I was definitely
shocked at first after facing this significant alternation. Rather than
concentrating on historical or cultural existence of the Nacirema, what the
writer of this article truly intended was to satirize American society and
culture by suggesting several rituals that actually correspond to daily lives
of modern-day Americans. For instance, medicine men and women represent doctors
and nurses, and latipso, in which they work, describes hospitals,
as we can easily figure out that it is formed in the same way as the term ‘Nacirema’ was.
Then what made the readers, including me, could not find out these secrets and
truths that the writer hid at first? The style of writing and the usage of
words and expressions in this article are the answers for this question. As a
matter of fact, the article ‘Body Ritual among the
Nacirema’ apparently shows off lots of facets that
historical reports usually possess. Its style is descriptive and expository in
overall, which explains difficult phenomenon and customs to the readers very
clearly. Not only this, but the usage of professional vocabularies also made
the readers pay more attention to historical aspects. Generally, when people
are blocked by strange words while they are reading this style of writing, they
tend to regard them as proper nouns or jargons, and skip them rather than
comprehending one by one. Likewise, lots of words in the article such as
Nacirema or holy-mouth-men would have been regarded not meaningful enough to be
deeply understood to the readers, which made them lose the important implicit
meanings. We can say that the writer made these violations on literary norms
intentionally, and the writer’s objective was
successful as it was also obviously shown in my first impression to the article.
Moving on to the
authentic meaning that this article has, it seemed to be really indispensable
for me to look into social and historical background of the period when it was
written. ‘Body Ritual among the
Nacirema’ was published in June, 1956. 1950s of the United
States was the period of radical development. During three years of Korean War
from 1950 to 1953, a number of industries in the United States exported
countless of goods and weapons to its army, which enabled them to take
advantage of a post-war economic boom. Most of people enjoyed economic
prosperity, houses got larger and larger, and more and more people moved to the
suburbs for much better life condition. Furthermore, technology developed
dramatically due to the government's substantial investment on research and
development, which helped people live much more convenient lives with
assistance of various new inventions. However, while the life quality of people
grew up higher, ironically, people became much more desolate in terms of
relationship with others. With the advent of novel life pattern with richness,
people unconsciously became more inclined to materials, which is known as
'materialism,' which made them be too much materialistic and be negligent on
human relationship. This is what Horace Miner was intending to criticize; he
proposed that the society in 1950s of the United States was problematic, and
can be felt repulsive when it is observed through different perspective.
When it came to
this moment, it was obvious that the article ‘Body Ritual among the Nacirema’
contained lots of aspects - intentional aberration from the literal norms, and
historical style of writing that made the satires much more impressive - that
successfully maximized the effect that the writer was aiming. As I mentioned above,
Horace Miner tried to show the different side of the society of the United
States in 1950s which was hidden by people’s satisfaction on economic affluence,
through this article. Moreover, he highlighted the importance of
having diverse sights rather than being confined in illiberal analysis by showing that even the culture of the United States, which is regarded as advanced one, can be seen inhumane, and showed that it helps people deal with unfamiliar concepts such as foreign culture much more
objectively and unbiasedly. Considering a number of conflicts between people
from different countries in these days due to lack of understanding toward culture
of others and excessive ethnocentrism, it seems that it is the appropriate
attitude that we ought to possess in this egocentric society.
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