/editors_pick/1972_12_pick.html) from Natural History, December 1972