Describing Nacerima Society

PART A

1. Rich

    As stated in the text, the Nacerima have "a highly developed market economy which has evolved in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people's time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of the fruits of these labors and a considerable portion of the day are spent in ritual activity." (Paragraph 3)  So it is apparent that the Nacerima are at least well off enough that they can spend time focusing on activities not directly related to survival.  The information from the article that particularly highlights the wealth of the Nacerima revolves around the charm-box.  Miner finds that "every household has one or more shrines" and that these shrines house various charms and potions (Paragraph 4).  Everyone from the poor to the rich has these shrines.  It is later shown that the acquisition of these objects  is very expensive, requiring the provision of gifts to medicine men and herbalists.  The implication is then that even the poor of Nacerima society are somehow able to afford these charms and potions.  When even the poor can afford to maintain such costly rituals it really puts the prosperity of the entire society into perspective.

2. Ritualistic

    As previously quoted, the Nacerima spend a large portion of their day doing rituals.  Due to the characteristics of the human body in their culture, Nacerima people "avert these characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony" (Paragraph 4).  All of the Nacerima rituals described in Miner's article revolve around attempting to remedy various issues the Nacerima have with their bodies.  From the visiting of various practitioners to daily cleansing rites and rituals, they all appear to be used for solving or preventing various maladies.

3. Social-Standing

    The Nacerima appear to put great importance in social standing.  They concern themselves with opulence, as "the opulence of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses." (Paragraph 4) They also have various rituals meant to improve social relations, as the mouth "is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships." (Paragraph 9)   Good condition of the mouth is apparently a symbol of positive social standing within Nacerima society.

4. Dysmorphic

   Similar to to the prosperous civilizations of the present world, the Nacerima, in their wealth, have developed the opportunity to be concerned with matters beyond their immediate survival.  Such matters include dissatisfaction with their own bodies.  The Nacerima culture believes "the human body is ugly" and "that man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony." (Paragraph 4)  Examples of these rituals include "making fat people thin and making thin people fat" and "making smaller breasts larger and making larger breasts small." (Paragraph 18)  There appears to be a trend of striving for unattainable standards, as the accepted ideal body is reported to be "virtually outside the range of human variation."(Paragraph 18)

5. Situational

    The social norms revolving around the Human body in Nacerima society appear to change depending on the situation.  Despite how "In everyday life the Nacirema avoids exposure of his body and its natural functions."(Paragraph 15)  These norms appear to be discarded for various rituals.  Examples include how "body secrecy is suddenly lost upon entry into the latipso," and how "A few women afflicted with almost inhuman hypermammary development are so idolized that they make a handsome living by simply going from village to village." (Paragraphs 15 and 18)  So in some cases the society will put aside their primary standards of decency.  What determines when this takes place is yet to be apparent.

PART B

Disclaimer: I already knew about the Nacerima satire article before writing Part A of the blog. That probably influenced my writing in some way.

1. I don't think I would take offense to the text, but historically that would be the exception instead of the norm. Within many post industrial societies today, I believe it is encouraged to reflect and be critical of one's own country. Most people within America, whether they are proud, not so proud, or neutral of their country, have at least one thing they dislike about the culture and governance. If I had read my blog post ten or twenty years ago then I might have taken offense, especially if it was from a foreigner. I would imagine being an urban/suburbanite from Southern California also influences my opinion, which is also cultural bias.

2. My article has a sizable amount of cultural bias. This is partially due to my own writing decisions and also the nature of the initial article. The article itself carries ethnocentrism and cultural bias and is quite critical, since society often fails to live up to its own standards. I believe the words dysmorphic, social-standing, ritualistic, and situational make the ethnocentric bias quite apparent, as they are the most critical of Nacerima behavior. The word situational particularly fails to look into why the Nacerima presentation of the body might change depending on context, while the other words are overall just negative. I believe the word rich is fairly neutral since that paragraph mostly focuses on the economic aspect of their society..

3. Words that could replace the biased descriptions:

Ritualistic - Ceremonial

4. It is important to avoid ethnocentric judgments to avoid cultural misunderstandings and potentially offending the culture being described. Cultural biases can often cloud our perspectives and lead to overlooking aspects of our own culture, such as finding the mouth rituals of the Nacerima weird despite us doing the same thing, or their stance on the human body. I think it is impossible to fully avoid cultural bias but we can we aware of it and address when it becomes an issue.