Question

how does "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" help yu understand historical context? What have learned from reading it?

Answer 1

It helps you understand how culture is a relative thing and the historical context is important in evaluating both our and other people's cultures. The paper itself wanted to present the behavior of Americans in a similar way that Americans presented other cultures such as those of Africans or Southern Americans or similar and the paper shows that the there is in fact no culture that is too weird or normal on its own, it depends on the historical context in which we observe the culture.

From the paper you can learn to not judge other people's cultures based on your own culture. The body rituals described sound like something done in a tribe in Africa, while in reality it is about the everyday life of American citizens who live in developed areas. This shows that in the same way that Americans observe African tribes as odd, they too can be observed as odd due to their behavior.