The essay is about the cures and body rituals that "Nacirema"
tribes practice. Their rituals are somewhat similar to the modern humans'. They
have a pathological fear in the mouth and they regard cleaning the mouth as a
significant activity during a day. Like them, modern people check their mouth
at least two times a year. The Nacirema tribes have similar social structures with
modern society and the priests and doctors are alike. The only but the most
significant difference was that Nacirema culture seemed barbaric compared to
the other civilization. Their image was people of poor, third-world country
with almost no public orders and insanitary environment. Since the writer elaborates details about Nacirema society by using some negative and distorted description such as 'barbaric', 'cruel'. The author's negative view toward the Nacirema society result readers to imagine a biased image about their society. However, the essay is
a satire which actually portrays modern society, specifically America. Author's distorted perspective is actually a sarcasm that critiques modern people. Most people think that they are morally upright and do not have any prejudice toward other civilization. People act to be tolerant but actually they aren't, including myself. The author intends to show that readers have Cultural absolutism in their
unconsciousness.
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| My images about Naciremans |
Readers can
find out that the essay is about American society by different clues.
"Nacirema" is the backward of "America". Also, Naciremans
are North American group living between Mexico and Canadian Cree. This is the
location of America. Furthermore, the Nacirema nation was founded by hero
called Notgnihsaw, which is George Washington of the United States. The author
additionally mentions stories about Washington that he threw wampum across the
river and chopped down cherry blossom tree. Nacirema have Pa-To-Mac river which
is also in the U.S. From these descriptions, readers can easily realize that
the essay is about American society. However, not noticing these clues, readers
might regard this society as just a barbaric, uncivilized culture. The essay
shows cultural absolutism inside unconsciousness.
Cultural
absolutism causes majority of frictions and important problems of modern world.
It is an attitude evaluating other culture's value from one perspective. In
this modern world, there is a socially common notion that is created by some
major power countries. Majority of the socially common notion is made based
with their culture and values, and they dominate other countries. With the
standard and rules that few made, the world assesses other unique cultures. People
regard right or wrong with the narrow minded thoughts. People mistreat and
exclude other culture with the prejudice.
To begin
with, people cannot understand other cultures and be 100% tolerant to others. Every
society has its distinct culture and it should be honored. Each culture is a
basis that forms the social structure and the people’s lives. People have they
have their own standards and values that they naturally learned and share with
other social members. When other foreigners have different point of view or
standards, people cannot understand their logic. For instance, there was a
France singer who blamed Korea’s tradition of eating dogs. She portrayed this
tradition as barbarism and even tried to boycott Korean football team from the
World cup to prevent Korean culture from consuming edible dogs. Her comments
were pretty offensive to not only Korean society but also other dog-eating
cultures including China, Switzerland, US (sausage was originated from dog
meat). This is due to narrow thinking and lack of tolerance.
In
addition, fixed image of other cultures causes prejudice. From the surface
things that they observed from other culture, they comprehend and treat them
differently. To illustrate, by the external things people see about foreign
cultures, they make up images about them and regard the image as truth. For
example, in the essay, writer depicts that the magical practitioners cure the illness
of sick people. Nacireman people had to give presents to the 'doctors' so that
they can cure their illness. Every time they needed a cure, they had to give
material things or not, they can't fix their illness. From this passage,
Nacireman people seem cold-hearted. However, modern society is more cruel and
cold and it's hard to live without money. This is the stereotype which causes
cultural absolutism.
It is hard
for people to get rid of cultural absolutism. Difference is a natural thing and
human cannot change this. However, when people try their best to eliminate
stereotypes, frictions and problems will be lessened. The best way is to learn
about other countries. Learning about other cultures and their history will
enable people to understand other countries. This is because learning history
and culture is learning about other's values, rituals and their standards. It enables people to become tolerant and have
an open mind toward other cultures. So, people can approach other cultures
better.
The essay "Body ritual among the Nacirema" is
a story of American society. However, the Nacirema society seemed poor-living,
uncivilized, barbaric only just because they were tribes and they live distinct
life compared to the modern society. Culture absolutism is caused by
misunderstanding of other life and stereotypes. It is difficult to eliminate
it, but learning about other culture would increase the understanding of other
cultures.
