Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (Reprint Series in Social Sciences) [Paperback]

Horace Miner (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Irvington Pub (August 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0829041826
• ISBN-13: 978-0829041828
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,622,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, April 26, 2008

By 

Diane M. Perrine (Ocala, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (Reprint Series in Social Sciences) (Paperback)

In "The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" author Horace Miner's anthropological satire of American (Nacirema spelled backwards) practices falls flat here. Although a popular piece published in "American Anthropologist" in June 1956, this is one of those popular writings that I find more insulting than humorous regardless of which culture is being mocked, even if it is intentionally satirical.

For one thing, anthropologist use objectivity rather than a mocking tone when reporting on cultures. Although this is meant to be a satire, I feel that even in the 50's one could find more justifiable rituals of Americans to satire than cleaning one's teeth, using a private bathroom, using prescribed medicines and seeking professional help in various fields.

Miner's assertions after viewing the curious practices of this group (Americans) were that "the fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body, the appearance and that the natural tendency is to devility and disease" (Miner, Body Ritual among the Nacirema, Par4).

Whether this was a satire of a real place, an imagined place or just some sribblings Miner did that ended up getting published, I find the writing lacking in humor or anything else that would validate being considered for publication. The only thing I find of relevance in the writing is how any person can find practices of any people to be curious if they are different from their own. However, even in this respect I think I could have appreciated it more if there was more respect and objectivity written into this piece even for it to come across as a good satire of any culture. After reading this, I could better appreciate quality satire written by authors other than Horace Miner. Miner helps me to recognize that writing good satire is more difficult than many of us have the skills to appreciate.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wait... what??, January 18, 2004

By 

A. Hampton "book lover" (Lexington, KY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (Reprint Series in Social Sciences) (Paperback)

The Mysterious Nacirema, who have such seemingly backwards traditions and ideas about everthing... but wait... that sounds alot like... wait you mean... wow it's all backwards... "Nacirema" ha ha... we're so strange

2 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nacerima means American..., October 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (Reprint Series in Social Sciences) (Paperback)

Nacerima means American..