“The Body Rituals of the Nacirema” was a very interesting and deceptive read. Prior to reading this text, I failed to realize how strong of an impact cultural context has on how we view things. If taken out of context, the simplest, most “ordinary” things can seem..... odd and questionable. If an American reader did not pay attention to the subtle and disguised geographical clues, they would fail to realize that the text is about the “rituals” of American society. An example that shows how cultures can be misunderstood and represented is where Miner writes about our dental hygiene and how we take care of our teeth daily. “It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures. In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a year.” (Miner, 2) From an outsider's point, regular health provisions are seen as a magical ritual that requires sacred action. The dentist is seen as a “holy man” who helps with these “mouth rites” once a year. This is starting to make since because, to me, medicine men in other cultures used to seem weird to me. Once one can understand the circumstances surrounding action, the reasoning behind the action begins to make more and more sense. As the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski said, “Looking from far and above, from our high places of safety in the developed civilization, it is easy to see all the crudity and irrelevance of magic. But without its power and guidance early man could not have mastered his practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man have advanced to the higher stages of civilization”
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Race as a Social Construct
I don't really understand Cuvier's purpose for “toying” with her body and showing them off in museums. Unless there is information missing in the article, Cuvier made no scientific advancements of any sort in taking her body parts and displaying them to the public. If they're trying to attribute her large buttocks and bigger genitals to her race, Lopez's view on race completely defies this notion. He argues that scientific research has concluded that there is no biological basis for race. “Race must be viewed as a social construction. That is, human interaction rather than natural differentiation must be seen as the source and continued basis for racial categorization”
“The Body Rituals of the Nacirema” was a very interesting and deceptive read. Prior to reading this text, I failed to realize how strong of an impact cultural context has on how we view things. If taken out of context, the simplest, most “ordinary” things can seem..... odd and questionable. If an American reader did not pay attention to the subtle and disguised geographical clues, they would fail to realize that the text is about the “rituals” of American society. An example that shows how cultures can be misunderstood and represented is where Miner writes about our dental hygiene and how we take care of our teeth daily. “It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures. In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a year.” (Miner, 2) From an outsider's point, regular health provisions are seen as a magical ritual that requires sacred action. The dentist is seen as a “holy man” who helps with these “mouth rites” once a year. This is starting to make since because, to me, medicine men in other cultures used to seem weird to me. Once one can understand the circumstances surrounding action, the reasoning behind the action begins to make more and more sense. As the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski said, “Looking from far and above, from our high places of safety in the developed civilization, it is easy to see all the crudity and irrelevance of magic. But without its power and guidance early man could not have mastered his practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man have advanced to the higher stages of civilization”
“The Body Rituals of the Nacirema” was a very interesting and deceptive read. Prior to reading this text, I failed to realize how strong of an impact cultural context has on how we view things. If taken out of context, the simplest, most “ordinary” things can seem..... odd and questionable. If an American reader did not pay attention to the subtle and disguised geographical clues, they would fail to realize that the text is about the “rituals” of American society. An example that shows how cultures can be misunderstood and represented is where Miner writes about our dental hygiene and how we take care of our teeth daily. “It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures. In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a year.” (Miner, 2) From an outsider's point, regular health provisions are seen as a magical ritual that requires sacred action. The dentist is seen as a “holy man” who helps with these “mouth rites” once a year. This is starting to make since because, to me, medicine men in other cultures used to seem weird to me. Once one can understand the circumstances surrounding action, the reasoning behind the action begins to make more and more sense. As the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski said, “Looking from far and above, from our high places of safety in the developed civilization, it is easy to see all the crudity and irrelevance of magic. But without its power and guidance early man could not have mastered his practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man have advanced to the higher stages of civilization”
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I completely agree with you your remarks on Cuvier's “experiment” or display for that matter. Not only was it morally wrong to put a human beings remains on display as if it were a spectacle, you point out that Cuvier doesn't even have a good enough reason for doing so. I am interested to look up more information about her body, where it was stored/shown, and why it was kept a spectacle for such a long time (till the 1970s).
ReplyDeleteThe things you talked about in regard to the Nacirema article by Miner were almost exactly the same things that I talked about in my own blog post. I guess that shows us that Miners article had a clear and big message for those who have read it. I have read this article before this class, and its one of the few messages that I have taken away in regard to social studies. I don't think that while we were in class we emphasized how important it is to approach everything in a contextual manner, because it really has a huge effect on the lessons we take away from other cultures. I am glad that you as well used an outside source as support for this. The quote you used was dead on.
By the way, the video was pretty funny.