5 descriptive words that I would use to describe the population Miner discusses.
Secretive- I would use this word to describe the Nacirema culture because it explained how the rituals that are associated with the shrine are done in private and kept a secret. Also, these rituals are shared with only children which meant that people from other cultures were unaware of the events that were taking place. They are also forced to hide their pregnancies. They continuously expressed the importance of keeping their traditions to their people only.
Committed- They were dedicated to their ways of living and never complained about why they had to do things a certain way. They experienced pain such as having their heads baked in an oven for an hour and having their faces lacerated by sharp objects. The people knew that they were chancing their lives but they had faith in the doctors. These people repeated their culture and were wiling to do anything for it. The people kept the tradition going by putting a shrine in their house and showing respect for the box that contained magical potions and charms.
Immoral- They are immoral in my opinion because they believe that human bodies are ugly and they must torture, cure, and hide it. They don't appreciate how sacred life is and try their best to prevent pregnancy. Also, if a woman becomes pregnant, they make them hide it and make them go through the process by themselves. They inflict pain on their people and are willing to put their lives in danger.
Mythical- I would consider the Nacirema culture to be superstitious because of all the different devils and works that they believe in. Many of them performed acts that involved exorcisms and witchcraft. They also believed in magical potions that would hopefully be successful in curing a patient in need. They expressed a great amount of faith in these people but we will never know if it's actually true since they perform all these acts in private. We will never know since we don't have evidence of it.
Mysterious- Their culture will always remain a mystery since they don't want others knowing about their lifestyle. After reading about this culture, it was hard to believe how badly they treated their people. They are basically in control of their lives and make them go through constant pain. I have learned about many cultures in the past and this is the most absurd one so far. They will probably continue to keep their cultural behaviors a mystery since it's morally wrong to treat people this way.
Part B:
1. As an American, I would agree with the descriptive words I chose expect for mysterious and secretive. The reason for this is because many people know about our culture. We seem to very open about it on social media and don't need to keep it a secret. I would definitely use the other three words to describe the American culture. We welcome others and are willing to help them adapt to our culture and traditions.
2. The descriptive words that are unbiased in my option are committed, secretive, and mysterious. These words are unbiased because their are proven facts to support my words. The people kept the tradition going and had faith in the different doctors. They explained how the rituals were done in private and only shared with children. They didn't want other people from different cultures to know what their lifestyles consisted of. They are mysterious because many people don't have a clue about the people from this culture. Professor Miner received this information from the tribe since he wasn't able to experience it himself. Mythical and Immoral are considered biased terms because I used these words to explain their actions. They probably wouldn't agree with these terms because they perform these actions for a specific purpose. These words definitely revealed a judgment of Nacirema that was rooted in my own cultural bias.
3. I tried my best to provide alternate words for my biased words but I couldn't think of any that would be able to explain their culture and get my point across.
4. I think it's very important to avoid ethnocentric judgments when describing other cultures because we must respect other people at all times. If we open our minds to other cultural behaviors, we will educate ourselves and learn good habits that we can implement in our daily lives. If we try our best to avoid ethnocentric judgments, then we will avoid racism and there will be less problems in our world. I think it's possible to completely avoid personal cultural bias as a Cultural Anthropologist. They do an excellent job in answering many questions and getting involved in their cultures. By doing this, they avoid judgment and accept these people for who they are.
Secretive- I would use this word to describe the Nacirema culture because it explained how the rituals that are associated with the shrine are done in private and kept a secret. Also, these rituals are shared with only children which meant that people from other cultures were unaware of the events that were taking place. They are also forced to hide their pregnancies. They continuously expressed the importance of keeping their traditions to their people only.
Committed- They were dedicated to their ways of living and never complained about why they had to do things a certain way. They experienced pain such as having their heads baked in an oven for an hour and having their faces lacerated by sharp objects. The people knew that they were chancing their lives but they had faith in the doctors. These people repeated their culture and were wiling to do anything for it. The people kept the tradition going by putting a shrine in their house and showing respect for the box that contained magical potions and charms.
Immoral- They are immoral in my opinion because they believe that human bodies are ugly and they must torture, cure, and hide it. They don't appreciate how sacred life is and try their best to prevent pregnancy. Also, if a woman becomes pregnant, they make them hide it and make them go through the process by themselves. They inflict pain on their people and are willing to put their lives in danger.
Mythical- I would consider the Nacirema culture to be superstitious because of all the different devils and works that they believe in. Many of them performed acts that involved exorcisms and witchcraft. They also believed in magical potions that would hopefully be successful in curing a patient in need. They expressed a great amount of faith in these people but we will never know if it's actually true since they perform all these acts in private. We will never know since we don't have evidence of it.
Mysterious- Their culture will always remain a mystery since they don't want others knowing about their lifestyle. After reading about this culture, it was hard to believe how badly they treated their people. They are basically in control of their lives and make them go through constant pain. I have learned about many cultures in the past and this is the most absurd one so far. They will probably continue to keep their cultural behaviors a mystery since it's morally wrong to treat people this way.
Part B:
1. As an American, I would agree with the descriptive words I chose expect for mysterious and secretive. The reason for this is because many people know about our culture. We seem to very open about it on social media and don't need to keep it a secret. I would definitely use the other three words to describe the American culture. We welcome others and are willing to help them adapt to our culture and traditions.
2. The descriptive words that are unbiased in my option are committed, secretive, and mysterious. These words are unbiased because their are proven facts to support my words. The people kept the tradition going and had faith in the different doctors. They explained how the rituals were done in private and only shared with children. They didn't want other people from different cultures to know what their lifestyles consisted of. They are mysterious because many people don't have a clue about the people from this culture. Professor Miner received this information from the tribe since he wasn't able to experience it himself. Mythical and Immoral are considered biased terms because I used these words to explain their actions. They probably wouldn't agree with these terms because they perform these actions for a specific purpose. These words definitely revealed a judgment of Nacirema that was rooted in my own cultural bias.
3. I tried my best to provide alternate words for my biased words but I couldn't think of any that would be able to explain their culture and get my point across.
4. I think it's very important to avoid ethnocentric judgments when describing other cultures because we must respect other people at all times. If we open our minds to other cultural behaviors, we will educate ourselves and learn good habits that we can implement in our daily lives. If we try our best to avoid ethnocentric judgments, then we will avoid racism and there will be less problems in our world. I think it's possible to completely avoid personal cultural bias as a Cultural Anthropologist. They do an excellent job in answering many questions and getting involved in their cultures. By doing this, they avoid judgment and accept these people for who they are.
Part A reviewed and scored. I will leave a longer comment on Friday after your Part B submission.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your view on avoiding judgement. It is true about not many people opening up if they feel that they would be judged. Although solutions can be provided in a way that is respectful and helpful for the person or culture to continue to be open minded about the questions and unanswered mysteries of life.
ReplyDeleteHey Lilly,
ReplyDelete(part
Secretive, committed, immoral, mythical, mysterious are the words you chosen to describe the Nacerima people. We actually have a few similarities on the words we have chosen. First of all, you chose the word "secretive" which is close to the word I chose, "private." We both used the word to describe the fact that the Nacerima people Miner talks about are people that generally like to keep to themselves. For the other four words, I also see them as great words to describe the Nacerima mainly because you had great examples to back them up.
(part b)
To begin with, again I agree that mysterious and secretive may not be the perfect words to describe modern day Americans. Although there are people that like to keep to themselves, for the majority that is not necessarily true. I like the example you pointed out, which was social media. That right there is driving most people to throw their life out to the public. Committed, secretive, and mysterious do seem like unbias words. As for mythical, I would personally change it to religious just because the superstitious beliefs they had. They believed in witches and evil.
The discussion in your first paragraph is part B is on point with the question of "secretive" and "mysterious", but this may be the function of when this article was published. Minor published this in 1956, so well before the digital age when we seem to publish everything about us on SnapChat, FB and Instagram.
ReplyDeleteBut regardless of how accurate your words might be, were you satisfied that they are not judgmental or biased?
I agree that "committed" is not seriously biased, though that depends upon your definition, which still leaves it open to interpretation. "Mysterious" may not seem biased, but it is only "mysterious" because you don't understand it, correct? You are only describing this culture based upon your lack of knowledge, not based upon actual facts. "Secretive" suggests they have something to hide, perhaps due to shame or fear or embarrassment. You are leaving a lot unexplained for your reader with this word, opening the door to misinterpretation. "Mythical" is similar to "mysterious" in that it is based upon lack of knowledge on your part. Understanding their practices (and learning that they *don't* practice exorcism or witchcraft) would invalidate this description. "Immoral" is the clearest example of a biased description, based solely on the definition of the word.
You need to step back and look frankly at the words you have chosen, separating yourself from your own culture, in order to see the bias implied by your descriptions of this culture.
I completely understand the difficulty in finding alternative words. The reason for this is that descriptions themselves require an understanding of the culture from which they originate. For the most part, they built from bias. But that is part of the lesson here. Cultural anthropologists really need to avoid pure description. Stick to facts and supportable information.
"If we try our best to avoid ethnocentric judgments, then we will avoid racism and there will be less problems in our world."
I don't disagree, but this is a course in cultural anthropology. Why is it important to avoid bias and judgment as a cultural anthropologist? As cultural anthropologists, we would be communicating information about another culture to the scientific community. We want to make sure that our information is as factually-based as possible. We don't want to pollute that information with our own biases and beliefs, which would give misleading information about that culture.