Summary Of Body Ritual Among The Nacirema By Horace Miner

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“Body Ritual Among The Nacirema” by Horace Miner is an article that simulates human, specifically american, behavior in a way that sounds foreign. It highlights the strange points in society that are normalized. Humans have created a community that makes them be discontented with themselves because they fail to realize the fallacies in their thinking towards body image; if, however, humans start analyzing their rituals, and begin to see the truth, realistic goals can be set and met.
They have developed a circle of belief where only few question it. The author describes the practice of brushing of the teeth as “revolting” and describes it “the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.” He has effectively defamiliarized the reader of a very familiar act. He keep up this use of defamiliarization throughout the entire piece, bringing to the surface society fallacies, such as going to the dentist. “ In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a year... The holy-mouth-man open the client's mouth and, using the above mentioned tools, enlarges any holes which decay may have created in the teeth. …show more content…
If they don't, the same habits will continue to happen even if they are redundant. If they look at it from a new angle, one might see the logical fallacies that they have failed to see before. In the article “Polygamy Now!” the general assumption is that the listener will just accept the words she says, with no analization. Once one begins to pick apart her meanings, one sees the fallacies in her evidence towards the level of feminism in relation to polygamy. If humans can get over those fallacies by analyzing everything, society's view towards body image, in particular, will change to reflect a attainable
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