Nacirema=American??
It was Thursday
that Mr. Menard asked us to write an in-class essay. And he gave me a piece of
paper, which was filling two whole pages. This writing was about Nacirema
people and their cultural behaviors. According to Horace Miner, the writer of
this writing, Nacirema is a North American group living in the territory
between the Canadian Cree, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. I never
heard or learned about these people's culture. Thus, their weird behaviors were
very surprising to me at the first time. From private shrines to charm-boxes,
everything was unfamiliar and different compared to my life. But on the next
day, when Mr. Menard told us that Narcirema is a word which wrote American
backwards, I just couldn't stop from laughing. Also, everything written on the
essay was true life of Americans, just written in different perspective.
After I knew that this writing is
about Americans, Every puzzle pieces of Nacirema started to fit into the
reality, and it was all true. Knowing the truth of Nacirema was knowing the true
thoughts of mine toward cultural relativism. At the same time, it gave me an
opportunity to look back at myself, how I felt about different cultures. And as
we all consider As I described 'weird behaviors' on the paragraph one, I wasn't
having positive attitude toward Nacirema people. Everyone who read this essay
for the first time would have felt same as mine, and this is the main point
which author tried to point out about cultural relativism. People claim
cultural relativism, and they think they make interpretation of different
cultures based on cultural relativism. However, as a human being, it is hard to
understand other cultures, even if they do, it is just their outer side not the
inner true feeling.
This is writing also criticizes
behaviors of American people. By looking at Americans in different point of
view, their behaviors just look awkward and stupid. However, the truth is 'We
are actually practicing this'. I'm not American but these Nacirema behaviors
could applied to my life also. According to essay, the author describes ritual
activities of Nacirema people are focused to the appearance and health of human
body, criticizing what is now called lookism. For example, they rely on charm
boxes, which seems very stupid activity, and relying on magicians for their
healthcare. Anyone who didn't know the truth at the first time would think that
people are having foolish phobia toward things they shouldn't be afraid.
However, when we know the truth, situation flips over. This is the moment when
people starts to question themselves. "Is it the real life of ours?".
Nowadays, people put a lot of focus on their looks. As it is described on the
passage most of Americans consider themselves ugly. Also, when we look at the
case of Korea, we see many hospitals for plastic surgery, and most of women have
their double eyelid operation. Society just leads them to have these surgeries,
because society wants those people who have more good looking rather than
people without double eyelid.
Last
week, I had a Chinese presentation about Chinese cultures and one topic was to
research about 'China's uncleanness'. When the word 'Chinese' comes into my
mind, I had a prejudice that Chinese are dirty. I knew I should consider cultural
relativism, but my thinking toward Chinese seem unchangeable. However after
days of research, I found out that they were in inevitable conditions of being
dirty. There were no clean water resources provided to poors, and no houses for
them to block from harms outside. Considering China's population, the number of
poors just exceeds the populations of many other countries. I think this can be
considered to the case of Nacirema. It isn't important to understand in the way
how we look at ourselves. We must not have a stereotype that they should act
like us. Being different doesn't mean being wrong. This writing about Americans
gave me a huge lesson how I should react to different cultures. Also, as I
mentioned on the paragraph 3, nowadays, people fear from too many things. As
the members of a society, it is important for us to remember that we are the
ones who control the society, not the society itself.
