Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Summary Essay Example

Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Summary Essay Example Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Summary Paper Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Summary Paper Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Analysis What is the purpose of Body Ritual Among the Nacirema? The author’s purpose in writing this article was not to show the â€Å"Nacirema† as an example of how extreme human behavior can become, but how an outside perspective can affect your perception of an alien culture. If one were to look at the â€Å"Nacirema’s† cultural behaviors regarding physical appearance and health without any insight or knowledge of the specific beliefs or values of that culture, they might seem bizarre and even incomprehensible. By showing behaviors and â€Å"rituals† performed by this unknown tribe, Miner allowed others to see that the way studies were representing distinctive cultures was narrowminded and defective. Without the proper comprehension of the basis of any society, huge cultural misunderstandings could occur. Of course, in Miner’s article, the â€Å"Nacirema† refers to the American people, but in discussing ‘them’ as an exotic or unfamiliar people you are forced to forgo any ethnocentric notions of American society and try to understand their customs and rituals from an etic perspective. It’s an interesting and intriguing way to show a cultural analysis of a â€Å"primitive† people and provide a biased outlook on a different culture. The author’s thesis is that the â€Å"Nacirema† are a people based around their perception of physical appearances and peculiar rituals. Although the concept of the human body as an â€Å"ugly† and decaying vessel is paramount to the rationalization of such rituals, much of their daily routines are meant to avoid or dissuade this conviction. These curious rituals occur in the privacy of â€Å"shrines† and, for the most part, the human body and its natural functions are veiled and only spoken of to â€Å"medicine men† and â€Å"witch-doctors†. Also, they seem to be a â€Å"masochistic† society constructed around willingly subjecting themselves to pain and â€Å"tortures†. The â€Å"Nacirema† deliberately permit â€Å"medicine men† and â€Å"holy-mouth-men† to perform excruciating procedures to prevent the inevitable decay of their bodies and mouths. And while the ideal human form is unrealistic and unattainable for most, much of their wealth is allocated for â€Å"rites† used to painfully correct their unsatisfactory genetic traits. Miner’s article presents numerous anthropological concepts including culture, social behaviors, symbols, material culture and holism. While providing us with a synchronic view of an unexplored culture, Miner tackles the principle mindset that governs the â€Å"Nacirema’s† social customs and â€Å"rituals†, looks at key symbols and material possessions as the focus of the culture, and highlights the importance of studying a culture in its entirety to gain a full and accurate understanding. The psychology of the â€Å"Nacirema† people is one of malcontent. There seems to be a general dissatisfaction with one’s body and this inescapable attitude reaches into almost every aspect of their lives. The psychology of the â€Å"Nacirema† people is one of malcontent. There seems to be a general dissatisfaction with one’s body and this inescapable attitude reaches into almost every aspect of their lives. The â€Å"Nacirema† seem to necessitate unhappiness and even pain. They voluntarily allow â€Å"holy-moth-men† to subject them to torturous practices meant to postpone the inevitable decay of their mouths, pay â€Å"herbalists† to provide them with â€Å"potions† and â€Å"charms† expected to improve their health and consent to â€Å"medicine men† poking them with needles and performing life-threatening procedures all in the name of beauty and driven by the fundamental mentality that the body is ugly. Miner uses cultural materialism to explore and explain different aspects of the â€Å"Nacirema† culture. By emphasizing bathrooms as a â€Å"shrine† and sinks as â€Å"fonts†, Miner is better able to explain the obsession with body image and â€Å"rituals† used to clean and beautify our bodies. Through the â€Å"chests built into walls† or cabinets full of medicine, most of which are used once and stowed away, Miner can describe the underlying need of the â€Å"Nacirema† people to be consumed by their health. Most people hoard these medicines, creams and tonics out of the fear that they may once again be necessary and, at the same time, hope they won’t. Holism is not a concept lost on Horice Miner. What he was trying to convey in his article was that you cannot just take a glimpse of another culture and expect to understand it. In order to appreciate other cultures you need to submerge yourself in that culture and be conscious of every aspect of the culture to fully grasp an understanding of it. Miner’s satirical interpretation of the American cultures was meant to prove that without the in depth knowledge of a cultures beliefs and structure, there’s no way to make sense of even basic customs. The first two chapters of Miller’s Cultural Anthropology in a Globalizing World are meant to define and explain what cultural anthropology is and how to properly conduct research. Horace Miner’s article attempts to do the same thing with an entirely different approach. Nacirema culture summary Instead of saying outright that the way previous research had been carried out was misrepresenting entire populations of people, he decided to take an anthropological look at a well known culture from an outside perspective and show how easily its ideas and principles could be misunderstood when taken out of it own social context. This reading was meaningful and thought provoking to me because instead of a monotonous essay preaching about the importance of cultural relativism when analyzing different cultures, Miner was able to make his point with a slight mocking and sarcastic undertone. I found it provocative and compelling that he was able to interpret and criticize the absurdities of his own culture and provide insight on the importance of perspective in studying any culture. He pokes fun at the â€Å"Nacirema’s† conflicting ideology of obsessing over displays of beauty and opulence while becoming engulfed in indulgent, self-destructive behavior and engrossing the need to continually make more wealth. Miner, Horace 1956 Body Ritual among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist 58:3. Miller, Barbara 2010 Cultural Anthropology in a Globalizing World 2nd edition Boston: Pearson.

Batman- the Perfect Role Model

Batman- the Perfect Role Model America's fascination with comic books and cartoons filled with superheroes has created an empire of almost epic proportions. Upon my arrival in America, two of the myriad of comic book characters on offer immediately captured my attention, - Batman and Superman. I was informed by those "in the know" that Superman is the greatest superhero there is, and Batman never seems to get enough credit. After watching a great number of Batman and Superman cartoon episodes respectively, I reached the conclusion, that Superman's reputation is somewhat unfounded. Personally, I believe, that there is overwhelming evidence to support the contention that in fact Batman, who by the way, is a regular human, should be considered at least on par with Superman. It is imperative to my contention to analyze the origins of both superheroes, their reputations and their superpowers.Shortly before the explosion of the planet of Krypton, a baby Superman was evacuated to Earth by his parent's.SmallvilleHe lived on a farm in Smallville with his adopted parents, who named him Clark, and raised him as their own. As he grew, under the Earth's yellow sun, he started to gain amazing powers. His Kryptonian body absorbed the sun's yellow rays (as opposed to Krypton's red sun) giving him super-strength and invulnerability, among other awesome powers. Upon coming of age Clark resolved himself to the necessity of using his powers to fight crime in the city of Metropolis. There, he created his alias Clark Kent - a reporter, to mask his true identity. He terrified his enemies and amazed the citizens of Metropolis.It goes without saying, that Superman is in fact a great superhero. He certainly does a phenomenal job fighting crime and protecting the people of Metropolis. However, the truth that "Clark Kent, also known as Superman...

Critically discuss the importance, applicability and effectiveness of Essay

Critically discuss the importance, applicability and effectiveness of nurse leaders' use of the five major conflict resolution - Essay Example In contemporary healthcare settings, nurse leaders refer to every registered nurse including normal registered nurse, nurse supervisor, nurse unit manager, clinical nurse specialist, clinical nurse educator and director of nursing (Stanley, 2006). Nursing leadership involves the ability to build a vision that guides health career workers toward attaining the vision while maintaining collaboration, commitment and effectiveness in delivering excellent patient care (Bally, 2007). Once leaders understand the several approaches and reactions to conflict, helps them in being able to handle and deal with conflict better as it arises. Several experts identified ways in which people respond to conflict one of which is tool that identifies 5 ways people respond to conflict determined the need to maintain or improve relationship with others. Nursing profession bases on collaborative relations with colleagues and patients, which necessitates working closely with other people with various backgro unds and cultures. Diversity in individuals within the profession can potentially affect their relations resulting in conflict; however, good communication from nurse managers with conflict resolution skills significantly reduces risks of conflict. Management of conflict is essential for effective functioning of organizations; however, constructive and creative conflict management is a challenge and goal for professionals interested in assisting others and organizations. There is no single way to manage conflict; hence, it remains the responsibility of the individual and the group to be conscious of the problem in order to select the most appropriate strategies depending on the context within which the conflict emerged in managing it. Compromise is one of the main options described by various experts as a viable alternative to conflict situations, which means that everyone gets something out of a situation; hence, everyone gives up something and loses something. Compromise results f rom moderate concern for an individual as well as others and involves intermediate levels of assertion and cooperation (Al-Hamdan, 2009; Pavlakis et al, 2011). The approach aims at quick and mutually agreeable decisions that partially satisfy the concerned parties; therefore, compromise emerges when negotiation and interchange occurs, with each individual gaining something and giving up something in the process (Al?Hamdan, Shukri& Anthony, 2011). For example, this approach can be used when a nurse within a unit decides to leave early one day as a result of a personal matter. Therefore, the nurse manager can schedule for another nurse working night shift to arrive early and relieve the daytime nurse, this would result from a consideration that the daytime nurse would arrive early the following day and relieve the night shift nurse. Although compromise involves bargaining that often results in less-than-ideal solutions, the tactic remains useful in attaining temporary settlement for c omplex issue and also offers a quick fix when time is crucial. As well, the approach is useful in issues that are mild or of moderate importance; for instance, it is not necessary to compromise the issue of patient safety. Compromising is crucial in instances where goals are important and not worth major disruption and as a backup in case collaboration and