Sep 27 2007
Nacirema (Pic of the Week)
An example of modern humans studying a native.
(click to make his teeth bigger and sharper)
I read about a people called Nacirema in one of my sociology courses. Yes, I had more than one. What can I say? I was an English major and a sociology minor, and anthropology in particular fascinated me. Wow, can I ever think now of a hundred other courses that would have been more practical for the real world. Nah, I was having too much fun learning about differences in ear wax between races. Sheesh.
But back to the topic. The Nacirema. I thought of the study of indigenous peoples while devouring the first 65 pages of a wonderful book I’m reading. This particular group relies on potions and witch doctors, holy-mouth-men and listeners. They really are fascinating when seen through the eyes of a scientific observer. This article, first published in 1956 in American Anthropologist, is in the public domain, so I’m “reprinting” an excerpt of it here.
Remember, I did not write the following piece. My parents were teenagers in 1956, so I wasn’t around yet, much less old enough to submit a paper to a scholarly journal (gosh, if my folks had met in high school and Dad had knocked up Mom, I could have been born in the 50’s instead of 1970. That’s weird.)
OK, really this time, on to one of my favorite passages about these unusual people.
“While each family has at least one such shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are private and secret. The rites are normally only discussed with children, and then only during the period when they are being initiated into these mysteries. I was able, however, to establish sufficient rapport with the natives to examine these shrines and to have the rituals described to me.
The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall. In this chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live. These preparations are secured from a variety of specialized practitioners. The most powerful of these are the medicine men, whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts. However, the medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their clients, but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language. This writing is understood only by the medicine men and by the herbalists who, for another gift, provide the required charm.
The charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose, but is placed in the charmbox of the household shrine. As these magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or imagined maladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to overflowing. The magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use them again. While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box, before which the body rituals are conducted, will in some way protect the worshiper.”
To start at the beginning and read it all (only about 2500 words), go here:
Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
Or download it in PDF format (scanned from the magazine).
I’m confident that when I return to my childhood home on our next trip, I will find that bottle of calamine lotion that has been there at least 30 years.
*chuckling* the things you post here Mark….
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Good thing we’ve progresed past the point of such barbarism, eh?
Truly eerie. Do you think this was the author’s intent? Did that accurately discribe American culture’s love affair with our medicine cabinets in the 1950’s? I would have thought that came later.
Sort of off topic, but still sociologically speaking, that bit about you possibly being born in the 50s is kinda trippy. I mean, it wouldn’t have been “you” you, but another version of what could have been you, back then. You savvy? Made me think that my folks were wee at that same time. Dad and Mom were born in ‘50 and ‘51 respectively. So they were only 24 and 23 when I came along. Personally, I can’t really conceive of being a parent that young. I was still getting used to the concept of *having* sex, let alone making something permanent with it!
PS — did you take away the formatting buttons above the comments box, or is it just ’cause I have to use Internet Exploder at work and it mucks things up?
Dave - OK, Mr. Muscle Car man. I’ll remember that when I’m doling out the millions I make off this site.
What, you all haven’t heard of the “make money by writing about whatever pops into your head” plan? Get with the program.
Moksha-na-na - I wondered the same thing about the 1950’s. If only that guy knew the number and power of the drugs in the average medicine cabinet these days. He’d probably faint.
Simon - I was trippin’ on that, too. Of course, my folks didn’t meet until they both were adults well on their way to being completely on their own, but it’s strange to think how different life would have been. I would have watched the television become popular, seen the first moon walk live (not Michael Jackson’s — I saw that one), sat shocked hearing of JFK’s assassination, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s, the Vietnam War. Not to mention innumerable other momentous occasions I would have seen with more experienced eyes.
LOL at “Internet Exploder.” That one never gets old.
I got the Quicktags back out here, too. I upgraded WordPress on Wednesday night, and that particular plugin requires inserting code manually.
Yea!!! The big box is back!
I was just gonna say that I’ve seen that guy in the picture. He does renn fairs and such, right?
Moksha - I managed to fix what was broken.
Good call on this guy. I took the picture while at the Renaissance Fair in Kansas City about 14 or 15 years ago. The people watching would hand him things and he would examine them as if he were from another time. It was neat to watch for a few minutes.
Ah, I figured he made the the Ren Fair circuit..but I also know him from the one in KC. I used to go to that every year.
Hi Its that I’m not a kid anymore ( i looked at the photo only) this photo would scare the hell out of me, I woud not even go to the loo (too scared) neither go to bed anymore rrrggghhhh! Scary but great shot……
Now I wanna know: “The Nacirema’s” are that a kind of indians?
Have a good weekend!:)
JoAnn From Holland
Written and posted by a descendant of a holy-mouth-man! It makes one wonder if there is something vaguely subversive going on here (or was going on there)!
The paper, although much more obviously a spoof, reminded me of the 1996 paper by Alan Sokal, “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity,” which was revealed as a spoof by its author after its having been accepted for publication in a “serious” jounal. Here’s a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_Affair
nice pic. i looks like taken out of lord of the rings