"Body Ritual among the Nacirema"
From: American Anthropologist 58:3, June 1956.

Most cultures exhibit a particular configuration or style. A single value or pattern of  perceiving the world often leaves its stamp on several institutions in the society. Examples  are "machismo" in Spanish-influenced cultures, "face" in Japanese culture, and "pollution by  females" in some highland New Guinea cultures. Here Horace Miner demonstrates that  "attitudes about the body" have a pervasive influence on many institutions in Nacirema society.
The anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different  people behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic  customs. In fact, if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found  somewhere in the world, he is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet  undescribed tribe. The point has, in fact, been expressed with respect to clan organization by  Murdock.[2] In this light, the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such  unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to  which human behavior can go.
      Professor Linton [3] first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of  anthropologists twenty years ago, but the culture of this people is still very poorly  understood. They are a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian  Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is  known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the east....
Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy which has evolved  in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people's time is devoted to economic pursuits, a  large part of the fruits of these labors and a considerable portion of the day are spent in  ritual activity. The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of  which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people. While such a concern is  certainly not unusual, its ceremonial aspects and associated philosophy are unique.
The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is  ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease. Incarcerated in such a body,  man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony.  Every household has one or more shrines devoted to this purpose. The more powerful  individuals in the society have several shrines in their houses and, in fact, the opulence of a  house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses. Most  houses are of wattle and daub construction, but the shrine rooms of the more wealthy are  walled with stone. Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine  walls.
      While each family has at least one such shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family  ceremonies but are private and secret. The rites are normally only discussed with children,  and then only during the period when they are being initiated into these mysteries. I was able,  however, to establish sufficient rapport with the natives to examine these shrines and to have  the rituals described to me.
The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall. In this chest are  kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live.  These preparations are secured from a variety of specialized practitioners. The most powerful  of these are the medicine men, whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts.  However, the medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their clients, but decide  what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language.  This writing is understood only by the medicine men and by the herbalists who, for another  gift, provide the required charm.
The charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose, but is placed in the charmbox of  the household shrine. As these magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or  imagined maladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to overflowing. The  magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use  them again. While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea  in retaining all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box, before  which the body rituals are conducted, will in some way protect the worshipper.
 Beneath the charm-box is a small font. Each day every member of the family, in succession,  enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy  water in the font, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablution.[4] The holy waters are secured  from the Water Temple of the community, where the priests conduct elaborate ceremonies to  make the liquid ritually pure.
In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine men in prestige, are  specialists whose designation is best translated as "holy-mouth-men." The Nacirema have an  almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is  believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships. Were it not for the  rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws  shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them. They also believe that a strong  relationship exists between oral and moral characteristics. For example, there is a ritual  ablution of the mouth for children which is supposed to improve their moral fiber.
The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that these  people are so punctilious [5] about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which  strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that 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.[6]
In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a  year. These practitioners have an impressive set of paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of  augers, awls, probes, and prods. The use of these items in the exorcism of the evils of the  mouth involves almost unbelievable ritual torture of the client. The holy-mouth-man opens  the client's mouth and, using the above mentioned tools, enlarges any holes which decay may  have created in the teeth. Magical materials are put into these holes. If there are no  naturally occurring holes in the teeth, large sections of one or more teeth are gouged out so  that the supernatural substance can be applied. In the client's view, the purpose of these  ministrations [7] is to arrest decay and to draw friends. The extremely sacred and traditional  character of the rite is evident in the fact that the natives return to the holy-mouth-men  year after year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay.
 It is to be hoped that, when a thorough study of the Nacirema is made, there will be careful  inquiry into the personality structure of t