Various sociologists have used the term Nacirema to examine (with a degree/pretense of anthropological self-distancing) aspects of the behavior and society of American people — citizens of the United States of America. Nacirema offers a form of word play by spelling "American" backwards. Word play is a literary technique in which the nature of the words used themselves become part of the subject of the work. ...

Body Ritual Among the Nacirema

The original use of the term was in Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, which satirizes anthropological papers on "other" cultures, and the culture of the United States. Horace Miner wrote the paper and originally published it in the June 1956 edition of American Anthropologist. 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ... Initiation rite of the Yao people of Malawi Anthropology (from the Greek word , man or person) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ... This article is becoming very long. ... Horace Mitchell Miner was born on May 26, 1912, in St. ... The American Anthropologist is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association. ...

In the paper, Miner describes the Nacirema, a little-known tribe living in North America. The way in which he writes about the curious practices that this group performs distances readers from the fact that the North American group described actually corresponds to modern-day Americans. The article sometimes serves as a demonstration of a gestalt shift with relation to sociology. World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... Gestalt is a German word whose meaning is only roughly approximated by the English words shape or form. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Miner presents the Nacirema as a group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. The paper describes the typical Western ideal for oral cleanliness, as well as providing an outside view on hospital-care and on psychiatry. The Cree are an indigenous people of North America whose people range from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean in both Canada and the United States. ... The Yoeme or Yaqui are a border Native American people who live in the Sonoran Desert region, comprising part of the northern Mexican state of Sonora and the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona. ... The Tarahumara are a Native American people of northern Mexico, renowned for their long-distance running ability. ... This article is about the Island Carib people, who lived on the islands of the Caribbean. ... The term Arawak (from aru, the Lokono word for cassava flour), was used to designate the Amerindians encountered by the Spanish in the Caribbean. ... The Antilles (the same in French; Antillas in Spanish; Antillen in Dutch) refers to the islands forming the greater part of the West Indies in the Caribbean. ... Psychiatry is a medical specialty dealing with the prevention, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of mental illness. ...

Miner's article became a popular work, reprinted in many introductory anthropology and sociology textbooks. It is also given as an example of process analysis in The Bedford Reader, a literature textbook. The article itself received the most reprint permission requests of any article in American Anthropologist, but has become part of the public domain. [1] Initiation rite of the Yao people of Malawi Anthropology (from the Greek word , man or person) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Bedford Reader is a literature textbook published by the Bedford-St. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

Some of the popular aspects of Nacirema culture include: Medicine men and women (doctors, psychiatrists, and druggists), a shrine box (medicine cabinet), and the mouth-rite ritual (brushing teeth).

Though generally viewed to be on the west coast, there are several places given the name of Nacirema, including certain streets and very old neighborhoods on the east coast.

The Mysterious Fall of the Nacirema

In 1972 Neil B. Thompson revisited the Nacirema after the fall of their civilization. Thompson's paper, unlike Miner's, primarily offered a social commentary focused on environmental issues. Thompson paid special attention to the Elibomotua Cult and their efforts to modify the environment. 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... For the magazine called automobile, see Automobile Magazine. ...

The high esteem of the cult is demonstrated by the fact that near every population center, when not disturbed by the accumulation of debris, archeologists have found large and orderly collections of the Elibomotua Cult symbol. The vast number of these collections has given us the opportunity to reconstruct with considerable confidence the principal ideas of the cult. The newest symbols seem to have nearly approached the ultimate of the Nacirema's cultural ideal. Their colors, material, and size suggest an enclosed mobile device that corresponds to no color or shape found in nature, although some authorities suggest that, at some early time in the development, the egg may have been the model. The device was provided with its own climate control system as well as a system that screened out many of the shorter rays of the light spectrum.

The above refers to an automobile.

Nacirema vs Teamsterville

Gerry Philipsen (1992) studies what he terms "speech codes" among the Nacirema, which he contrasts with the speech codes of another semi-fictionalized group of Americans, the inhabitants of Teamsterville. His Nacirema comprises primarily middle-class west-coast Americans.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Body Ritual among the Nacirema

• Body Ritual among the Nacirema (PDF) from American Anthropologist, June 1956
• The Mysterious Fall of the Nacirema from Natural History, December 1972

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Bibliography

• Philipsen, Gerry: Speaking Culturally : Explorations in Social Communication. ISBN 0-7914-1164-8