[HN Gopher] Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (1956) [pdf] ___________________________________________________________________ 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 I remember being annoyed by some of the | outdated elements (hog-bristle toothbrushes) which made it seem | "unfair".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. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-03-22 23:00 UTC)