The Body Ritual Among The Nacirema Analysis

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When I first read "The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema", my first reaction was offense. I had looked it up online prior to reading it and I knew that it was American spelled backwards. The more that I read, the more I realized there was plain truth in this article and the truth seemed laughable. In the United States we live in a material society. Most people are consumed by how much money they can make, how big their house is, and how nice their car is. This can of course, be expounded on ad infinitum. Had I not already been aware of what the Nacirema was, I would have been guilty of ethnocentrism. The Narciema, when they are not making money, they’re hating their bodies and therefore obsessing over their appearance. Witch doctors, medicine …show more content…
The Earth is everyone’s home, or ecosystem, changes to our natural home have an effect worldwide. Alex Steffen discusses what to do about climate change. He suggests that it is much more than just a clean energy solution, arguing that there may not be a way to generate the amount of energy necessary to sustain 8 plus billion people. He illustrates that one solution lays in denser areas of population that have things that we need close by. Anyone that has traveled to large cities in this country or abroad knows firsthand that an automobile is not a necessity. In my travels in the United States, New York City and Chicago are very easy to get what you need in your everyday life and even get to work without the need for a vehicle. Also, I have been to many countries in Europe and in the dense City Centre’s, there is virtually no need for a car. So it seems those emissions from vehicles, and the manufacture and delivery, and then disposal of said vehicles is a major problem. Leading up to the horror of the results from my Ecological Footprint Quiz, which by my account, I was quite conservative with energy. Apparently, if everyone lived as I lived, we would all require 3.1 more earths. My main contribution to the destruction of our ecosystem was my car. I do not have a monster truck, nor do I have a V-8 sports car, my little Toyota gets 28 mpg, I thought that was pretty good. I guess I …show more content…
Their values are in stark contrast to those of the West. Their shared way of life, or culture, consisted of working together, living together, praying together, celebrating together and grieving together. Even though they do not exchange money which would make one believe they are poor, they always had enough food to get through the year, even with a surplus and their population growth was limited, which I found interesting considering what I have learned thus far. They did not value progress as we do, and yet without any change for centuries, these people were happy and interconnected. Fast forward to industry and how it changed the landscape and life of these people. The sense of community was gone as the children left for school, husbands left to work for money (which they survived well without for centuries), and the women were left alone to care for the animals, crops and young children. The gap between rich and poor grew. As Western culture pervades their life, young men lose self-esteem and confidence, women in movies are seen as sexual and passive and men glorify violence, this further lead to a change in self-image. Children have to learn English with zero emphasis on their culture and the material progress leads to a bad human situation. The rivers that were sacred become polluted, there is trash in the street, open dumps, leaking septic tanks, water borne diseases, crime, violence and the list
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