Horace Miner wrote the article on the Nacirema almost 50 years ago. How do you think that the Nacirema from 50 years ago are similar to the Nacirema of today? How do you think that they are different? Do the Nacirema have the same culture today as the Nacirema from 50 years ago?
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In the original article on the Nacirema they are characterized by their time spent on economic pursuits and on their own bodies. I think that the Nacirema of today are still the same in that aspect, if not worse. From the time a child is born we teach them that they must finish (and do well) in high school to go on to college and they must complete college to get a job and they must have a job in order to be happy (have money, a wife, a pool in the backyard). It seems to be the women who are primarily concerned with their bodies and the men who spend time on economic pursuits (for the most part).
Fifty years ago it was probably more important in our society for a woman to be very attractive and a man to be successful as most women were homemakers and their husbands supported them. In today's society it is quite different. Women work just as much as men do but unfortunately women are still very concerned with their self-image. Our economy brings in millions of dollars each year with the sale of cosmetics, cosmetic surgery, and overpriced designer clothing.
I think that the Nacirema of today have the same culture as the Nacirema from 50 years ago give or take a few aspects. We still have ritualistic behaviors (doctors, dentists, brushing our teeth, taking medicine). We still put a great deal of focus on our images and spend a majority of our lives chasing economic pursuits.
the majority of us still care about body image. in todays world, i think we probably care a bit more; ironically, we do less to "abide by" society's standards (note the obesity "epidemic"). the article mentioned the nacimera worshipping some sort of box, that i assume is a television. in that aspect we're similar. but, we have more channels to give our minds to. we also worship another box that we can even fold up and carry around with us (thats a computer). we stare long and hard at these devices and enter into a trance, listening to whatever the box gods tell us. alot of nacimera own multiple boxes to worship.
we are much more technologically advanced, and though technology is great for medicine and science, we give more respect to the information recieved through satellite than the beauty and wisdom found in nature. i feel nacimera has experienced an immense downfall in true human connection, as well as a detatched sense of reality. this isnt necessarily our fault though. by itself, the boxes are harmless devices meant to inform, entertain, and help to communicate. but somewhere along the line, they were corrupted. now, we are constantly under serveillance and "fed" only the information we're supposed to "consume." metaphorically, the box is like a gun. if you put a gun in the wrong hands, people get killed in iraq. which--to put it plainly--sucks.
and kind of on a whole other note (kind of), the nacimera from 50 years ago(the 1950's) remind me alot of the nacimera of today. BUT, since history repeats itself, it think its safe to say that in a few years, the nacimera of today will be more like the nacimera from 40 years ago (thats the 60's). so thats cool. the nacimera of the 60's were tired of the restricted lifestyle from the 50's and got all radical. i've observed a similar pattern in todays society. more and more people are coming to the realization that somethings not quite right with the world. in turn, more and more people are thinking outside the boxes.
(i agree alot with what sarah says)
I agree with the posts made above. The article stresses that the Nacirema of the past were immersed in the pursuit of economic well being, as well as their looks and health.
I will begin with the economic pursuit. The Nacirema of the past are similar to those of today because they both strive to make as much possible money as they can. In order to survive one must try to earn a good living. Especially if you consider the fact that they might be raising a family. Everyone wants the best for their kids and in order to provide for them you may have to work a lot more than you want to. I think it may be more difficult today because of the advances in technology. The Nacirema back then did not have to worry about cell phones, DVD players and such. It made living less expensive. Back then not as many people went to college either. The people were able to find good jobs without even having a high school diploma. The Nacirema today must work harder because they may have to put themselves through school as well as their children.
The article also mentions the view of the human body. As long as people are around they are going to point out flaws with their own body. Especially when they see what the mainstream media pushes portrays on a daily basis. The Nacirema of the past and present are similar with their ideas of beauty but by today’s standards it can be misinterpreted as being much worse. Something like plastic surgery and all the advanced diets were not available in the past. I have no doubts that if they were the Nacirema of the past would be having the same procedures done as the Nacirema of today.
I think the culture of the past Nacirema is similar to the present to a certain extent. People want money to establish a form of security for their family, looks play a large part in our daily lives and we still seek medical treatment for our problems. I think the difference lies in the fact that we have evolved greatly from the past. We are able to learn from our mistakes and improve on flaws from the past. Although this is not always done I think the Nacirema today are higher educated and civilized than those of the past.
Like everyone has been saying, the Nacirema from the 50's were obsessed with their bodies and took all sorts of measures to "perfect" themselves: baking in ovens, buying creams, going to the “holy-mouth-man”. While today we are still obsessed with our bodies, we seem to be doing less about it, at least health-wise. People are still concerned with the way they look but America is the most overweight country in the world. We have McDonalds, Wendy's, Pizza Huts around every corner; we’re even infecting other countries with our cheap and fatty foods. We don't want to put in the effort to exercise or eat right; instead we just get lipo every couple of years. The Nacirema didn’t have this option; they had to work hard at their “make-overs”. We on the other hand can choose the easy way out and just pay for someone else to do it for us. We are lazy. We want our cake and we want to eat it too.
As far as the Nacirema and hospitals go, I think that people now a days are more anti-hospitals and medicine. Everyone is suing their doctors. People seem more reluctant to go get things checked out. We no longer trust our doctors. The availability of information probably adds to this. We can simply look up our symptoms online and get a pretty good understand of what’s going on. Plus, there’s the whole issue of doctor’s handing out medicines that people don’t need or that have terrible side effects. People are starting to think for themselves and are getting fed up with doctors. We are no longer like the Nacirema from the 50’s who just blindly trust the “holy” doctors.
Not to sound repetitive, but like everyone else said the Nacirema were, and are completely obsessed with their bodies. Not a single human now, or back then could probably be heard saying they are content and happy about their appearance. You can blame it on the media, which is very persuasive about how people “should” look, but the media was created by us, thus we were the ones who have created this body critical ideal in the first place.
I just wanted to comment on what Alexander said, “I think the difference lies in the fact that we have evolved greatly from the past. We are able to learn from our mistakes and improve on flaws from the past. Although this is not always done I think the Nacirema today are higher educated and civilized than those of the past.”
I have to say I almost completely disagree. People are not more evolved or civilized than that of the past. 50 years ago people could go out after dark and not fear for their lives (at least not fear as much as today). As for learning from our mistakes, I bring up the ever-tried example of Bush. Yes, Bush, shock shock. If we learned from our mistakes we would not have elected a second Bush, and gone to war with Iraq again. I don’t think that a college degree measures how intelligent a person is. A piece of paper only says you can take classes and pass tests. Some knowledge cannot be taught in school, and that kind of knowledge is what is being lost in our civilization. Even basic trade skills that people need to survive are being lost. I only mean to say that with our lives of convenience people from 50 years ago may be more prepared for downright survival than people of today. I could be exaggerating to make my point, but I still think that the amount years you spend is school does not make you any more civilized than anyone else.
As a final note, I like that Chani brought up people’s evasiveness to doctors now. I think that a huge part of the fact that people are not seeing the doctor anymore has to do with medical insurance. So many people cannot afford insurance, and feel that that means they can’t afford to see the doctor. Why waste your money on a doctor visit when you fear they may not find what’s wrong with you in the first place.
The Naciremas in the article were focused a lot on the body, but the Naciremas now I think have a case much worse than before. Focused on a beautiful body and face, I want that structure that figure that nose. And not only do they try and work hard for it but they constantly have it in their face everywhere they go in ads on billboards, television the perfect mannequins in the store windows. And most being impatient they might just exercise a little longer and eat less and less. This is not only for the woman (just a little more pressure upon them).
In the article it says the more powerful the individual in society the more shrines. Which in this case (I think) means the more wealthy more powerful people have more washrooms (shrines) and much bigger homes. In this world of high brand names and expensive plastic surgeries, you are not powerful unless you have “more shrines.” Today the same rules of shrines apply to everything. So much to where children would not play with another child due to his family income. Children now are introduced to this culture of high-end brands, money equals power and beauty is everything at such a young age.
I feel that the Naciremas now have more to loose; if they don’t look a certain way or don’t have enough money in their life they just don’t see it in them to succeed.
The original article states that the Nacirema are obsessed with body and image. I think that the Nacirema havnt changed at all. Our society has only become more and more obsessed with how people look at us. I was watching the "box" and television channels have different target audiences for there commercial adds. On every channel that i watched were different weight loss adds, and some sort of miracle pill to instantly loose weight. The Nacirema of 50 years ago didn't have a thousand different pills to take. If someone wanted to loose weight you would go out and exercise. This is a huge problem with todays society. People need to get out and exercise instead of relying on some miracle pill. The ritualistic behaviors such as brushing our teeth, going to the doctor, and taking medicine are still the same. We are pretty much the same in those aspects but much more concerned about image, and I think its going to be a growing problem, and wont go away.
Aside from technological advancements, I feel like very little of the Nacirema culture has changed over time. They still go to the doctors, keep clean and so on. The most obvious and disappointing similarity is the culture’s obsession with body image. It’s to the point now where young kids are getting plastic surgery as birthday and graduation gifts (at least in my high school). However like other people have already pointed out, the Nacirema culture is still an incredibly overweight one. This is quite contradictory seeing as how much money is poured into pills and procedures that help people lose weight quick. I feel like there are way too many lazy people in the culture who rather spend a lot of money to lose weight then stop eating bad foods and work out the old fashioned way. Granted it will never be easy, but all these superfluous diet supplements and weight loss pills are not going to solve the problem.
This stems to the next point about the culture’s economic pursuits. Obviously it gets more and more expensive to live each year, but people never seem to be happy with what they have. This is not true in all cases, but there are a lot of people out there who think they need to display their wealth in order for others to know just how successful they are. This comes in the form of expensive cars, homes and clothing. This in turn makes the less fortunate feel like they need to have such unimportant items in order to feel equally successful. When the truth is that if you are fortunate enough to have wealth, you should not feel the need to flaunt it all over the place and instead invest it for your children and family. My father works in the stock market and sees people who he had thought were well off (due to their life style) go bankrupt all the time when the market crashes. This further shows how dominant image is in the each Nacirema culture.
I think that Miner accurately describes the Nacerima in a unique way. When he talks about the "holy-mouth-man," and how they treat their teeth, I believe to an extent, we still do the same today. The rituals have always been the same and I think that we all can easily make judgment on people and the condition of their teeth. If we see somebody whose teeth are glowing yellow, crooked and perhaps missing a few, we would probably assume they are not as wealthy and respected as someone who has perfect white teeth. I think the overall article of the Nacerima is pretty accurate on how we look at ourselves and everybody else on their physical appearance; but I think 50 years ago it was a much bigger deal considering now, we do not (for the most part) judge people on their weight, breast size, race, etc..
Miner is pretty accurate with his observations of the Nacireman culture. Although, the way Miner described it makes the culture sound much more barbaric than it really is.
The article is similar in the fact that our culture still does go to the “latispo,” or hospital, as we know it. We do still go see the “holy-mouth-man,” or dentist. But, most of all, people in this culture still worry about appearance quite a bit. I think that this part of the article was the most exact about the Nacireman culture.
Like everyone else has been saying, body image is a big part of the culture. The images of healthy and muscular bodies are seen all over television, movies, magazines, and ads in general. Women still get breast reduction and implant surgeries. Although, in the culture today, I’ve never witnessed a woman traveling from village to village, asking for money to stare at their breasts. There are clubs for that now. So, in that regard, the culture may have changed.
I’m sure there are plenty of other aspects to how the culture has changed over 50 years. But, for the most part, Miner wrote an impressively precise description of the Naciremans.
In many ways Miner’s article could have been written today, but I agree that the media has taken our obsession with our bodies even further. When this article was written people weren’t bombarded with advertisements for weight loss pills every time they watch TV at night. With the amount of television Naciremas watch today, and the amount of adds for beauty supplies, it is clear that our society wants its people to look good.
I still think that Naciremas feel the same way about their shrines today. I know a lot of Nacirema people that spend a good amount of time in their shrines because they want to look as good as possible. There are also many more shrines today. You can find a shrine in most stores, schools, work buildings, planes, and even public shrines for every one. Even if some Naciremas aren’t near a shrine, they pull out a mirror from their purse or pocket to fix tidy up.
I don't think anything has changed from the Article about Nacirema and what America is like today. America is still a culture that is strange in many ways for example we have a war on drugs but the country purchases the majority of the worlds supplies. Now tv has created a thing called celebrity status and this is where the body and plastic surgery and presurvation of the body can be seen with the greed and excess of life. I think nothing has changed
I feel we as humans still have an obscure fetish with our bodies, and other things having to do with economics. Although we do do more concerning our image, but I think we've taken it to another level by appearing to not care. Especially-and probably mainly- in our youth, nonchalance towards appearance has become the "in" thing.
P.S. I had already typed a very wordy response to this blog, but I do not see it here, so I'm reposting. There must have been some sort of error?
I think the article on the rituals of the Nacirema still seems true today, maybe even more so. Americans are still a very visual society and therefore very focused on appearance. When reading the article, I thought it was very obvious that the Nacirema were supposed to represent Americans, because it seemed so true to our body image rituals.
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