Culture of the Nacirema Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Culture of the Nacirema - Essay Example I personally have not read about any case studies of "primitive" people who are so economically-minded, and a well-developed market system like this is proof for me of how civilized the Nacirema are. A second positive aspect is how well-knit the families are. Every house has a shrine where they cleanse their bodies and everyone enters this room "in succession" (Miner, n.d). Parents openly discuss purification rites with the children (Miner, n.d) and see it of utmost importance to initiate their children. The entire family has a common pursuit, desire to purify the body, which keeps them connected to each other. A third positive aspect is the fact that they put a lot of emphasis in cleansing and purifying the body. They are obsessed with hygiene and appearance, and I find it interesting that they share the belief that most people in developed, modern societies have, that good appearance have an effect on "social relationships," (Miner, n.d). This makes sense since I myself would not b e attracted to people who are unclean and dirty. A fourth positive aspect of the Nacirema is how they have a "listener", who for me is the equivalent of a psychotherapist. The listener simply listens to what his clients tell him about their problems (Miner, n.d). Lastly, it's interesting to see how the entire Nacirema society is neatly distinguished into different social roles; there are medicine men, herbalists, mouth men for example, and they are all highly trained in their own professions. Â  One negative aspect of the Nacirema is that they are a greedy people; they desire gifts at every service rendered and people are not entered into the latipso shrines for treatment if they cannot afford a gift to the healers, no matter how ill they are (Miner, n.d).