(A)
Body Ritual of Nacerima
The five words I'd use to describe this population of the Nacerima would be masochistic, misconceived, peculiar, self conscious, and servile.
Hearing how painful and humiliating most of these practices are was frightful, but as further description was given for each ritual I was struggling to grasp how the people were willingly accepting of these practices. That's why I'd describe them as masochistic. I'm sure that whatever pain that is endured isn't enjoyable but according to their beliefs I can see that it's more of a pleasurable feeling for them mentally, knowing that they are becoming cleansed version of themselves. Not only are they accepting but participation is desired despite the extent they'd go with peculiar beliefs such as those requiring the help of the "holy-mouth-men". Additionally I'd describe them as servile for that same reason, the oddest aspects of their culture are the ones they're most devoted to. Unfortunately, I'd view the Nacerima as self-conscious. "The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease "(Miner). I believe what makes them a misconceived group is not just how odd or morally wrong some of these rituals may seem to us but particularly because of the little that is known of their origin.
(B)
Nacirema - American
1. What an unexpected plot twist to the assignment. Now that I look back at the words I used to described what is actually the culture of Americans, the only one I'd change is masochistic because I believe that it doesn't convey a proper description of Americans overall. To replace that I'd use the word propagandized, especially now with the power social media has. Aside from that I feel like the other four words still suit American culture.
2. The only word I believe that exhibits ethnocentrism on my part would be servile. I viewed the Nacerima as extremely loyal to their beliefs because I was also making the assumption that maybe they weren't too knowledgeable about cultures outside of their own. So basically I was viewing them as a minor group. I believe that the rest of the words are free of bias because I was choosing them directly from only the information provided, trying to understand and simply give my first impressions.
3. I'd replace servile for deferential, simply as them being a respectful group towards their own culture.
4. While I believe that its impossible ethnocentrism could be avoided, it's important to free our minds of as much judgment or personal preferences as possible of any commentary we make of other cultures. Especially as a cultural anthropologist you want to understand properly whatever foreign characteristics you'll most likely come across and provide the most genuine, reliable information so that too the reader or student can understand such cultures.
(B)
Nacirema - American
1. What an unexpected plot twist to the assignment. Now that I look back at the words I used to described what is actually the culture of Americans, the only one I'd change is masochistic because I believe that it doesn't convey a proper description of Americans overall. To replace that I'd use the word propagandized, especially now with the power social media has. Aside from that I feel like the other four words still suit American culture.
2. The only word I believe that exhibits ethnocentrism on my part would be servile. I viewed the Nacerima as extremely loyal to their beliefs because I was also making the assumption that maybe they weren't too knowledgeable about cultures outside of their own. So basically I was viewing them as a minor group. I believe that the rest of the words are free of bias because I was choosing them directly from only the information provided, trying to understand and simply give my first impressions.
3. I'd replace servile for deferential, simply as them being a respectful group towards their own culture.
4. While I believe that its impossible ethnocentrism could be avoided, it's important to free our minds of as much judgment or personal preferences as possible of any commentary we make of other cultures. Especially as a cultural anthropologist you want to understand properly whatever foreign characteristics you'll most likely come across and provide the most genuine, reliable information so that too the reader or student can understand such cultures.
Part A reviewed and scored. I will leave a longer comment on Friday after your Part B submission.
ReplyDeleteRemember that the challenge here is to not only find words that accurately describe this culture (ours) but also find words that do so with as little bias as possible. So in your first paragraph, not only evaluate whether the words are accurate, but also how judgemental they are. I agree with your points on "masochistic", both with regard to accuracy and also bias. I suggest all of your words, regardless of their accuracy (in your opinion or mine), carry with them a negative connotation that indicates bias and judgment.
ReplyDeleteLet's go through them:
Masochistic: Remember that masochism is receiving some type of pleasure through giving pain to another person. That definitely contains a negative judgment on the person causing harm. Is that why dentists and doctors treat patients as they do?
Peculiar: You don't see the judgement in this term?
Servile: It really depends on the definition you choose to use here. A willingness or desire to please others is generally positive. Having the characteristics of a servant of slave would be negative.
Self-conscious: This can have positive or negative connotations, but you seem to suggest the negative here, as the Nacerima are unhappy with their bodies and appearances. Is that why they perform their rituals? Can you think of a way to describe this behavior with straight facts instead of a negative judgement?
Misconceived: According to you? :-) Pretty heavily laced with judgment.
In all cases, these judgments are made without moving forward to trying to understand why they act or behave the way they do.
Servile was the less judgmental of all the terms, depending upon which definition you choose. Couldn't doctors/dentists be described as "caring" or "empathetic" (instead of masochistic) since we know they are trying to improve the health of their patients? Instead of "peculiar", can you give a specific description of one of the unique practices that you find "peculiar"? Regarding "self-conscious", many of these behaviors can be traces to health-care or for the attraction of possible mates, correct? Is that really "self-conscious"? And is it really "misconceived" for us to brush our teeth, visit the dentist, and go to the hospital if we are sick? Can't this be explained? How better to describe this?
"... provide the most genuine, reliable information so that too the reader or student can understand such cultures."
That's the key here. It isn't just understanding these cultures. As cultural anthropologists, we would be communicating information about another culture to the scientific community. We want to make sure that our information is as factually-based as possible. We don't want to pollute that information with our own biases and beliefs, which would give misleading information about that culture.