Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Rituals of the Nacirema
The body rituals of the Nacirema opened an entire new world for me. It was a bit shocking to see how they treated their bodies for the sake of what they believed. Anything the medicine-men or holy-mouth-men said, the people would immediately do it believing that it was the right thing to do. Its hard to believe that they would enlarge holes in their teeth to put magical materials into it, or gouge out other teeth for that substance. The special woman's rites included having to bake their heads in small ovens for an hour! I cant even imagine how they would go through with that. It was amazing to see how different our cultures are, and even though their rituals are completely weird and gruesome to me, it was interesting to see that, for people part of that culture, it is perfectly normal for them.
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HI Ana! I agree with you. Definitely an eye opener and definitely a jaw dropper. It's so weird and insane to us, but absolutely normal to them.
ReplyDeleteHi Ana, I agree with your conclusion but they are thousands of miles away from our civilization. Their in a small circle and do their rituals isolating themselves from other nations. The world is full of knowledge and not to intake this knowledge and think on their own, hurts the community. It seems quick barbaric.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering why you said it opened an entire new world for you?
ReplyDeletei so agree with you i think its disturbing but its what these people are a custom to do
ReplyDeleteAs you all probably know by now, the reading is about Anericans. It demonstrates that if we perceive a culture as different as ours, we believe that their norms are values are bizarre or weird. However, when we look at our own Norma, beliefs, and values we consider them to be perfectly normal.
ReplyDeleteWe are in a Culture War in the sense that our core values of what we believe are human rights seem violated by the Nacirema. Generation after generation of Nacirema have instilled these beliefs and customs. The children have an unquestioned trust in authorities where I believe we allow our children freedom of choice of how they practice their religion at some time in their life.
ReplyDeletei also agree with s.kammiol it was distrubing to them to this rituals to their body because its what they believe in but to them it was normal.
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