[HN Gopher] Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (1956) [pdf]
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       Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (1956) [pdf]
        
       Author : kelseyfrog
       Score  : 35 points
       Date   : 2022-03-21 16:48 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.sfu.ca)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.sfu.ca)
        
       | revolvingocelot wrote:
       | See also _Motel of the Mysteries_ -- a YA-level book, lavishly
       | illustrated -- about a far-future society uncovering an early-80s
       | motel and interpreting it as a burial complex, dedicated to the
       | tiling-god Mica and dating from the height of the now-vanished
       | Empire of Usa.
        
       | mcphage wrote:
       | > The charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose,
       | but is placed in the charm-box 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.
       | 
       | Oof, I feel that one.
        
       | tetsusaiga wrote:
       | They should have started out more vaguely-- I started reading it
       | from the second page, and without Notgnihsaw I didn't have a
       | clue.
       | 
       | > A few women afflicted with almost inhuman hypermammary
       | development are so idolized that they make a handsome living
       | simply going from village to village and permitting the natives
       | to stare at them for a fee.
       | 
       | Me: "Haha! These people are so dumb!"
        
       | superkuh wrote:
       | "Noitan nacirema eht fo saedi eht!" I have this line memorized
       | because a friend and I would constantly reference it to each
       | other after encounting the story in a shared american history
       | class. Of course we didn't limit it to the story and mostly used
       | it to swear at each other backwards.
        
       | djur wrote:
       | I read (an excerpt of) this in middle school, but my recollection
       | was that the teacher didn't do a great job of communicating what
       | the point was. It felt more like a "ha, gotcha, it was America
       | all along!" moment. I remember being annoyed by some of the
       | outdated elements (hog-bristle toothbrushes) which made it seem
       | "unfair". As an adult, of course, the underlying factual
       | inaccuracies just strengthen the point.
        
         | jaqalopes wrote:
         | Sorry to hear that. For a different perspective, my grade nine
         | world civilizations teacher delivered this perfectly to us as
         | an in class reading exercise where we first critiqued the
         | society of the Nacirema before the big reveal. I'll never
         | forget how surprised I was to realize that my own country was
         | something that could be criticized.
        
       | asdfasgasdgasdg wrote:
       | For anyone who is missing the context, as I was, "Nacirema" is
       | "American" spelled backwards.
        
         | agumonkey wrote:
         | I first read about the idea a week ago and already forgot about
         | it, even though I found it brilliant. sigh.
         | 
         | Onto "In Praise of Memorization (pearlleff.com)" now
        
         | ars wrote:
         | As I was reading this I was like "that's not that different
         | from what I do", and then a paragraph of two later the light
         | bulb went on.
        
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       (page generated 2022-03-22 23:00 UTC)