After reading the article by Horace Miner, the five words to describe the Nacerima culture are:
1. Shallow
I say they are shallow because they believe that having their shrines is substitution for beauty. According to Miner, the main belief of the culture is that the human body is ugly, and is only meant to become sick. I believe that the human body is beautiful in every way possible and it is a blessing from God that it exists. No amount of money or shrines will substitute for the true beauty of the human body.
2. Wealth-seeking
The Nacerima culture is a market economy, where according to Miner, "much of the people's time is devoted to economic pursuits". While it is normal for people to seek wealth and financial stability, dedication of time to the economy is a bit strange. To them, however, it is nothing to be looked down upon and to be ashamed of. The reason to this believe of theirs is because they feel like they need money and to be wealthy in order to cover up the ugliness of their bodies.
3. Superstitious
The Nacerima culture has a belief that there is a connection between the rituals of the mouth and social relationships. According to Miner, "were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they
believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert
them, and their lovers reject them". Of course, that is a very superstitious belief. In fact, it could be seen as a strange believe as well. However, this could be used to have the need for the "holy-mouth-men" which relates back to gaining as many shrines as possible. The holy mouth men require something in return for their services which are often sought by the people of Nacerima.
4. Conservative
This culture could be seen as very conservative. According to the article by Miner, the people of this culture don't expose their body for unnecessary reasons. In the article, it is explained that the only time they will get rid of their clothes is under the secrecy of their own household and their own shrine. Because of that, when they have to expose their bodies when entering the temple to be "healed", they are very uncomfortable and the females feel victimized of possible sexual assault.
5. Ritual-based
I say this because after reading the article, I felt as if there is a ritual for everything that they consider to be wrong. One of the most interesting ritual I read about is the one to make fat people thin and thin people fat. Another ritual is to get rid of the "devils" that they believe mothers put in the children. While these rituals are normal to them, to an outside person reading or seeing such rituals would be somewhat in disbelief.
Part B:
While it didn't cross my mind in the beginning that Miner was actually speaking about Americans, I figured it out at the end and that is when I went back and analyzed it based on the observation.
1) I am from another country. I was born in Jordan and I have been living here for the past eight years. Within those eight years, I have been exposed to the American culture. Now that I know that this was about the American culture, I would still keep my answers the same. I feel as my answers do describe the typical American; that is not to say it with a negative connotation.
2) All of the words that were said before are free of bias. While I was answering the task of the first blog, I was only responding to what I read, but not what I thought at the end. If I had known that it was about the American culture, then a bit of biased opinions might have risen.
3) Again, none of the words chosen above had any bias to them
4) I think it is extremely important to describe other cultures without any bias. I believe so because each person is different and hold different values and therefore, having bias in their writing about other culture does not really provide the truth about the culture. I think that it is very difficult to avoid bias as a Culture Anthropologist because they know from the beginning which culture they analyze. If they were in my position where I didn't know what culture I was reading and commenting on, then it would be a lot easier to avoid bias.
Very nicely written! It's interesting to read this post from the view point of someone that is not originally from this American culture. I enjoyed reading your opinions and I agree with your statement that the Nacirema are wealth seeking because much of the people's time is devoted to economic pursuits. I must have overlooked that when I read Miners article.. good observation!
ReplyDeleteI agree with both your part A and part B, I find it very interesting like ggomez91 said to hear the perspective of someone who is not originally American. I also agree with your part B #4, your view on describing culture is very true but it is also next to impossible to view anything about bias, it takes a lot of skill which it appears that you have some.
ReplyDeleteOverall, good post. I have to disagree with you that none of your words carry bias. "Shallow" is a highly biased word, based upon what you value coloring your view on what this culture values. You may still feel this accurately describes the culture (and to a certain extent, I might agree with you), but that doesn't mean the descriptive term isn't biased. Perhaps a better word should would have been one that actually describes what they value, instead of a judgement on their values. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteThe other word I would flag is "superstitious". If you step back, all cultures are "superstitious" in some way if they practice any rituals at all, which they all do. The difference between one person's rituals and another superstitions is just the difference in perspective.
I agree with your choice of the word ritual-based. It is a great word to describe the actions that are presented in the Nacerima way of life. I think using the word shallow shows some bias towards their culture. In addition, I also think it is very interesting to hear your point of view being from a different country. It provided very unique insight on the subject of culture and ethnocentrism.
ReplyDeleteLoved your choice to the word ritual based and agree with you on it. However, I might want to add traditionally ritual based which might actually be more describitive. That they are tradionally based depending on what culture they grew in or what their family passed on to them. And the author has wrote a really great article on what this culture "Americans" tradionally based to their culture and what they think right or wrong. I enjoyed reading your article. I think reading other student's articles gives us more information on other cultures and how other think.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the word "shallow" reveals a bias in judgment. Perhaps a less extreme word you can use is "protective." On the other side of things, you could argue that the shrine doesn't necessarily serve as a "substitute" for beauty, but a haven they could resort to in order to preserve and protect the body since it is so important to their culture.
ReplyDelete