Essay Example on Nacirema culture is a very unusual and different

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Nacirema culture is a very unusual and different culture anthropologists have witnessed extreme behaviors these human beings This culture is not fully understood and little is known about their origin Their traditions and ritual activities are unusual and unique Horace Miner describes the Nacirema s culture beliefs rituals values and traditions Miner explains that the Nacirema s rituals and ceremonies are based on shrines that is a box or chest that is built into the wall They distinguish the poor and the powerful individuals by applying pottery plaques to their shrine s He describes many behaviors and things done by this culture to educate us about their beliefs Furthermore he explains that a shrine contains magical potions prescribed by a medicine man and made by an herbalist These magical potions are only made and given if they are paid with a rich gift Sick individuals are tortured and are not usually cured they must give rich gifts and their cloth are tripped off Nacirema s have witchdoctors that cure people who have been bewitched The Nacirema have their own unique practices they have an almost pathological horror or and fascination with the mouth the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships Miner 88 The rituals consist of inserting s bundle of dog hair in the mouth with magical powders to expand the mouth


Making the mouth large decaying the teeth to have more friends and be socially accepted It is very important for us to understand and learn about different cultures and practice cultural relativism to educate ourselves and not analyze or judge other cultures in a negative way One of the reasons of why we should not be ethnocentric in our approach to this culture is because they are extremely obedient to their culture and rituals Generations after generations kids are trained and punished for not fulfilling their cultural rituals They have managed to live until today and are still one of the magic ridden people Miner 91 Moreover another notable example is the Yanomamo culture Chagnon spent nineteen months with the Yanomamo s learned their culture understood their behaviors and learned their language At first he had the illusion of these people to adopt him into their kinship system and way of life Chagnon 94 With Mr Barker guidance and acknowledge he guided Chagnon during the first days During the first days Chagnon was experiencing seconds thoughts about his career what he was doing feeling depressed and eventually felt lonely He was seen the Yanomamo culture in a very ethnocentric way by comparing his challenging situations to what he could have done if he was back at home At first Chagnon didn t understand their language and their culture so the Indians used him robed him and even threaten him He did not give up and soon learned that he had to become very much like the Yanomamo to be able to get along with them on their terms sly aggressive and intimidating Chagnon 98 



This made the Yanomamos respect him more and with time he started to defend himself and gave them a spirited lecture when they acted wrong against him In addition Chagnon also learned and understood their culture when he stopped being ethnocentric and started to practice cultural relativism By doing this he started to gather data of the Yanomamo s names to create genealogies after so many misunderstandings and tricks he finally was able to finish them with the help of Kaobawa The Yanomamo culture is very complicated but Chagnon managed to live and learn among them In the article Anybody s Son Will Do the author Gwynee Dyer describes how civilian men are trained to kill to become soldiers Dyer says that turning a civilian into a soldier is like a religious conversion he says this because it becomes a commitment in where everything changes The author supports his point by stating that armies try to get their recruits before they are 20 Dyer 484 Dyer explains that the army prefers young adults because they are more capable of having more physical fitness they are enthusiastic and economic dispensability

The military is all a business there are many instances in which the army is popular for economic reasons Dyer 484 Like many churches that are created to use God as an excuse for economic reasons The soldiers go through basic training the recruits will be isolated from their world Basic training it s about changing them so that they can do things they wouldn t have dreamt of otherwise Dyer 485 The soldiers go through physical and mental pressure to become disciplined The manipulation and brain washes that these individuals receive is inhumane and heartbreaking I agree with Dyer because he explains what the army is about nothing but manipulation and money politics to create future wars The army has a significant role in the United States but it has affected millions of young Americans


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