Question

12) From the article, Body Ritual among the Nacirema, briefly describe the culture as referred to within the article? Who are they? What makes them unique when compared to other cultures?

Answer 1

The Nacirema people are a group of people who live in the territory north of the Tarahuamare people of Mexico and are native Americans. Nacirema is America spelt backwards. From the article,  we are made to know that the nacirema people relish their bodies as they consider it a weak vessel that needs to be taken care of frequently through their body rituals. Every nacireman owns a shrine and there he does his magical body rituals. The nacirema are quite different in their cultural practice and magical beliefs such as the body ritual and hence considered quite unusual.  We are reminded however of  the danger of interpreting a culture based on first impressions of practices which seem unfamiliar to the observer. Invariably concluding that we should never make conclude that a people are quite different from us as they're in fact not.