In Horace Miner’s essay on the folk of Nacirema. it takes small attempt to find that Nacirema is a word picture of a typical American’s wellness wonts. This essay is of import for two grounds: It teaches rules about our ain civilization and it makes us measure the value/downfall of looking at other civilizations with an etic attack. Without a uncertainty. this essay personalizes the survey of civilizations and its several peoples.
Sing the position of North American people. Miner clearly thinks we live with a degree of amour propre. We view the “human organic structure [ as ] ugly” and we use “ritual and ceremony” to debar the unattractive features. It takes excess focal point to understand Miner’s nomenclature. But it becomes clear that he is pontificated on the usage of the medical system. including tooth doctors. psychiatrics. and infirmaries. As a ritual. we spend extended clip and money on the idealistic impression of being disease-free. It is interesting that from our position. we view these attempts as bettering the quality of our life. He. as a individual looking in on our society. positions these attempts as of full opportunism. It is about as if he respects more of a communal civilization. instead than one of more uniqueness with some elements of communality. But it decidedly makes me believe about who is the corrupted 1. In the terminal. he seems impressed by how advanced this peculiar civilisation has become. Without being inside the civilization. he appears to hold missed how much we rely on each other. and how our cultural teamwork has created the auto industry and computing machine empire—to name merely a few.
As hinted in the paragraph above. what this essay demonstrated was the singularity of looking at a civilization from the exterior. Inherently. the scientific attack is taken with topmost regard. It is seen as a position without prejudice. In bench work. this attack is critical. But when analyzing societies. excessively many variables can obfuscate the full reading. Minor sees our rites as specifying our sense of truth. To that. he has a great point. We merely have to looking introspectively to see how much work we exert toward the valueless—cars. houses. playthings. etc. We sometimes do non set adequate clip in those of more value—family. friends. spiritually. That is exactly why Minor is so critical. But what Minor girls by non being “in” our society is that he is inherently “blinded. ” He can non subtract the nuances of the society. For illustration. those with objectionable behaviours of greed ( e. g. . Donald Trump ) are frequently shunned. In the terminal. it takes balance between the emic and etic positions to do more accurate judgement of how “tribes” work.
This essay surely forced me to reflect on my personal rites. It made me measure how much attempt I make toward personal beauty. But it besides made me believe that we do these rites for a purpose—to be healthy and to progenate. Thus. I accept these rites. But now I do them with the full cognition that they are cultural norms and my pick of making them seems much less voluntary.
