Nacirema?? - Perception

Perception

"...The Nacirema have 'private-mouth-rite(s)' which involve putting hog hairs into their mouths...revolting..."



"....Nacirema men appear to cause hurt to their faces daily."



"...Nacirema women have been observed to 'bake their heads in small ovens', 'four times during each lunar month'..."

Strange rituals, right? You might believe these people may be crazy to practice such weird ceremonies. However, you should examine the descriptions extremely well. What the previous statements actually mean are brushing teeth, shaving, and getting the hair done. Moreover, 'Nacirema' actually means 'American', but only spelled backwards! But don't worry; more than ninety percent of people would also think of some uncivilized people making strange, ridiculous rituals when first reading this article.

When I first read this writing, I was also interested by the somewhat strange culture of some weird tribe. It only seemed like an uncivilized culture of some native American community. I thought the article truly represented the culture and rituals of a totally different group of people, separated from the modern world.




However, I was absolutely amazed and shocked by the fact that I saw such simple things human do in real life as something revolting from a different point of view. It was very interesting, that so many people would delude themselves just because of the writing style. Actually, it was such a simple thing that it made me feel stupid. (But Mr. Menard told us that it was very normal of us to feel so.) However, the use of rhetoric is ever so brilliant that a lot of people are simply fooled.

Meanwhile, it made me think deeply about how the way we perceive things in the world can make something simple look so different. Never did I imagine that 'perspective' took such a big part of how we take in the world. It made me think, 'perhaps, we all are looking through this translucent glass'. Perhaps, we all have a certain type of 'translucent glass' that makes us take a look at objects with certain perspectives. That would be the cause of discriminations and prejudices which happen in the world.

For instance, Koreans - they eat dogs. (Of course, as the years passed, Koreans started to think of it less a culture, but it is still practiced in many regions and causes issues) And what do other countries think about it? They consider it rather disgusting and uncivilized. However, for Koreans, the way they eat dogs is just the same as eating chickens, cows, or pigs; they consider them domestic animals. Moreover, in Switzerland, it is considered okay to spit in the streets, while in Korea, it is considered very rude to do so.

As such, it seems that Horace Miner wanted to reflect how people and nations had certain views, or perspectives in other matters, and how it made them see things differently. Personally, I hope the readers who had read the 'Nacirema' text would try to change the way they observe other nations and understand the cultural differences.