Reading Response 1 Body rituals among the Nacirema Anthropology 104 Name Danze Chen TA Name Discussion Section Number 318 Semester and Year Fall 2021 Getting Started Welcome to your first writing assignment for Anthropology 104 Please add your information to this template above rename and save it in Microsoft Word docx or doc format Make sure the filename includes your name and the name of the assignment RR1 Example RR1 Wendy Liu docx Submission This assignment template contains all the instructions and questions you need for this assignment The reading itself Body rituals among the Nacirema by Horace Miner is available on Canvas Background Anthropologists conduct research through ethnographic fieldwork This involves living and interacting with a community over an extended period of time in order to better understand the systems of power and meaning that shape people s lives One of the outcomes of ethnographic fieldwork is that by becoming involved in other people s daily activities and learning about their distinct experiences cultural practices that may have seemed strange to the anthropologist when they first started their fieldwork can soon feel familiar At the same time the experience of fieldwork often leads anthropologists to see their own lives and cultural practices from a new perspective In other words what was originally familiar to the anthropologist can come to appear strange The same can be true when we read the work of anthropologists Their research can help us avoid ethnocentrism in which we view our own cultural practices as natural or right It can unlock our ability to analyze and appreciate the diversity of human cultures none of which is more normal than another In 1956 the anthropologist Horace Miner wrote an article called Body Ritual Among the Nacirema In it he examines the seemingly strange cultural beliefs and practices of a group of people that have developed elaborate rituals focusing on the care of the human body Reading Response 1 Horace Miner s Body rituals among the Nacirema Instructions Expectations Before you begin this writing assignment read Body rituals among the Nacirema available as a PDF on Canvas Read the article and reflect on it by answering the questions below Each answer should be written using full sentences and should be 100 200 words DUE DATE This assignment needs to be completed by 11 59pm the day BEFORE your Discussion Section in Week 2 1 Anthropology 104 Reading Response 1 1 Do any of the Nacirema s rituals seem strange to you Do any seem familiar Why Explain your answers Every Nacirema s rituals seem strange to me at first glance but everything starts making sense once I view their culture in a more objective perspective All of these rituals are just like things people around the world would do For example while people in Nacirema consider shrines as the represent of power people in the modern society also believe that estate is the sign of social class and wealth What s more when holy mouth men are treating local s oral problem though in a horrible way it is not difficult to imagine the pain of patients visiting dentist And inserting hog hair into mouth with magical powders is almost identical to brushing one s teeth with toothpaste All of these rituals though described in a terrible way are pretty similar to some extent to people s daily routine in modern society 2 What did you find most interesting important and or confusing about this article I think this article is interesting important and confusing Starts from confusing This article describes the culture rituals beliefs of a group of people thoroughly with details It is hard to tell the purpose of this article because I was totally astonished with the content of this article I would believe there is a place where it is called Nacirema if I did not think more carefully The reason why I think this article is interesting is that the author uses a very creative way to satirize the methodology of anthropology observe and describe in the view of an outsider which making normal culture absurd and even horrible This article is important because it gives anthropologists a chance to reconsider the way they do their field work What they should do is to actually engage and being a part of the community not using their own prejudice to just observe 3 Why do you think Miner wrote this article What might he have been trying to get readers to think or feel I think Miner wrote this article to remind anthropologists that the way they study different culture the way they do their field study is not comprehensive What they should do is to actually engage and being a part of the community not using their own prejudice to just observe What he have been trying to get readers to think or feel is from my perspective that even the most uncommon things we do in the modern society can be seen as inhuman with a biased view Also Miner reminds us that whenever we get in touch with some new culture we need to view it as an insider before we make our judgments Or it will be a humiliation to other culture which is not the intention of anthropology 4 Miner wrote this article in 1956 If an anthropologist wrote an article like this today how might it be different There will be quotes from the interview of the locals telling their own story including but not limited to the ideas of how they understand their culture and whether they like it or not And they will also invite key informant to participate in the study in anonymous What s more author will indicate that they are credentialed to describe the culture that they study Also there will be anthropologist s own feeling whether physical or mental and observation described in a realistic manner Last but not the least anthropologists will compare the culture that they study with the culture we know to make readers have a better understanding of local situation and the reason why they are doing things differently 5 How does this article connect to concepts discussed in class i e in the lectures discussion section or The first concept that comes to my mind is the ethnocentrism Miner was using words and tongues of textbook 2 Anthropology 104 Reading Response 1 anthropologists who are loyal to ethnocentrism to present this incredible article Though he did not mention a word that he was despite the fact that he was intentional writing in a biased and undeveloped way describing culture that is out of western culture s value readers can tell there is a significant