Body Ritual among the Nacirema (Research Paper Sample)

Body Ritual among the Nacirema
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Institution
The Nacirema is a tribe found in the Northern part of America. Thus,” Body ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner (1956) describes an ethnicity culture that focuses on the health of the human body and its appearance. According to Miner, the Nacirema believes that the human body is ugly and for that reason is despicable to diseases. Therefore, the cultural ritual revolves around the human body.
The houses of the Nacirema community have shrines. According to Miner, the shrines are designed to depict certain features of status symbols. The shrines contain “Charm-boxes” at the point of their crucial points. According to Miner, the boxes have magical materials which are useful to medicine men. Even though the people lack a clear cut explanation of the magic materials, they still trust in them for protection.
Miner also describes the temples known as "Latipso” belonging to medicine men. "Latipso” is where sick people are obligated to attend and give a reward gift to the custodian. While in the temples, the severe sick people of the Nacirema remain trusting in the poor treatment they are subjected to by their medical healers. Also, according to Miner, this is the only place where the people can be naked in the presence of others, something that cannot happen elsewhere.
The Nacirema also has a unity of people ranked below the medicine men in the social class known as the “holy-mouth-men.” These are in charge of taking care of the mouth. The mouth among the community is believed to sabotage the social relationships. According to Miner, the presence of “holy-mouth-men” explai