Holy-
I chose this word because the Nacirema tribe washes their mouth out for ritual purposes to "improve their moral fibers," because they have a fascination with mouths, and believe it has supernatural influences on relationships. The tribe also believes there is a strong relationship between "oral and moral characteristics," and feel if it weren't for the rituals of the mouth, their teeth would fall out, their gums would bleed, and their jaws would shrink.
Sadistic-
I chose this word because of the rituals the medicine men and the holy-mouth-men preform on the tribe man. First, tribe men see a holy man once a year to get their teeth prodded at, which is intended to rid of the evil sadistic powers by jabbing an awl into an exposed nerve, and pouring holistic medicine into the hole. If no decaying hole is in the teeth, these holy men will rip out teeth to preform the operation.
Torturous-
I chose this word because the rituals for the women of the tribe are very torturous. The women's rights are performed four times every lunar month, with the holy-man. When they aren't seeing the holy-man, the women, as part of the ceremony, bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour, which has been called sadistic and evil.
Miserable-
The tribes people suffer miserable torture from the holy-man and medicine-men from them sticking magic wands into their mouths, forcing the people to eat substances, which are supposed to cure them. The medicine men come to their clients sometimes and jab magically treated needles into their flesh, when in the long run, don't cure them, and sometimes kill them.
Magical-
I chose this word because the "listener," or the witch-doctor has the power to exorcise the evils that haunt the tribes minds out of their bodies. The witch doctor lacks rituals, and instead listens to the tribe people's problems, starting from when they were young and rids of the evil.
Part:B
As an American I feel that these words stuck out the most, because I grew up with other Americans in the twenty-first century with the gift of freedom of religion and freedom of choice, and when I compare these qualities to that of this tribe, I can not help but feel like they're lacking in this sense. According to the text, the women in the tribe are subjected to certain rituals that in the context of American culture would be considered sexual harassment and torture. I feel my answer does show ethnocentrism due to the fact that my predispositions come solely from the environment I was raised in, thus altering my perception of this foreign culture. The opposite of an ethnocentric attitude would be a culturally relative attitude, meaning that a person's beliefs, values and practices are understood based off of that person's culture rather than judged by the criteria of another. I believe the word torturous could be considered biased, because it is my view of what the holy-man and the medicine-man were doing to their own tribe's people, and my perspective on how they were conducting their beliefs. Another word I could use that wouldn't be biased would be Ritualistic, describing how they performed activities that were in tune with their individual belief system, such as: bake women's heads, and jab into jaw nerves. It is important to describe other cultures without personal bias, because we are describing them to inform, not give opinion, because they could view our own cultures and beliefs in a totally opposite way than we do, and vice versa. It is also important not to offend other culture's beliefs because it is their way of living that they choose, and it is not our place to tell them what's right and what's wrong due to the fact that there is no one definition of morale. I believe it is possible for a Cultural Anthropologist to be able to describe another culture without including personal bias, and putting their own two cents in, because it's supposed to remain informational, instead of opinionated.
Part:B
As an American I feel that these words stuck out the most, because I grew up with other Americans in the twenty-first century with the gift of freedom of religion and freedom of choice, and when I compare these qualities to that of this tribe, I can not help but feel like they're lacking in this sense. According to the text, the women in the tribe are subjected to certain rituals that in the context of American culture would be considered sexual harassment and torture. I feel my answer does show ethnocentrism due to the fact that my predispositions come solely from the environment I was raised in, thus altering my perception of this foreign culture. The opposite of an ethnocentric attitude would be a culturally relative attitude, meaning that a person's beliefs, values and practices are understood based off of that person's culture rather than judged by the criteria of another. I believe the word torturous could be considered biased, because it is my view of what the holy-man and the medicine-man were doing to their own tribe's people, and my perspective on how they were conducting their beliefs. Another word I could use that wouldn't be biased would be Ritualistic, describing how they performed activities that were in tune with their individual belief system, such as: bake women's heads, and jab into jaw nerves. It is important to describe other cultures without personal bias, because we are describing them to inform, not give opinion, because they could view our own cultures and beliefs in a totally opposite way than we do, and vice versa. It is also important not to offend other culture's beliefs because it is their way of living that they choose, and it is not our place to tell them what's right and what's wrong due to the fact that there is no one definition of morale. I believe it is possible for a Cultural Anthropologist to be able to describe another culture without including personal bias, and putting their own two cents in, because it's supposed to remain informational, instead of opinionated.
Part A for this assignment submitted and scored. I'll provide a longer response after your second submission.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that, if you were from another culture and were to investigate and describe ours - some culture with basic hygiene practices, some sort of religious beliefs, and some basic understanding about medicinal science, just like basically every other culture known to man - that you would come away with the same impressions? Would you describe hospital visits as "protracted ritual purification", or do you think you would figure they were doing something besides 'ritual purification'? Would you describe the contents of medicine cabinets as 'charms and potions', or the local equivalent of medicines after you asked about their purposes?
ReplyDeleteThat's the point. Minor intentionally offered a superficial outsider's perspective on the Nacerima (a.k.a., us). It wasn't just our biases and superficial impressions that are the problem. It is also relying on the biased, superficial descriptions offered by an "outsider" to shape our opinions and understanding of that culture. Much better to use multiple, preferably "insider" perspectives.
DeleteThank you for highlighting that important point.
But it also raises another point: Should anthropologists be just describing cultures with words that have specific meanings in a different culture? Or perhaps should we be explaining practices through their function and purpose in a culture, using facts and supportable evidence? How we write about a culture matters and we need to be aware of the language we use.
Dylan, it isn't clear that you understood the "secret" of the Nacerima, namely that Minor was writing about us when he wrote this. The Nacerima are Americans, albeit from several decades ago.
ReplyDeleteIf you missed this point, it will impact your responses, as you are supposed to go from describing a culture as an "outsider" to recognizing that you were describing your own culture, and then using that change in perspective to reflect on bias and ethnocentrism in our views of other cultures.
For example:
"when I compare these qualities to that of this tribe, I can not help but feel like they're lacking in this sense"
But we ARE that "tribe", so how could we be lacking those qualities you describe?
"The opposite of an ethnocentric attitude would be a culturally relative attitude, meaning that a person's beliefs, values and practices are understood based off of that person's culture rather than judged by the criteria of another."
Good. I agree.
"I believe the word torturous could be considered biased, because it is my view of what the holy-man and the medicine-man were doing to their own tribe's people, and my perspective on how they were conducting their beliefs. "
Again, those men were American doctors begin described from an outsider's perspective. That IS our culture as seen by someone who doesn't understand it. Do you think he is describing our medical culture accurately? Or his is bias offering a misleading picture to his readers? The idea here is to think about how you might describe another culture and recognize that, like Minor, you may be coloring that description with your bias, giving a false image of the structure and function of their cultural practices. Does that make sense?
"Ritualistic" ... "bake women's heads, and jab into jaw nerves."
Well, the first one is women drying their hair after the get a hair cut and the second is a dentist deadening a nerve before filling a cavity. Are those "rituals"? Or are is it more accurate to describe them as, respectively, hair care and dental healthcare? "Ritual" is an outsider's description. The words I offer are an insider's. Which are more accurate and useful to a cultural anthropologist?
"I believe it is possible for a Cultural Anthropologist to be able to describe another culture without including personal bias"
I really wish that were the case, but anthropologists are human and subject to bias and error. But when you are aware of this tendency toward bias, you can work to prevent it. It's harder to do so when you don't even know it's there.