Viewing Other
Cultures, Viewing
Ourselves
Reading Culture
Read “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”
•
Horace Miner, 1956
•
CA text, pp. 4-6
What is your first reaction to the Nacirema?
Do you like them? Why or why not?
Do the Nacirema seem more similar to or
different from your own?
How? Why?
Reading Culture
Nacirema is American spelled backward!
•
Review the article again and consider what
you now see differently.
Lessons from the Nacirema
•
Why do you think the author wrote the
article in this way?
•
What do you think of the quote at the end?
Lessons from the Nacirema
Be careful about how we view others
•
Be careful about exoticizing, mystifying, or
making people seem alien.
•
Be cautious about being an outsider viewing
others, and about how you represent them.
Be careful about how we view ourselves
•
Do not assume that everything we do is
normal, rational, “civilized,” or makes sense.
Lessons from the Nacirema
