Sociology and Anthropology Through the Lens of the Nacirema, Essay Example

In the June 1956 edition of American Anthropologist, Horace Miner presented an article that ostensibly focused the Nacirema, a tribe inhabiting central North America. Using the terminology and the conceptual and theoretical frameworks of his time, Miner explored what he saw as the important social and cultural and behaviors of the Nacirema, contextualizing them in the larger milieu of anthropological study and discourse. Miner also cited the works of several prominent anthropologists of his time, including Ralph Linton, who Miner notes “first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists twenty years ago” (p. 503). Miner’s piece is, of course, a work of satire; “Nacirema” is “America” spelled backwards, and the mention of Linton is a sly allusion to his 1936 book “The Study of Man.” By viewing the “Nacirema” through the lens of anthropology, Miner satirizes both the “rituals” of the average American and the entire field of anthropology.

Because Miner never acknowledges the central conceit of his article on the Nacirema, it is easy to start reading it, or possibly even skim all the way through it, without immediately realizing that it is a work of satire. This committement by Miner to exploring the “body rituals” of the Nacirema with such a consistent tone is largely what makes it such an enjoyable read; once the realization hits that Miner is actually satirizing American culture and his own field of inquiry, reading the remainder of the essay becomes an exercise in identifying the “rituals” the describes relative to their real-life counterparts. Miner focuses in on some of the primary daily activities of average Americans related to bodily functions and health, from using the toilet to personal hygiene and oral care, and discusses them with the seemingly-objective tone of the anthropologist. In the course of this discussion, Miner presumes to understand and explain the larger social and cultural implications and contexts in which these “body rituals” are conducted; this effort actually reveals, to a significant degree, the potential limitations of anthropological study.

In his book The Study of Man, Ralph Linton looks for the larger anthropological and cultural meanings of objects, behaviors, and patterns, and “make(s) distinctions between form, meaning, use, and function” (Bennett, 169). In his analysis, Linton is attempting to provide a framework for understanding what people within a particular cultural group do, why they do it, what it means to them, and so on.  By bringing up Linton at the beginning of his essay, Miner signals that he will be taking a similar approach to his study of the Nacirema; the “body rituals” they perform have their forms and uses and functions, and according to Miner they also have their deeper meaning. For the most part, Miner determines that this deeper meaning is related to the Nacirema’s superstitions and belief in magic, a point of view that allows some daily rituals we take for granted be seen in a new and humorous light.

Miner begins his discussion of the Nacirema by discussing their traditions, such as the legend of Notgnihsaw–“Washington” spelled backwards- who is the “culture hero” (p. 503) who is believed to have established the Nacirema culture. This Notgnihsaw is known for “two great feats of strength” (p. 503), a reference to the legends Americans are taught as children about Washington chopping down a cherry tree and throwing a silver dollar all the way across the Potomac River. Neither of these stories about the life of Washington are taken very seriously; they are stories told to children establish and reinforce the idea that Washington was a great man, worthy of the respect and reverence in which he is held. As students in America grow older, they are taught more specific (and, presumably, more accurate) stories about Washington’s involvement in the Revolutionary War, his role as the first President of the United States, and other facts about his life.

By ignoring those stories, and identifying Washington solely by the legends associated with his childhood, Miner exposes one of the potential pitfalls of anthropology. Virtually every American child of Miner’s era –the mid-20^th century- would have grown up hearing the stories about Washington’s childhood. The legend of the cherry tree, for example, was not about young Washington’s ability to chop down a tree, but instead was about his inability to lie about having done so; this story was used to impart to children the importance and value of honesty. Even children who ended up dropping out of school and learning very little of Washington’s factual biography would still be familiar with the stories of his youth. Yet Washington’s real significance and relevance to American culture and society has to do with his later exploits as leader of the American Revolution and later, the United States. Yet in Miner’s “anthropological study” of the Nacirema, the legends of Washington’s (or, rather, Notgnihsaw’s) early years are the only “facts” presented about him. In this manner, Miner demonstrates how the biases and skewed perspectives of anthropologists can influence how they see, and record, what they learn about the cultures they study.

The central discussion in Miner’s analysis of the Nacirema’s “body rituals” is both humorous and thought-provoking. For many people, the bathroom may seem like the least important room in the house; we perform our daily rituals of bathing, brushing our teeth, and relieving our bowels and bladders, but the rest of the time we spend in our homes is spent in bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, and so on. Miner, writing from the presumptively-objective (but, in reality, quite subjective) tone of the anthropologist, notes that the room in which we perform these daily rituals is usually  located somewhere in the center of the home, and is decorated in tile and other details that differ it from the rest of the house. The privacy and unique placement of the bathroom leads Miner to conclude that it is, in fact, a quasi-religious “shrine” in which people store their magic potions and perform their mysterious and private rituals.

Miner examines other details of Nacirema daily life, pointing out how mysterious and confusing they seem to be. For example, the potions (i.e.- prescription medicines) that are described by one set of “medicine men” (i.e.- physicians) are actually dispensed in “magical packets”  by a different set of medicine men (i.e.- pharmacists). For most of us, there is nothing confusing or even notable about this; to the outside observer, however, these practices seem odd and even inexplicable. Miner goes on to describe several other practices and behaviors related to health care, such as the function of the temples (i.e.- hospitals) in which mysterious magic practitioners perform mysterious rituals to ward off illness. The humor in many of these descriptions is sharp, though some of Miner’s descriptions fall flat. The line about how the Nacirema believing that their “mouth rituals” keep their teeth from falling out seems out of place; any sufficiently-advanced anthropologist would presumably understand the necessity of good oral hygiene practices. These minor complaints aside, however, Miner’s article serves as a funny but accurate reminder to his fellow anthropologists about the dangers of bias and subjectivity when studying other cultures.

Works Cited

Linton, Ralph. The Study Of Man. 1st ed. New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1936. Print.

Miner, Horace. ‘Body Ritual Among The Nacirema’. American anthropologist 58.3 (1956): 503–507. Print.