5 Words Describing Nacerima Culture

PART A:

One word to describe the population Miner observed is supernatural. They have many beliefs that are not attributed to science or the laws of nature. An interesting quality related to the word supernatural is that they believe the mouth has “an influence on all social relationships. Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them.”

The second word describe the population with would be Inhumane. The word inhumane describes certain ceremonies, rituals, and traditions that these people use, which come across as cruel and morally wrong in my point of view. Miner states that rituals for men “include scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument” and women “women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour”. Some may justify these actions as tradition but nevertheless, pain inflicted is the same whether the person in pain accepts it or not. What makes these people inhumane would be what Miner observed as “the gleam in the eye of a holy-mouth-man, as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of sadism is involved.”

Third word I would use to describe the Nacerima people would be Shy. The Nacerima people are contain with men “whose own wife has never seen him in an excretory act” and they live in a society where “Bathing and excretory acts are performed only in the secrecy of the household shrine, where they are ritualized as part of the body-rites.” This is because these people “avoid exposure of his body and its natural functions” as part of their everyday life.

Fourth, I would describe the Nacerima as Contradictory. Miner started out by saying that they view the human body “ugly” and being “ Incarcerated in such a body, man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony.” However, Miner also reports that vulnerable women “find their naked bodies are subjected to the scrutiny, manipulation and prodding of the medicine men.” Contradiction continues when intercourse is “viewed as taboo” however, it is accepted during “certain phases of the moon.”

The last word I chose to use is Unsatisfied. The Nacerima seem unsatisfied with any type of human body. According to Miner “There are ritual fasts to make fat people thin and ceremonial feasts to make thin people fat” and “other rites are used to make women's breasts larger if they are small, and smaller if they are large.” Satisfaction with the body is rare in this society and the few viewed as satisfactory are objectified and “make a handsome living by simply going from village to village and permitting the natives to stare at them for a fee.”

PART B:

1. Me being an American as are they I feel the words I chose still stand true to what I felt about their culture before I had discovered they too, were Americans. I do still believe that Americans can be contradictory and inhumane the most at times. I don't believe that anything I had stated, especially when backed up by the quotes I chose, was untrue. The way he had said that they would sacrifice humans and inflict pain on them just  for a ritual or tradition is still inhumane to me no matter what culture.

2. I will say that yes I believe maybe a word of mine to describe the culture could have been a little bias, when I used the word supernatural. This is drawing the conclusion that what they are believing is not a law of nature and also again saying that it was an inhumane culture is I do believe biased on my part because I do not agree with violence and I am not looking at it as though it is a ritual, I look at it as man slaughter. Some words I would say are free of bias that I had used would include unsatisfied and shy. The people described seem to keep some things private in their life including everyday parts of it which seems like a shy thing to do and unsatisfied when it comes to the human body is based off of only things that were stated of how they are never happy with what they have. They always want what they don't have, thus leaving them always unsatisfied.

3. Another word I might use in exchange for inhumane would be brutal. I would not like to pass judgement and the word I chose and point I am trying to get across can't really be described in any way that would not come off as judgement to someone. I can sugar coat the first word with this one to still get across that I personally find it brutal the way they sacrifice or ritually put a woman's head in the oven for an hour or how a man cuts their face. I don't understand why they would do such a thing but to not be judgmental I would say that it is because they believe in the sacrifice, they could believe it is for a greater good or purpose above our living. Who am I to tell someone what to believe whether my own culture or not?

4. I believe for a cultural anthropologist it could be easy to keep from having bias if they just invest research equally into all cultures and simply write down fact without opinion  but as a human I don't think it is very easy for us to keep from having an opinion in most ways. I do think it is important to not publicly announce your bias opinions about a culture out of respect to them, especially without proper knowledge on that culture as an outsider. If you want to speak your mind because it would have a beneficial effect though then sometimes a biased statement is welcomed but most people are effected but criticism of culture negatively so it's good to know how open minded they are and to learn completely about a religion or culture before making judgement.