Nacirema

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Various anthropologists and sociologists have used the term Nacirema to examine (with a
degree/pretense of anthropological selfdistancing! aspects of the "ehavior and society of
American people#citi$ens of %orth &merica' Nacirema offers a form of word play "y
spelling (American( "ackwards'
Contents
)hide*
+ ,ody -itual &mong the %acirema
. /he 0ysterious Fall of the %acirema
1 %acirema vs /eamsterville
2 3xternal links
4 ,i"liography
[edit] Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Body Ritual among the Nacirema
/he original use of the term was in Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, which satiri$es
anthropological papers on (other( cultures, and the %orthern &merican 5ulture' 6orace 0iner
wrote the paper and originally pu"lished it in the June +748 edition of American
Anthropologist'
9n the paper, 0iner descri"es the %acirema, a littleknown tri"e living in %orth &merica' /he
way in which he writes a"out the curious practices that this group performs distances readers
from the fact that the %orth &merican group descri"ed actually corresponds to modernday
&mericans of the mid+74:s' /he article sometimes serves as a demonstration of a gestalt shift
with relation to sociology' 0iner presents the %acirema as a group living in the territory
"etween the 5anadian 5ree, the ;a<ui and /arahumare of 0exico, and the 5ari" and &rawak
of the &ntilles' /he paper descri"es the typical Western ideal for oral cleanliness, as well as
providing an outside view on hospitalcare and on psychiatry'
0iner=s article "ecame a popular work, reprinted in many introductory anthropology and
sociology text"ooks' 9t is also given as an example of process analysis in The Bedford Reader,
a literature text"ook' /he article itself received the most reprint permission re<uests of any
article in American Anthropologist, and has "ecome part of the pu"lic domain'
>ome of the popular aspects of %acirema culture include: latipso (6ospital spelled "ackwards
and the =6= removed! 0edicine men and women (doctors, psychiatrists, and pharmacists!, a
charm"ox (medicine ca"inet!, the mouthrite ritual ("rushing teeth!, and a cultural hero known
as %otgnihsaw (Washington spelled "ackwards!'
/hough generally viewed to "e on the west coast, there are several places given the name of
%acirema, including certain streets and very old neigh"orhoods on the east coast'
[edit] The Mysterious Fall of the Nacirema
9n +7?. %eil ,' /hompson revisited the %acirema after the fall of their civili$ation'
/hompson=s paper, unlike 0iner=s, primarily offered a social commentary focused on
environmental issues' /hompson paid special attention to the 3li"omotua 5ult and their efforts
to modify the environment'
/he high esteem of the cult is demonstrated "y the fact that near every population
center, when not distur"ed "y the accumulation of de"ris, archeologists have found
large and orderly collections of the 3li"omotua 5ult sym"ol' /he vast num"er of these
collections has given us the opportunity to reconstruct with considera"le confidence the
principal ideas of the cult' /he newest sym"ols seem to have nearly approached the
ultimate of the %acirema=s cultural ideal' /heir colors, material, and si$e suggest an
enclosed mo"ile device that corresponds to no color or shape found in nature, although
some authorities suggest that, at some early time in the development, the egg may have
"een the model' /he device was provided with its own climate control system as well as
a system that screened out many of the shorter rays of the light spectrum'
/he a"ove refers to an automo"ile'
/his article is reprinted and appears as the final chapter in an anthology called Nacirema:
Readings on American Culture' /he volume contains an array of scholarly investigations into
&merican social anthropology as well as one more article in the (%acirema( series: (/he
-etention of Folk @inguistic 5oncepts and the /9=;59- (pronounced: teacher! 5aste in
5ontemporary %acireman 5ulture'( /his article laments the corrosive and su"Augating ritual of
attending sguwlz(pronounced :schools!' Bn grammar, the anthropologist notes:
/he vowel system of >ecular %acireman consists of nine phonemically distinct vowels
distinguished on the "asis of three degrees of tongue height and three degrees of tongue
advancement'''' /here can "e no <uestion as to the validity of these nine vocalic
phonemes, for each is attested "y a num"er of minimal pairs elicited independently
from several informants' 5uriously enough, however, most informants insist that only
five vowels exist in the language: these are called ?ey, ?iy, ?ay, ?ow, and yuw, and are
invaria"ly cited in precisely that order'''' /he discovery of the widespread myth of the
fivevowel system prompted the present writer to conduct a series of intensive
interviews and administer <uestionaires to a sample of %acireman informants with a
view to mapping the general outlines of %acireman folk linguistics' /his research
strategy ultimately provided compelling evidence that it is the ti'ycir caste that has
disseminated the notion of the fivevowel system'
[edit] Nacirema vs Teamsterville
Cerry Dhilipsen (+77.! studies what he terms (speech codes( among the %acirema, which he
contrasts with the speech codes of another semifictionali$ed group of &mericans, the
inha"itants of /eamsterville culture' 6is %acirema comprises primarily middleclass westcoast
&mericans'
[edit] External lins
,ody -itual among the %acirema (DEF! from American Anthropologist, June +748
,ody -itual among the %acirema in Wikisource format'
/he 0ysterious Fall of the %acirema from Natural !istory, Eecem"er +7?. (9nternet
&rchive &ug :?, .::2 version!
)+*: we" resources on the nacirema
[edit] Bi!liogra"hy
6agan, 6elene 3' : (/he Deople of %iram(, 5oastal Dost, 0arin 5ounty, &ugust +77F
Dhilipsen, Cerry: "pea#ing Culturally : $%plorations in "ocial Communication' 9>,%
:?7+2++82F
James D'>pradley and 0ichael &' -ynkiewich eds' The Nacirema: Readings on
American Culture' (,oston: @ittle ,rown and 5o', +7?4!