Adapted from “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner

An anthropologist name Horace Miner in the late 1950’s made a study of a culture which had customs, ceremonies, and rites similar to other groups that he had seen before. The tribe he described was called the Nacirema and they can be found on the western hemisphere in the lands south of the Canadian Cree, but north of the Tarahumura of Mexico.

What he found was amazing. According to the stories of the Nacirema, their nation originated from a great hero and warrior chief named Notgnihsaw. He was such a great leader because as a child, he found the Spirit of Truth after chopping down a red fruit tree.

While the Nacirema are a hardworking people and spend a great deal of their time pursuing a better life, large parts of their days are spent in ritual activity. The focus of this activity is often the human body. The Nacirema believe that it is important to look healthy and will go to great lengths to do so.

The basic belief of the Nacirema is that the human body can easily become ugly and filled with disease if it is not treated properly. Since their spirits and minds have been trapped inside of these bodies, they must follow rituals in order to have a good life.

Every Nacirema home has a shrine dedicated to good health. These shrines help the Nacirema overcome the weaknesses of the human body. The most powerful people have several shrines in their home. In fact, the number of shrines in a home is often tied to the value of the home. Furthermore, the most powerful people often decorate their shrines with smooth, expensive stones.

While nearly every family has one of these shrines, the activities related to the shrine are not family gatherings. The shrine is a private place. The secrets of the shrine are told to children at a very young age. Adults should all know the mysteries of the shrine. A Nacirema adult who is unfamiliar with the shrine and its mysteries makes himself the subject of jokes, ridicule, and possibly, disgust.

The Nacirema keep a charm box in their shrine – usually in the wall. Beneath the charm box in the Nacirema home, there is usually a small fountain. Following sunrise, family members receive the waters of the fountain one-by-one. The charm box contains many potions believed to work magic by the Nacirema. While some of these potions can be purchased at local markets, others may only be gotten by seeing the powerful medicine men. The medicine men, however, do not give potions directly to the regular Nacirema people. Instead, they give them a note that is sometimes written in an ancient language to give to a medicine maker. The medicine maker requires a gift in order to give the special potion to the ill Nacirema.

“Mouth men” who are just below medicine men in prestige, often scare the Nacirema people. They instruct the Nacirema to place fibers into their mouth along with magical creams. The Nacirema believe that if they do not listen to the mouth men, many parts of their life will suffer. This suffering includes bleeding gums, loss of friends, failure to find companionship, and insults.

Other interesting customs include:

Nacirema men scrape their faces with sharp instruments. Women can be seen placing the hair of animals and other humans into and onto their own

heads.