Culture is all around us. You, reader, are engaging in culture without even realizing it. While we might not realize the factors that influence and define our own cultures, we generally have a vague sense of what other cultures are like. Try to imagine what of the culture of the island nation Fiji. Due to its location, you might envision an exotic, tropical paradise with simple-dressed peoples in a remote, beach-side village. These off-the-grid societies have interested anthropologists since the late 19th century and were described as mystical, primitive societies.
One culture in particular, studied by Horace Miner in the 1950’s, has gathered much attention, and is still prominent today. The Nacirema are “magic-ridden” peoples, Miner says, and their daily lives are based on daily rituals to dispel the body’s “natural tendency…to debility and disease.” Each home has at least one shrine devoted to this purpose. The rituals performed there are done in secret, yet natives detail these rituals to Miner. They involve various potions and charms, including the “mouth rite”, where a person puts hog hairs and special potions in their mouth for cleansing. Along with this daily ritual, the Nacirema must make multiple visits to further cleanse themselves; the rituals performed seem almost torturous. Miner believes that a “certain amount of sadism is involved” in their culture. Women bake their heads in ovens, men lacerate their faces, and everyone makes a visit to the holy-mouth-men at least twice a year, where they suffer from poking and probing on exposed nerves in the mouth, still trying to cleanse themselves to better social relations.
The most fascinating aspect of Miner’s report describes the latsi spo, a sacred temple where the “you go to die.” The sick are brought to the latsip spo, though they are only admitted if they can present a special gift, and are stripped naked and are assisted by vestal maidens. Their excrement’s are put in jars, which are used to determine the sickness. The ceremonies performed there may not cure patients, and my even kill them, but people still trust in the medicine men of the latsip spo. There is another type of medical doctor, known as a “listener,” who determines if evil spirits are living within the head of a sick patient.
The Nacerima are obsessed with the human body and try to manipulate their forms in every way possible. Fat people are forced to undergo ritual fast to get slim, while skinny people are forced to feast to get fat. Women are expected to alter themselves, especially in reference to their breasts. If they are too small, they must be made larger. If they are too large, they must be made smaller. Some women are considered so beautiful, mainly those with, what Miner calls, “inhuman hypermammary development” are idolized by society.
The culture of these strange, ritual-obsessed peoples might seem completely different from your own culture. However, if you get past the language used to describe the Nacerima, you might notice that Americans have more in common with them than it appears.
Are you ready for your mind to be blown?
Nacerima is American spelled backwards.
Many cultures have been depicted by earlier anthropologists in a way that makes them appear mystical, exotic, and even barbaric. Miner realized that describing societies using magical language can make any culture seem primitive, so he applied this language to American culture. Holy-mouth men are just dentist, body rituals are just the daily things we do in the bathroom, and the latsi spo is a hospital (also spelled backwards). When thinking about other cultures, try to get past preconceived notions. They are more like you than you know.
To read Miner’s full report, go here.