My first descriptor of the Nacerima people is body dismorphic. They seem to believe the body is ugly and prone to illness; they seem bent on changing what they can in hopes it will cure their ailments. For example, they'll go to what are known as holy mouth-men. These holy mouth-men will then either enlarge holes in the teeth or make new holes if there are none, so they can cure the mouth of illness with potions they put into the holes. More examples of the Nacerima body dismorphia are the women's desire to change their breast size (which seems to also be a very western trait), and men's desire to change their faces by scraping and lacerating them, as well as the women's desire to also change their faces by baking them in small ovens.
The second descriptor I chose is ritualistic. The Nacerima people have a wide range of rituals that they perform on a regular basis. As previously mentioned, they visit the holy mouth-men at least once per year so they may go through a private mouth-rite. Beyond that, each Nacerima family has at least one shrine in their home where they go in an attempt to thwart what they believe to be the ugliness and maladies of their bodies.
The Nacerima culture also seems to be money centric to some extent. Their economy seems to work on a market economy that may seem vaguely familiar to us. However, one difference might be that the Nacerima people are required to provide gifts, rather than a payment, to people they view as holy. They must give gifts to their medicine men for the ingredient list for the potions they need to cure themselves. There are also herbalists, holy mouth-men, listeners, and the guardians in the latipso's who all require gifts for services rendered, the guardians requiring a second gift before the individual can leave the latipso.
Superstitious is the fourth word I chose to describe the Nacerima people. Despite painful rituals, like going to the latipso's or visiting the holy mouth-men, the Nacerima people continue doing these same rituals with the superstition that it will make them better, that it will cure their ailments. In addition, the Nacerima people will keep charms the medicine men give to them in their shrines, even when the individual has long forgotten what any particular charm was actually used for.
Lastly, secretive was the final word I chose to describe the Nacerima people. While secretive may not be a word to describe them as a whole, it describes how they are with their bodies and its normal functions. For example, women try to hide the fact that they're pregnant and will give birth to their children in privacy and on their own. Furthermore, women refuse to breastfeed their children. Neither man nor woman will use the restroom in view of anyone else and find it extremely discomforting when they must while in the latipso.
This article was fascinating, and I hope to learn more about the Nacerima people. [haha - this is funny to me now]
1. As an American, I feel the words I chose are pretty close to being on target. We do seem to be a money-centric country who will spend vast amounts of money to cure our body dismorphia in a sometimes ritualistic, sometimes superstitious ways. And while we're not as secretive in regards to our bodies as some cultures, we aren't as open about them as other cultures.
2. I think all of the words I used can be seen as ethnocentric and/or biased, especially superstitious and ritualistic. While my intention was not to have a bias, I can see that there is one, that my own definition of my culture shone through. I believe that once I hear the word tribe, I automatically assume those people are different ... even when they're not, even when the tribe being described is my own. It's interesting to see how someone else could describe my culture.
3. An alternative to Secretive is Reserved [about bodily functions]
An alternative to Ritualistic is Custom [custom-bound, custom concious]
An alternative to Money Centric is Capital/Commercial
I can't think of an alternative to Superstitious.
Body dismorphic can be seen as biased, but I believe it is actually a pretty accurate word for our culture.
4. I don't believe it is completely possible to avoid cultural bias when observing other cultures. However, it is necessary to try to avoid inserting your own bias into that culture to ensure others from any culture can understand the culture you're describing in as clear a view as possible.
Actually, the only word I felt was a bit on the biased side was the word Superstitious. :-) The others were actually quite good. Superstitious usually has a negative connotation to it in our culture. It's use in an anthropological paper would be read as a negative statement. Not sure if you can replace it with one word, though.
ReplyDeleteGood job.
I thought that your blog was quite interesting and that you did a great job MartaMe. The descriptive words that you used were very balanced and impartial. I did however think that one of your words that could be construed as biased was where you described the culture to have a sense of body dysmorphia. The reason for this word was due to them believing their body to be ugly, that it is potentially plagued with illness, the women desire to change their breast size and they use the help of mouth-men to drill holes in their teeth. In recognizing that the Nacirema are actually American’s, I feel that to an outsider the things that we may do (such as going to the dentist or getting plastic surgery) may appear to be irrational, however to us they have become the norm. By completing this assignment I have been able to see that having a true understanding of the culture and its practices allows us to see that certain descriptive word’s may not be impartial nor may they fit within this context. I enjoyed this week’s essay and in learning more about the Nacirema, aka American.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting also that somebody else's word can influence how you see the culture you are reading about. Since we assumed this was a group that we had never come across, we had to build up a view in our head of what he was describing of these people. By using the word "tribe", it made you think of the group in one way while other specific words may have triggered others in other ways. It really shows how important it is to be unbiased in our review in somebody else's culture because many people can interpret a description in different ways.
ReplyDeletep.s. I agree with most of your word choices also and find them accurate of American culture.