Body Ritual Among the Nacirema

I fell for it, hog hair and all. “Body Ritual Among The Nacirema,” by Horace Miner had me completely hooked until I began to do some further research into the Nacirema people. What follows this introduction is my opinion on the Nacirema before realizing that I was reading a sat-ire on a particular American way of life in the 1950’s. Minor describes the Nacirema (America, spelt backwards), as a poorly understood tribe living in America who are devoted to economic pursuits and body rituals. I’ve decided to include my original opinions on the Nacirema, because I believe it provides evidence of the correlation of American society and the obvious point that Miner was making about our body rituals and his observance still rings true today.

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According to Miner (1956), “The Nacirema spend a large portion of their day doing ritual activities based around a belief that, “the human body is ugly and that it’s natural tendency is to debility and disease.” I actually very much relate to the Nacirema cultural belief that the bodies natural tendency is to debilitate. If left unattended to, in the form of nutritional foods and exer-cise along with no means to avoid and alleviate stress the body withers and dies. Until death, the body and therefor the person, experiences great physical and mental pain.

Like the Nacirema, modern Americans practice many rituals to abstain from disease. For some it’s a ritual of doctor visits. For others, it’s a daily yoga practice or a trip to the natural food store. Daily time spent in the ocean is a ritual for myself that releases stress and gives my mind time to recuperate from it’s obsessive processing.

Part of the ritual practices of the Nacirema involve the creation and display of household shrines. The shrines of the Nacirema remind of me of the household shrines that observers of

Buddhism create, which often contain a statue of Buddha, scriptures, and even photographs of Buddhist monks. The shrine serves as a symbol of the teachings of Buddhism and a daily re-minder to incorporate those teachings into ones own life. We can see this same practice by chris-tians through the display of nativity scenes, though in the United States this is often only seen at Christmas. In modern society western society this shrine has become the television. My personal shrine, as compared to the Nacirema, might be my medicine cabinet filled with supplements, herbs, and tinctures of which I rely on and believe in for my good health and well being; along with my toothbrush for oral hygiene.