THINK Paper Week 4

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Texas A&M University *

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222

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Anthropology

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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docx

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Uploaded by DeaconLoris3762

Carson Wagner Professor Trey Morgan COSC 222 1/31/2023 Think Paper: Week 4 The Nacirema culture widely bases their overall lives and spirits on appearance. They believe, “…the human body is ugly and that its natural ability is to debility and disease” (Horace 2). They perform rituals to essentially “cleanse” themselves from this. This belief has made people wonder how their people have been able to sustain and live for this amount of time. When I began reading the article, I was very surprised about the rituals these people go through in order to be cleansed. The “mouth-men” tear out peoples’ teeth and place “magical materials” in their spot. I feel like this is torture for these people, even though they all agree and go through is. This would not be ethical in our society, but their culture is very different from ours. I would describe the Nacirema culture to my family and friends as extreme or over the top. The amount of pain these people go through in order to cleanse themselves makes it seem like they are making things worse off. Along with the torturous acts, mothers do not nurse their children after they are born, and fully hide their appearance during their pregnancy. I would personally not like to be a part of the society. The trials and tribulations that these people go through on a daily basis just in order to comply does not give me much interest. The Nacirema peoples’ culture is based mainly on appearance. They feel as if they are stuck in a human’s body and perform these rituals in order to better themselves.

Works Cited Miner, Horace. “Body Ritual among the Nacirema.” American Anthropologist , vol. 58, no. 3, 1956, pp. 503–507., https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1956.58.3.02a00080.

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