A Short Overview of the Nacirema Body Rituals

The Nacirema article challenges the natural instincts of humans to believe that those who are described to be far from one's norms are characterized as being different or rather bizarre. The interpretation I made about the Nacirema culture demonstrates human's innate internal bias towards atypical behavior. After reading the article a second time, l was baffled by how oblivious I was to exactly what the author was illustrated in his creative choice of wording. After the first reading of the article, I could not generalize any connections between the customs that I possess in my culture compared to those descriptive of the Nacirema culture.

The “unnatural" customs depicted by Nacirema in contrast to Americanized beliefs seems barbaric or uncivilized at first glance. One point that I swiftly noted was the belief towards supernatural phenomenon Nacirema show patterns of religious performance that are believed to result in glow from a magical phenomenon. Because I mark my religious belief to be quite open, this was the first connection I made to American and Nacirema cultures.

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Across religious borders the insensitivity of others beliefs is so definite there are numerous people who believe there is only one acceptable way to praise, Religion is not always illustrated as motives that dictate everyday behaviors. For example, the widely acclaimed phrase “cleanliness is next Godliness" compels many to bathe and brush his teeth faithfully.

This was the main connection I made before understanding the real concept of Nacirema culture. There are countless of other factors represented in the article that at first glance I interpret as behavior that is hard to understand.

I now understand that the article underline meaning was to show that I did notjust generalize others whom may not Body Rituals of the Nacirema share noticeable similarity as being different‘ but also as not civilized. The essay gave me a valuable understanding of perspective. My admittance of cultural bias shows how contradicting American and humans overall have towards acceptance of those who do not share similar beliefs.