Body Rituals Among The Nacirema - Horace Miner

"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 Antille"

- highly developed market economy - "much of the ppl's time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of the fruits of these labors... 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"

- "the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease" > "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 inds in society have several shrines in their houses... the opulence [wealth] of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses"

"the rituals associated w it are not family ceremonies, but are private and secret..." - "normally only discussed w children, and then only during the period when they are being initiated..." > or when they are being taught how to use the toilet

- "the focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall...are kept the many charms and magical potions" - "the charm is not dispose of after it has serves its purpose... its usually full to overflowing... so numerous that ppl forget what their purposes were and fear to use them again"

"These preparations are secured from a variety of specialized practitioners... medicine men...they decide what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language..." // doctors and their prescription w handwriting so bad no one can read it - it's almost like a whole new language

"Beneath the charm- box is a small font. Each day, every member of the family, in succession, enters... bows his head before the charm box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font....

" ...below the medicine men...are specialists... holy-mouth men"

"...involves scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a shard instrument..."

"...performed only four times during each lunar month... as part of this ceremony, women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour..."

"...listener...this witchdoctor has the power to exorcise the devils that loge in the heads of people who have been bewitched...the patient simply tells the "listener" all his troubles and fears, beginning with the earliest difficulties he can remember.

American backwards. - Showing American practices from an etic, outsiders perspective. > to examine aspects of the behavior and society of American people

- he used new vocab to confuse you so you wouldn't guess who the Nacirema really are - make common American behaviors and beliefs seem magical and silly by describing them as if they were tribal bheaviors - to teach Americans not to look at other cultures as if they are strange and exotic bc ppl can look at our culture (like he did) and think we're weird - this article is an illustration of "sociological imagination"