
Miner's “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” (1956) - plasticchris
https://msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html
======
codeulike
Reminds me of the trend a few years ago to describe American current events
using language and tropes normally reserved for coverage of foreign countries.
Here's an example from Slate, I seem to remember other sites doing it too.

[http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2013/09/30/potential_g...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2013/09/30/potential_government_shutdown_how_would_the_u_s_media_report_on_it_if_it.html)

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codeulike
_Incarcerated in such a body, man 's only hope is to avert these
characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony. Every household has
one or more shrines devoted to this purpose. The more powerful individuals in
the society have several shrines in their houses and, in fact, the opulence of
a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it
possesses. Most houses are of wattle and daub construction, but the shrine
rooms of the more wealthy are walled with stone. Poorer families imitate the
rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine walls._

This is fantastic stuff

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tomcam
A huge responsibility has weighed on me for 35 years because of this article.

I love playing with words and will requently reverse interesting ones in
conversation. It’s annoying, I know.

When we were in college my then-girlfriend was assigned this essay without
being told it was American backwards. She told me about it, but I didn’t see
it written. The word “Nassirema”, as I heard it, wasn’t interesting backwards
so I didn’t say anything.

She was given a test in a psyche course at UCI and she treated the essay as if
it were actual anthropological research. She had no reason to believe
otherwise. When she didn’t get the joke the professor downgraded her. She
asked why and the answer was, well, you’re just supposed to know this
osmotically. She successfully challenged the downgrade but complained to me
afterward that I never bothered to reverse it while we chatted.

I still feel like an idiot almost 4 decades later.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
> _She asked why and the answer was, well, you’re just supposed to know this
> osmotically._

Well. I think you're supposed to be sharp enough to figure it out on your own.
It's not exactly subtle.

~~~
Tomminn
I actually missed it till I read the comments section. I'm not sure it's as
obvious as you think. It's like the man-in-gorilla-suit-during-basketball
effect. If you're not looking for satire, you don't see it.

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DoreenMichele
Related:

[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/neely-steinberg/dating-
advice...](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/neely-steinberg/dating-
advice_b_2479820.html)

Edit: Also, if you think this whole thing is merely humor. It's not:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacirema](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacirema)

~~~
HarryHirsch
Let's just say that "dating" is a ritual practiced only by the Nacirema. Other
peoples go about the matter in entirely different ways. Here's an essay by the
irrepressible Dima Vorobiev on Quora about dating in Russia:
[https://www.quora.com/What-was-dating-like-in-the-Soviet-
Uni...](https://www.quora.com/What-was-dating-like-in-the-Soviet-Union)

"We didn’t even have a word for it."

~~~
crazynick4
This seems to be more about the 40s-50s. From what my dad/stepdad told me,
dating was extremely easy in USSR in late 70's and 80's, supposedly much more
so than in US today (I wasn't there so I only have their word to go on). The
'official' culture may have repressed the concept of sex but it didn't stop
most men from seeing several women at the same time.

Also, there wasn't a distinct word for dating, but there was a word for it,
the word is/was 'meeting'. It was just the context that defined the meaning.

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tarboreus
We were asked to read this once at the beginning of a class in graduate
school. One student got hot under the collar and said, "I know all about North
American peoples and there's no tribe like this in North America." I said that
there was...in fact, I was very familiar with it...

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wizzard
I had to read this in middle school (ages ago) and it has really stuck with
me. Whenever I read about some “strange” practice of another culture, I think
of this study and it quickly rearranges my perspective.

~~~
web007
I also experienced this in 6th grade social studies, and it stuck with me
beyond almost anything else. There are probably three things I can recall
directly from that class, and two are about the (first) Gulf War since it was
coincident.

This is pure Baader-Meinhof as well, since I was thinking about it on Friday
and trying to remember the details before looking it up. I got the medicine
cabinet and beauty ritual, but had forgotten the rest.

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twic
See also David Macaulay's 'Motel of the Mysteries:

[https://wearethemutants.com/2017/12/06/david-macauleys-
motel...](https://wearethemutants.com/2017/12/06/david-macauleys-motel-of-the-
mysteries-1979/)

An extract:

[http://sultanaeducation.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/06/Motel...](http://sultanaeducation.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/06/Motel-of-the-Mysteries-Macaulay.pdf)

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ggm
Placebo effect is real people. The Nacirema may be onto something.

~~~
theandrewbailey
I thought the placebo effect was just that: an effect. I didn't realize that
it manifested itself into flesh (real people).

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nyolfen
i think i read this for three different classes as an undergrad

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cafard
Golly, I haven't heard this one since junior high history class, in 1967.

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alexissantos
An anthropology classic!

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natmaka
235 years after the Persian Letters!

