Exploring the Shocking Rituals of the Nacirema Community - Essay Sample

Introduction

As much as I tried viewing the Nacirema Community from a cultural relativism lense, the rituals performed continued to be more shocking and irritating to the point that I ended up seeing them from an ethnocentrism lens. Ethnocentrism refers to the practice of looking at other people's culture according to the standards of the viewer's perception. Firstly, I wondered how people in a developed country like America would be practicing such things amidst modern development in America. The 'holy-mouth-men" left me shocked as I almost assumed that everyone knows that the right way to keep the mouth from decay and clean was through brushing.

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The weirdest thing I found is that the Nacirema people believe that if the rituals are not performed on their mouth, their gums will bleed, their teeth fall out, their jaws shrink, leading to rejection from their lovers and desertion from friends. It was even more astonishing to hear anyone relate morality with oral hygiene; as much as I tried to connect the two, I could not get their intersection point. The paraphernalia of the "holy-mouth-man" who attended every native at least once or twice annually is scaring. The ritual procedure is so torturous as it involved the enlargement of holes created by decay using these objects. The pain involved is unimaginable, and it is even not rational for anyone without any teeth problems or decay to sit down and allow large sections of higher healthy teeth to be gouged out for mouth treatment purposes (American Anthropological Association, 1956). The teeth continue to decay, but the Nacirema people continually suffer the self-inflicted pain from the holy-mouth-man one year after another.

Another thing that hindered me from looking at the Nacirema People from a relative cultural point of view was the laptiso ceremonies. The sickly natives who got into the temple rarely recovered; this left me questioning the sanity of the entire community. Why would anyone take their ailing relatives or friends into the temple when those who went there previously never recovered? The adults are, however, very eager and willing to undergo the rituals that young children resist. As I read the article, I also thought that the custodians exploit these people because regardless of the emergency of the situation, if there is no costly gift, the sick cannot be admitted. The act of first being stripped and maidens were performing to men the acts that even their wives have never been shocking (American Anthropological Association, 1956). Lastly, the subjection of naked female bodies to manipulation, scrutiny, and prodding of the medicine men is something I never thought existed among people.

The Nacirema people were, however, likely to influenced by various agents of socialization. I ideology is one of the agents of socialization affecting Nacirema people as they have a coherent ideological system that consists of their expectations, actions, and goals. Thinking has contributed significantly to encouraging continued devotion to the practices due to the existence of conformity among the people. Religion is also another socialization agent as

the Nacirema highly belief in rituals such as visiting the home shrine daily to connect to the spiritual world. In this community, religion appears as an ethnic entity; hence it is difficult for an individual to be more socialized by breaking from religious affiliations. Lastly, agents of socialization in the family, which produces the society biologically and socially via procreation and socialization, respectively. By being a part of the Nacirem families, a child grows up socialized in the ways of the community which they learn and pass the mantle to their children (Yamane, 2016). That has contributed to the existence of their practices.

Dramaturgy refers to a sociological concept where the metaphor of theatre is used in explaining human behavior (Young & Massey, 1978). The dramaturgical model can be used in describing the Nacirema people in various rituals. For instance, all the actions were dependent on the audience to whom they were portrayed. For example, during the laptiso ceremonies, the maidens collected the excretes from men who would otherwise not be allowed. The excretory act was done in high secrecy such that even the wives have never seen their husbands do it, but the maidens in the temple would collect it in sacred bowls without being questioned.

Impression management is also another aspect of the dramaturgical model that can be useful in interpreting the Nacirema's lifestyle. Impression management is a situation where one seeks to control the impression of other people about oneself. The holy mouth practice, for instance, however, painful it was was practiced as a way of impressing other people. Failure to exercise the rituals meant rejection and isolation from overs relatives. Oral practices are also connected to morality, making the workouts more of a necessity. For anyone who wanted to be viewed from an upright moral perspective, they must then have good oral practices. The natives have to do it to control other's impressions of them and avoid isolation and agony that comes with failure to do it (American Anthropological Association, 1956). The performer of the rituals had to do it as expected to appear professional. For instance, the holy mouth man had to gouge the teeth of the natives if they lacked naturally decaying holes. He would then fill in the gap with the "treatment" materials. If the people did not have that expectation, maybe such incidences would not have occurred.

References

American Anthropological Association. (1956). Miner's "Body Ritual among the Nacirema". Michigan State University. Retrieved March 27, 2020, from https://www.msu.edu/user/jdowell/miner.html

Yamane, D. (2016). Handbook of Religion and Society. Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-31395-5

Young, T. R., & Massey, G. (1978). The dramaturgical society: A macro-analytic approach to dramaturgical analysis. Qualitative Sociology, 1(2), 78-98. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02390165