Summary:

In Horace Miners Body Ritual among the Nacirema,

He writes about the characterization of the North American group
called the Nacirema, as described by a Professor Linton in the early 1900s.
In the article the Nacirema people are depicted as a culture obsessed with
rituals with regards to the vanity of the human body as a whole. There is
also the description of a shrine where the obsession is mostly performed or
takes place. Within this shrine are a number of charms (medicines, magical
materials) placed inside it for safekeeping, and to reuse for the coming
daily rituals. One of the repeated rituals done mostly by men is that of what
is illustrated as a scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a
sharp instrument. Beneath the shrine is a font where each person of the
household performs the brief rite of ablution (washing of the hands and/or
body) with holy water. This holy water comes from a community Water
Temple.
To further the fixation on the human body, the Nacirema also make a
couple of visits (twice a year) to holy mouth-men known as the hierarchy
of magical practitioners, specialists of the mouth. In the Nacirema culture
there is a powerful attraction or enchantment with the symbols between
the mouth and an individuals morals. In making these visits to the holy
mouth-men, it is believed that the Nacirema will draw people toward them,
as well as stop the deterioration of their teeth. The author also writes
about Professor Lintons explanation of the profession of the listener
among the Nacirema people. As the given name says, this individual listens
to the troubles/fears of a person beginning with the earliest recollection of
their life, and performs counter-magic to ease or do away with the fears.
Within the community there is the temple of the latipso, where the severely
ill go to be stripped of their clothing and have exaggerated ceremonies
performed by not only a magician, but group(s) of vestal maidens assisting
the magician(s).
The overall assumption of the Nacirema people is that they have a
belief that the body is ugly, and through the daily activities of the rituals
performed on the body, will bring satisfaction and meaning to their life.
Impression:
The notion that there could possibly be such a culture as the so-called
Nacirema people is one ofshall we say self-absorbed? My overall
impression of them is that of a barbaric and sadistic group of individuals
who find so much time to waste on the rituals of everyday tasks; and for
what?
My Opinion:
At first, I was consumed by the strange depiction of the Nacirema
until about half way into the article I realized that the description of the
holy mouth-men is exactly like a modern day dentist. It is then that I went
back to the beginning of the article and also realized that the rituals and
ceremonies performed are the exact same ones we as Americans do daily.
(Ha-ha! Nacirema is America spelled backwards.) And then it hit me that
the shrine is a bathroom medicine cabinet, the charms stored in the shrine
are the cosmetics and/or medicines, the font is the sink, the listener is a
therapist/counselor/psychiatrist, and latipso is hospital (without the h)
spelled backwards! Again, ha-ha! After my profound revelation, I found the
rest of the article to be quite comical and exaggerated in how Horace
Miner went about portraying the American society in our obsession with
what we consider beauty or outward appearance. The fact that we spend
so much time on ourselves every day and/or morning as we prepare for our
day isaltogether eye-opening and just plain ridiculous. I speak from my
own experience! I pride myself in keeping a natural look to my
appearance, so why does it take me so long to prepare this naturalness?
(Uhh two hours!) What is worse is that if I do not perform my ritual I feel
out of place or out of whack, and cannot concentrate, knowing my
appearance is not at its best. How delusional is that?
BODY RITUAL AMONG THE NACIREMA
Horace Miner
From Horace Miner, "Body Ritual among the Nacirema." Reproduced by
permission of the American Anthropological Association from The
American Anthropologist, vol. 58 (1956), pp. 503-507.

Most cultures exhibit a particular configuration or style. A single value or

pat-
tern of perceiving the world often leaves its stamp on several institutions
in the
society. Examples are "machismo" in Spanish-influenced cultures, "face" in
Japanese culture, and "pollution by females" in some highland New Guinea
cultures. Here Horace Miner demonstrates that "attitudes about the body"
have a pervasive influence on many institutions in Nacireman society.
The anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in
which different peoples behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be
surprised by even the most exotic customs. In fact, if all of the logically
possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the
world, he is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet
undescribed tribe. This point has, in fact, been expressed with respect to
clan organization by Murdock. In this light, the magical beliefs and
practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems
desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human
behavior can go.
Professor Linton first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention
of anthropologists twenty years ago, but the culture
of this people is still very poorly understood. They are a North American
group living in the territory between the Canadian Creel the Yaqui and
Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is
known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the
east....
Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market
economy which as evolved in a rich natural habitat. While much of the
people's time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of the fruits of
these labors and a considerable portion
of the day are spent in ritual activity. The focus of this activity is the human
body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in
the ethos of the people. While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its
ceremonial aspects and associated philosophy are unique.
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. Incarcerated in such a body, man's only hope is to
avert these characteristics through the use of the
powerful influences of ritual and ceremony. Every household has one or
more shrines devoted to this purpose. The more
powerful individuals in the society have several shrines in their houses and,
in fact, the opulence of a house is often referred to
in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses. Most houses are
of wattle and daub construction, but the shrine rooms of the more wealthy
are walled with stone. Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery
plaques to their shrine walls. While each family has at least one such
shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are
private and
secret. The rites are normally only discussed with children, and then only
during the period when they are being initiated into these mysteries. I was
able, however, to establish sufficient rapport with the natives to examine
these shrines and to have the rituals described to me.
The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall.
In this chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which
no native believes he could live. These preparations are secured from a
variety of specialized practitioners. The most powerful of these are the
medicine men, whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts.
However, the medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their
clients, but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them
down in an ancient and secret language. This writing is understood only by
the medicine men and by the herbalists who, for another gift, provide the
required charm.
The charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose, but is placed
in the charmbox of the household shrine. As these
magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or imagined
maladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to
overflowing. The magical packets are so numerous that people forget what
their purposes were and fear to use them again. While the natives are very
vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the
old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box, before which
the body rituals are conducted, will in some way protect the worshipper.
Beneath the charm-box is a small font. Each day every member of the
family, in succession, enters the shrine room, bows
his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the
font, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablution.
The holy waters are secured from the Water Temple of the community,
where the priests conduct elaborate ceremonies to
make the liquid ritually pure.
In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine men in
prestige, are specialists whose designation is best translated "holy-mouth-
men." The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination
with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural
influence on all social relationships. 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. They also believe that a strong relationship exists between
oral and moral characteristics. For example, there is a ritual ablution of the
mouth for children which is supposed to improve their moral fiber.
The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite.
Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious about care of the
mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger
as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a
small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical
powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of
gestures.
In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-
man once or twice a year. These practitioners
have an impressive set of paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of augers,
awls, probes, and prods. The use of these objects in the exorcism of the
evils of the mouth involves almost unbelievable ritual torture of the client.
The holy-mouth-man open the clients mouth and, using the above
mentioned tools, enlarges any holes which decay may have created in the
teeth. Magical materials are put into these holes. If there age no naturally
occurring holes in the teeth, large sections of one or more teeth are
gouged out so that the supernatural substance can be applied. In the
client's view, the purpose of these ministrations is to arrest decay and to
draw friends. The extremely sacred and traditional character of the rite is
evident in the fact that the natives return to the holy--mouth-men year after
year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay.
It is to be hoped that, when a thorough study of the Nacirema is made,
there will be careful inquiry into the personality structure of these people.
One has but to watch the gleam in the eye of a holy- mouth-man, as he
jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of
sadism is involved. If this can be established, a very interesting pattern
emerges, for most of the population shows definite masochistic tendencies.
It was to these that Professor Linton referred in discussing a distinctive
part of the daily body ritual which is performed only by men. This part of
the rite involves scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a
sharp instrument. 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. The theoretically interesting point is that what
seems to be a preponderantly masochistic people have developed sadistic
specialists.
The medicine men have an imposing temple, or latipso, in every
community of any size. The more elaborate ceremonies required to treat
very sick patients can only be performed at this temple. These ceremonies
involve not only the thaumaturge but a permanent group of vestal
maidens who move sedately about the temple chambers in distinctive
costume and head- dress.
The latipso ceremonies are so harsh that it is phenomenal that a fair
proportion of the really sick natives who enter the temple The concept of
culture ever recover. Small children whose indoctrination is still
incomplete have been known to resist attempts to take them to the temple
because "that is where you go to die." Despite this fact, sick adults are not
only willing but eager to undergo the protracted ritual purification, if they
can afford to do so. No matter how ill the supplicant or how grave the
emergency, the guardians of many temples will not admit a client if he
cannot give a rich gift to the custodian. Even after one has gained
admission and survived the ceremonies, the guardians will not permit the
neophyte to leave until he makes still another gift.
 The supplicant entering the temple is first stripped of all his or her
clothes. In everyday life the Nacirema avoids exposure of his body and its
natural functions. Bathing and excretory acts are performed only in the
secrecy of the household shrine, where they are ritualized as part of the
body-rites. Psychological shock results from the fact that body secrecy is
suddenly lost upon entry into the latipso. A man, whose own wife has
never seen him in an excretory act, suddenly finds himself naked and
assisted by a vestal maiden while he performs his natural functions into a
sacred vessel. This sort of ceremonial treatment is necessitated by the
fact that the excreta are used by a diviner to ascertain the course and
nature of the client's sickness. Female clients, on the other hand, find their
naked bodies are subjected to the scrutiny, manipulation and prodding of
the medicine men.
Few supplicants in the temple are well enough to do anything but lie on
their hard beds. The daily ceremonies, like the rites of the holy-mouth-
men, involve discomfort and torture. With ritual precision, the vestals
awaken their miserable charges each dawn and roll them about on their
beds of pain while performing ablutions, in the formal movements of
which the maidens are highly trained. At other times they insert magic
wands in the supplicant's mouth or force him to eat substances which are
supposed to be healing. From time to time the medicine men come to their
clients and jab magically treated needles into their flesh. The fact that
these temple ceremonies may not cure, and may even kill the neophyte, in
no way decreases the people's faith in the medicine men.
There remains one other kind of practitioner, known as a "listener."
This witchdoctor has the power to exorcise the devils that lodge in the
heads of people who have been bewitched. The Nacirema believe that
parents bewitch their own children. Mothers are particularly suspected of
putting a curse on children while teaching them the secret body rituals.
The counter-magic of the witchdoctor is unusual in its lack of ritual. The
patient simply tells the "listener" all his troubles and fears, beginning with
the earliest difficulties he can remember. The memory displayed by the
Nacirerna in these exorcism sessions is truly remarkable. It is not
uncommon for the patient to bemoan the rejection he felt upon being
weaned as a babe, and a few individuals even see their troubles going
back to the traumatic effects of their own birth.
In conclusion, mention must be made of certain practices which have
their base in native esthetics but which depend upon the pervasive
aversion to the natural body and its functions. There are ritual fasts to
make fat people thin and ceremonial feasts to make thin people fat. Still
other rites are used to make women's breasts larger if they are small, and
smaller if they are large. General dissatisfaction with breast shape is
symbolized in the fact that the ideal form is virtually outside the range of
human variation. A few women afflicted with almost inhuman hyper-
mamrnary development are so idolized that they make a handsome living
by simply going from village to village and permitting the natives to stare
at them for a fee.
Reference has already been made to the fact that excretory functions
are ritualized, routinized, and relegated to secrecy. Natural reproductive
functions are similarly distorted. Intercourse is taboo as a topic and
scheduled as an act. Efforts are made to avoid pregnancy by the use of
magical materials or by limiting intercourse to certain phases of the
moon. Conception is actually very infrequent. When pregnant, women
dress so as to hide their condition. Parturition takes place in secret,
without friends or relatives to assist, and the majority of women do not
nurse their infants.
Our review of the ritual life of the Nacirema has certainly shown them to
be a magic-ridden people. It is hard to un- derstand how they have
managed to exist so long under the burdens which they have imposed
upon themselves. But even such exotic customs as these take on real
meaning when they are viewed with the insight provided by Malinowski
when he wrote:
"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."