Nacirema Ritual
Nacirema Ritual
In this article the Nacirema people that the writer is referring to are American people. He was making everything seem more complicated in order to trick you and from not knowing what he is really talking about. Nacirema is actually American spelled backwards. As I was reading I was seeing how other people from other countries might view our practices. Basically we were getting a chance to kind of see our culture from the outside looking in. We got to read about things we do every day in a different light. This whole article is about the medical side of things in America.
At one point the author mentioned things about Americans health. He said people would get medicine from someone called the medicine men. Really this is just the doctor and the secret message he is writing is a prescription to a pharmacy. The medicine mans temple is really just the hospital, because there is one in every community. When we are done with the medicine and we put it in the box on the wall that is really just the medicine cabinet over the sink. The mouth man that he speaks of is actually the dentist.
The article also was talking about how people dont walk around naked, so thats why getting naked at the doctors office is so uncomfortable for e. a lot of people. In some countries walking around half naked or even fully naked is perfectly normal. In America it is actually against the law to walk around without clothing on.
Towards the end of the article the author mentions that Naciremas are magic-ridden people and its hard to understand how they are still alive. I took this as him saying that Americans rely on a look of medicine and chemical to help us get throughout life. This kind of makes sense because Americans do rely on a lot of chemicals and unnatural things.