Cultural Descriptions
-Side A-
-Opulent-
The great devotion of the Nacirema culture can first be spotted in their lavish treatment towards their rituals. As mentioned in the article, the households of the Nacirema contain at least one shrine devoted to rituals and ceremony. House owners pay great consideration into the structure of their shrines, with wealthier members of the tribe basing the walls of their shrines with stone and even the poorer demographic making-do with pottery. Such efforts give each shrine an appearance of abundance.
-Esoteric-
Though it is rather easy to decipher that the Nacirema people devote themselves to ritual and ceremony, the actual aspect of these is highly secretive and only understood within those who are part of the tribe. Miner explains in the article that these practices are commonly only discussed either with children or as these are about to commence.
-Staunch-
It is an obvious statement that the Nacirema are extremely devoted people. When it comes to their latipso ceremonies, one can come to see how much they subject their own bodies to such extreme pain out of commitment to the idea that these will provide some sort of cure to their own bewitchment. A large example provided to us by Miner is the rite of the holy-mouth-man, in which people with seemingly decaying teeth are mutilated in the form of enlarging existing dental cavities, and stuffing them with magical materials. This procedure is performed willingly by both the holy-mouth-man and the patient, with the belief that the patient will halt their tooth decay as well as attract friendships. This practice is one of many within the latipso, and it gives us an idea to the loyalty that members of the Nacirema to their own belief.
-Consistent-
Adding on to the topic of mouths, the Nacirema hold a consistent pattern when it comes to the significance of the mouth. Aside from the extreme mouth rituals Miner describes, he also gives us a bit of background regarding the mouth's ideological association with social life and over all health. The mouth, as explained in the article, can be traced as the cause for people's teeth falling out, their gums bleeding, jaws shrinking and even social isolation.
-Intricate-
Aside from the shocking nature of the Nacirema custom, there are certain details that can be admired, including the elaborate nature of their potions, or the structure of the people's titles and occupations. Early into the article, Miner introduces us to the chest or box that the Nacirema shrines revolve around. These including copious charms and potions which he describes as something no native man believes he could live without. These charms and potions are said to be magically saturated to aid natives with various illnesses and afflictions and are curated by many practitioners. Miner describes their most powerful practitioners, medicine men, as being the deciding factors of the materials which these potions will consist of. Those with the title of medicine man along with the culture's herbalists also possess knowledge of ancient language which they use to write down the materials needed for charms and potions. Medicine men are one of many titles in the Nacirema community, and the charm boxes barely scratch the surface of the convoluted symbols and meanings behind many aspects of the Nacirema practices.
-Side B-
1. As I brainstormed adequate descriptive words, I attempted to look for ones that were more informative in nature as opposed to emotionally based , brutal or scary, for example. I felt it more effective to find words that would expand on the complexity of a behavior without automatically providing it with a label on how it should be perceived. For example, I could have chosen to say that the mentioned "Nacirema" people were "obsessive" over their ideology, therefore labeling them to the negative connotation that usually comes with the word in American society. However, I used "staunch" as it was a more neutral word that describes commitment and devotion without implementing any negative judgements. Of course this was only an attempt, and I'm sure there are other words less broad than the ones I used.
2. While I did try to avoid bias when choosing words to describe the Nacirema, I do believe that my choice of the word "intricate" is based on my personal perspective of the people's medicinal structure. As I read the process in which these charms and potions were curated by certified medicine men and herbalists, the first thought I had was that it was very complicated. To me, this might seem like a cumbersome process, but to the "Nacirema" medicine men, this could have just been second nature. Another word that I find to exhibit ethnocentrism is "opulent" I chose that word in regards to the explained decoration of the "shrines" within the Nacirema households. Perhaps the way in which Miner described the different economic classes' shrines, as well as how the poorer families tried to "imitate" the rich, caused me to subconsciously assume that these families were specifically striving to appear abundant. Aside from that, I would like to think the rest of my words are unbiased. As previously stated, "staunch" was used to describe the Nacirema's loyalty to their systems without making them sound like they had an obsessive problem. The word "esoteric" was used to elaborate on the Nacirema's private rituals and ceremonies, and it does so without bringing the same type of negative connotation a word like cryptic could have if discussed between other Americans. Describing the Nacirema as "consistent" more effectively recognizes a mentioned pattern in the significance of the mouth instead of just labeling the Nacirema as hyper-fixated.
3. A less biased alternative for the word "intricate" could be something a bit more broad, such as "detailed." It still recognized that there are multiple aspects to the Nacirema's medicinal system without making it seem like its raveling or confusing. However, since the word "opulent" was used to describe the Nacirema shrines as lavish, I don't know that there is a word that could do the same and still be considered unbiased. Any other words synonymous to opulent would essentially be labeling the Nacirema as "fancy."
4. An interesting aspect I found after learning that the Nacirema were actually Americans was how the language used by Miner allowed us to look at our own culture as foreign. From the moment I started reading the article, I had separated myself from the Nacirema, and assumed that their customs and beliefs would be different from mine. Because of this, it was difficult for me to spot that the latipso ceremonies were actually just hospital procedures, or that the holy-mouth-man was equivalent to a dentist. This was further influenced by the way Miner described the rites and ceremonies as absolutely painful cycles that the Nacirema would willingly subject themselves to in a masochistic manner. Miner's language was heavily saturated with ethnocentrism and painted this picture of the Nacirema that I found shocking and I judged it based on my own morals despite it being my own practices, therefore making all of my thoughts on it ethnocentric. This also brings to attention how easy it is to fall into cultural bias, putting in question wether or not it can be avoided completely. Cultural Anthropologists center their focus on understanding a culture, though they may never comprehend it completely. This allows them to provide others with an explanation of the culture's customs, along with their meanings and the influence on their social functions, but they are not at the position of providing a definitive description of such culture. At the end of the day, anthropologists as individuals can only define their own morals.
Part A Review:
ReplyDeleteI am only scoring this part of the assignment for completion. I will post another comment on Friday after you submit Part B with feedback.
Five descriptive words recorded. (20/20)
Part B Review:
ReplyDeleteVery thoughtful first paragraph. I agree that the words you chose were clearly NOT negative. Some were indeed more neutral and some were clearly positive. But does that mean they weren't biased?
You can be biased in a positive way, not just negative. :-) The question here is whether the words described the culture in question *accurately*. Biased descriptions will not be accurate. But can we do describe a culture accurately as an outsider? How do we know if the words are accurate or not without understanding the culture?
I generally agree with your discussion for the second prompt with the following qualifications: First, remember that you can have a "positive" bias, not just a negative one. Are our dentist offices, our hospitals and our home health processes really "opulent"? And esoteric caught me as well, since the behaviors described are practiced broadly across the culture, not limited to a few. But remember that you chose these words based upon MInor's intentionally biased and rather judgmental article about the "Nacerima". If your choice is based upon biased information, should we be surprised that our descriptions are also biased?
It is difficult to choose unbiased words, isn't it? :-) Once you become aware of your bias, you become aware of the specific meaning of the words you choose and it encourages you to choose words or phrases that mean exactly what you say so it can't be misinterpreted.
Excellent final discussion for the fourth prompt. That is precisely the point of this assignment, to give you an outsiders few of practices from culture familiar to you (without you knowing it). You are an "insider" but are tricked into seeing it as an outsider, the goal being to allow you to see how easy bias can be communicated and adopted. It is impossible to completely avoid bias. We are human, after all, but it is harder to avoid it if you are unaware of it. When you are aware of this tendency, you can work to prevent it.
I appreciate the way you described the Nacerima culture. I feel like your observation was interesting and your point of view was very positive.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure that I entirely agree with your word choice- Can opulent be applied to our culture when it does not span across all members of the society? Horace Miner describes that the opulence of the household can be measured by the number of shrines in said household, and each household has at least one shrine. Consideration and devotion to the shrine do not equate to opulence. After all, if something seeks to imitate opulence but falls short, is that legitimate opulence?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good question, and I believe it further brings attention to individual perspective influencing the way we articulate statements, and describe other cultures. The word choice really depends on how you define opulence, that is, "what is the source of this definition?" The definition of opulence used in my review roots back to ballroom culture in the 1980's in which many marginalized groups would gather up and make competitions, based on how close they could reach the image of the American dream. This concept was, of course one that was stripped away from them but they would attempt to appear as if they were a part of it. The word opulence, in that context, was not abundance itself, but the aesthetic of it. In Miner's article, he describes the poorer families "imitating the rich" by using pottery plates to decorate their shrines. Though they weren't abundant, they attempted to appear so. Your definition of the word opulence, on the other hand, might refer to literal wealth and affluence. Therefore the word would not be applicable in your perspective.
DeleteGood observation, Joseph. But we didn't know (at first) that this applied to *our* culture. We could only go by Miner's telling of the culture.
DeleteBut recognize that this will be true for ALL cultures. There will always be variation in practices and material goods, though in cultures that are more egalitarian you will see less of this variation. An anthropologist can speak of the general "norm", understanding that existing variation. It is a good point to check the assumption that this description applies to all.