Body Rituals among the Nacirema
The Nacirema was a tribe that lived in North America. They had their language and culture. It is stated that they have Canadian Cree ancestry in their family tree. The research reveals that this community participated in cultural activities that were strong and intense and that these activities reflected the extremes that humans are capable of going to. We look at the specific area of anthropology that the Naciremas are a part of to understand them better. Archaeology is a branch of anthropology that focuses on studying human activity through the use of already-existing human-made items (Gilbert, 2018). Teeth, bones, and other dental remnants are often unearthed and analyzed by archaeologists to get a better understanding of the parallels and differences that exist across various cultures. The study of biological anthropology will show how different environments influence human development and how humans adapt to those surroundings.
On the other hand, cultural anthropology sheds light on social activities, such as how people live, what they do, and how each action affects their lives. The study of linguistic anthropology helps us understand how languages evolve through time so that people can communicate more effectively. Notginihsaw, the legendary hero of the Nacirema, is known for throwing stones across a river and cutting down a cherry tree that served as a dwelling for the spirit of truth (Mahood & Rusick, 2019). The inhabitants of Nacirema believed in bodily rites and customs accepted by the whole population. The underlying notion is that the human body is ugly and prone to disease.
As a consequence of this, individuals participate in rituals that are both painful and damaging to maintain a healthy body that is free from illness. Another essential component of the ceremony was the charm box, a storage location for all the magical components and materials used throughout the ritual. It is important to note that the Nacirema people lived in a region with a booming economy and grew fruits for their body rituals. Ceremonies were performed at the shrines that were located inside their homes. The shrines were situated inside the devotees’ houses, which meant that the traditions could be achieved in secrecy, and children were not admitted within the temples.
The community’s medicine men performed the ceremonies and presented various magical charms and concoctions to the people to heal their bodies (Launer, 2018). After it had served its purpose, the shrine would put the power away in a chest constructed into the shrine’s wall. They believed that the magical charm effectively kept people safe during the ceremony. In recognition of the medicine men’s efforts, various presents are presented to them. The “holy mouth-men” were responsible for performing the oral rites. The Nacirema believed that one of the essential tools for maintaining interpersonal connections was one’s mouth. If they did not perform these rituals, their jawbones and teeth would disintegrate, and they would be unable to chew or speak (Miner, 2019). In addition, their loved ones and friends would turn their backs on them because of their decision. On the other hand, mouth rites can be performed by anybody by simply twisting their jaws while holding hog hair and magical powders in their mouths.
To purge the evil from the person’s mouth, the holy mouth man would employ painful instruments to the person’s teeth. Drilling was utilized to enlarge a hole that had been degrading in the teeth to prevent more cavities from forming and provide room for new friends (Launer, 2018). The ladies would sometimes place their heads in the oven for an hour at a temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit, while the males would scrape their faces off daily with a pointed instrument. Temples provide the setting for Lalipso rituals of the highest intensity, those patients in critical condition had the operation performed on them by the medicine men, who were assisted by three maidens. Following the cleaning, the next step in the formal purification procedure entailed going to the temple naked and presenting the priests with gifts.
The Mysterious Fall of Nacirema
Even if it is unclear where the Nacirema came from, they were driven to elevate themselves. Their style of living, astounding and influenced by cultural relativism, is how they figure out how to solve the challenge. We examine their actions in the rich historical background to understand their culture. Linguistic anthropology has not yet understood the Naciremas’ native tongue. If you look at where they resided, you can see that they wanted to alter it to fit their preferences completely. Making the roadways that indicated where each person resided took up significant time in landscaping (Thompson, 2019). The lower caste resided in ghettos, while the affluent could dwell anywhere they pleased. Nature left out whatever it deemed to have been in the correct position while removing everything it had previously deemed to be in the wrong place. For instance, the terrain was prepared for digging water pots by removing trees and plants from the area and leveling the slopes. Imported structural steel served as towers that extended into the distance (Gilbert, 2018). Since people were eating certain vegetables raw, various crops were cultivated, some of which were harmful to humans. Now, rituals took place in massive temples that were strategically located. From the wealthy elite came the business class community, which was now in charge of the workforce, job delegation, and income distribution.
The Nacirema was able to shift the hue of water from the blue to the red spectrum with a little effort to alter the surroundings. The atmosphere also became gray-yellow; these modifications were made by constructing power plants with pipelines that vented hot air gases into the atmosphere and the chemicals into rivers and water sources. In other words, pollution was becoming worse and worse. The Nacirema promoted individual empowerment and self-efforts to change the environment, and the Cult of Elibomotua is still a significant cultural icon of this movement. The cult creatively represented the ideal environment (Thompson, 2019). Anthropologists gathered the remnants of the devices and utilized them to examine the Naciremas’ desired ecological system. Modest and equipped with a unique environment management system that minimized background noise and produced a calming sound topic via external manipulations, the symbol’s first inventions were initially small. It would subsequently provide a modified atmospheric setting in a family setting. The ground had been smoothed down, so the gadget could only go through the streets (Launer, 2018). The Naciremas traveled to large ceremonies in vehicles and danced in a way they compared to a swarm of honey bees. Following the dances, people sought refuge in eciffos, houses, or loohcs (offices). Many people were at the dances for approximately three hours each morning and evening. This particular pattern of action represented a strong, deeply ingrained group custom.
References
Gilbert, S. F. (2018). Health Fetishism among the Nacirema: A fugue on Jenny Reardon’s The Postgenomic Condition: Ethics, Justice, and Knowledge after the Genome (Chicago University Press, 2017) and Isabelle Stengers’ Another Science is Possible: A Manifesto for Slow Science (Polity Press, 2018). Organisms. Journal of Biological Sciences, 2(1), 43–54. https://doi.org/10.13133/2532-5876_3.11
Launer, J. (2018). The peculiar health beliefs of the Nacirema. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 94(1113), 423–424. https://doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2018-135921
Thompson, N. (2019). The Mysterious Fall of the Nacirema. Undefined. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Mysterious-Fall-of-the-Nacirema-Thompson/d6109a7793c8837c65bedeae66f221a2ffcb3846
Mahood, W., & Rusick, L. (2019). Nacirema, Weans, and Bushmen: Studying Cultures. The Social Studies, 72(4), 184–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.1981.10114380
Miner, H. (2019). Body Ritual among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist, 58(3), 503–507. https://www.jstor.org/stable/665280
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