mislead- I feel the people of the Nacerima were mislead because of how they were to believe the medicine men were actual healers. The people were led to believe that if they didnt do their mouth rituals that there teeth would fall out, friends and family would leave them, and their gums would bleed.
greed- the holy mouth men had a temple where the extremely ill would come to be healed. Before they would be allowed in the temple for treatment they first had to present the holy men with a gift. Also after they received treatment and were ready to be released they had to give another gift just to be able to leave the temple.
abuse- the Nacerima were very hard on themselves when it came to their rituals with lacerations to the face and severe healing procedures where most of the people who went into the temples dont make it out alive. To put yourself and your family through such horror and pain for a belief is disturbing.
dedicated- to be able to put yourself through so much pain and to be able to put trust in a medicine man knowing that others that have rarely make it out of the temple is dedication to ones religion and beliefs. knowing the mouth is a major part of the nacerima and that the whole community belives in the holy mouth men but see that others teeth are still decaying takes real trust that eventually things will get back on track.
crazy- to base your life on your mouth to keep friends and family and go through painful acts to keep with a belief to me is crazy. to have to give a gift to receive treatment where you know your most likely not gonna make it and if you do to have to give another gift just to leave the temple all in all is insane in my opinon
1) as an American I feel that my choice of descriptive words are very judgemental of how another country or tribe lives.
2)
3) I think my main word of choice that should be changed or taken away all together is "crazy" it was a wrong choice of words looking back at it because there are cultures in the world that might think the same about me and what I belive and I shouldn't judge others that way.
4) It is important to avoid judgement because everyone has their own beliefs and even though you may not agree with others ways of life they cant help how they live or what they believe in especially if that is how they were brought up in the world.
It is hard to avoid personal cultural bias but I think it is possible to avoid it by having an understanding that everyone is differnt and has different beliefs and upbringing.
"Crazy" was definitely a biased choice! Words like that are fine in a private conversation. They won't work in cultural anthropology.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you understand that Miner was talking about the health and beauty practices of the American culture. The "Nacirema" ARE Americans. Does that change how you feel about your word choices,since they are describing our own culture?
Missing point 2. Otherwise, good work.
Hi Marcus,
ReplyDeleteYou stated that "It is important to avoid judgement because everyone has their own beliefs and even though you may not agree with others ways of life they cant help how they live or what they believe in especially if that is how they were brought up in the world."
I compleatly agree with the fact that it is important to avoid judgment but I also feel that just because someone is brought up a certin way doesn't mean they can't develop different beliefs and ways of life.
~ Cristal