Rituals

Ritual, is a word I would use to describe the Nacierma ceremonial aspects. I would use ritual because of the shrines that they make for after the ceremony. The focal point of the shrine is in a box or chest which holds charms, and magical positions. They put the shrines in their houses in there individual rooms which are walled with stone, or pottery plaques on the shrine walls. I think that what they do by every day the member of the family in a succession has to enter the room bow their head, mingle holy water in the font and then proceed with a brief rite of ablution. I think that using the word Ritual has every meaning to this because that is what it is to them a passion and a Ritual that everyone follows, and follows them daily.


Body manipulation is another word I would use to describe how they use to use native esthetics's. They had ritual fasts to make fat people think and ceremonial feasts to make thin people fat. They said that general dissatisfaction with breast shape is symbolized in the fact that ideal form is virtually outside the range of human variation. Women would use there breasts for a way to make money by going village to village letting men see them. I think body manipulation is a good word for this because manipulating the body that it is to fat, or to thin is just something we believe is wrong. Who is suppose to decide who is to fat or to thin?

Trend is another word I would use to describe the trend that they had for their daily body rituals. I think that trends happen all the time which can became a ritual we have because it  is something that everyone does, and or has become something that is practiced by people daily. There daily body ritual was premformed by everyone which includes a mouth-rite. There  ritual involved a practice which strikes the uninitated stranger as revolting. They would insert a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundel in a highly formalized series of gestures. I think that to use that is something few would never do but to them that is something everyone had done which becamse something that everyone needed and wanted to do.

In this reading I read allot about magic and magic powders. So magically is a word that realtes allot to this reading. I think that magic is something few people believe in and or understand. They would seek out a holy mouth man once or twice a year, and in the holes in our teeths where cavities were and or if there were not cavities they would drill out a whole they would put a magically powder that they beleived would arrest decay and it would draw in friends. I think that magic would describe this clearly becuase beleiving that magic in your teeth bringing you friends is not something that people would beleive can just happen.

Mascochist is a word to describe what women and men use to due to get stasfiaction of pain and or abuse. An example of the tendenices were a part of a ceremony where women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour. Men use to scrape and lacerate the surface of there faces with a sharp instrument. I really did not know another word other then masochistic becuase undergoing the pain that women had to go through to bake there heads for an hour can not be something in my opinion that they would just do if they did not enjoy it.



As I re read my descriptive words  I realize as an American my words were kind of harsh. I think that the words do pertain to the reading, but I think I could have used better words to describe some of the things I was talking about. I think what I wrote was accurate according to the reading, so I think that I did write an appropriate word but maybe it might have been a little bit harsh. Re reading my descriptive words and writing about Nacirema makes me wonder what people would write about us as Americans if someone had a reading for them to read and asked them the same questions. I was very shocked when reading some of the things I did but at the same time I am sure that people from other cultures and countries would be just as shocked to read things Americans do. I definitely think that I exhibited ethnocentrism. I think when reading this I immediately started judging the life they lived and they life I live and it brought confusion to me. I think that some of my words show that I completely judged them. Words I feel that are biased that I used are magical I think I could have used illusion. I did use the more magic because they talked allot about magic powders with assuming that they were thinking they were magical and quickly judging the situation. I think instead of trend I could have used is a movement on what they do. I think a trend is something that people fall in to but I don't think that what they did was because it was a trend but more of the movement they were going through. I do not think using masochist was biased because its true what they did to there bodies was very masochist such as the women putting there heads in ovens for an hour to bake. I think it is very important to describe another culture free from person culture and bias because as I wrote my descriptive words I was always referring back to my own personal life and they way I lived. I did not realize how easy it was to be bias when referring to other cultures, I did not even mean to be bias but realized I was. I do not think it is possible to completely forgot all of your own personal views and avoid cultural bias but I do think that if you are trained the right way and know what you are doing that you  can try and avoid being bias when documenting about other cultures and being a Cultural Anthropologist.


-Krystle Johnston