August 29, 2005

In the 1950s, Dr Miner rediscovered a poorly-studied group. Dr. Miner wrote what might be seen as a typical (albeit brief) ethnography for the time, focusing on rituals and health. This group was revisited in the 1970s by a Mr. Thompson, who focused on the environment.

I saw that some people had some questions in a previous thread about what an 'ethnography' is. As I return to teaching Anthro 100 tomorrow, I thought those of you who hadn't read about Naciremian culture before would get a kick out of these.

posted by cobaltnine 18 years ago
  • Sorry,but tracicle got there first. (And, it's a bit tidier if follow-ons are added the the original thread.)
  • Ah... brings back good memories of my first anthropology class, where we learned about the Nacirema early on. My professor was a tiny ancient woman who was a shaman in Papua New Guinea. It was from her that I learned that we don't eat our pets for the same reasons that we don't have sex with our family members.
  • Wellllllll... I'm glad this wasn't appended to the original thread, because I would have missed it. :) There are many reasons why I don't eat my pets, but chief among them is that I know where they've been.
  • There are many reasons why I don't eat my pets, but chief among them is that I prefer the ripe flesh of human beings.
  • Chy, I think this isn't the right place to talk about what you and the Mrs do in the bedroom.
  • ...glad this wasn't appended to the original thread... Clearly, not everyone has time or inclination to check out all links in every thread. One of monkeyfilter's unusual features is that threads here never close -- which means they can ba added on to indefinitely, and that comments/discussions can continue over long periods of time. Having only a few threads on a topic to search through is far easier than having to sift through a dozen or more. The confusion of finding the currently active one of wendell's many word-game threads or the Turkmenbashi threads using Search are cases in point.. So keeping the number of threads on a topic down tends to be less time-consuming in the long run and therefore more desirable.
  • Dang, somehow I missed that entirely. I saw the article mentioned but didn't see the link to it, even when I made sure to search extra. I blame my department.
  • "A man, whose own wife has never seen him in an excretory act, suddenly finds himself naked and assisted by a vestal maiden while he performs his natural functions into a sacred vessel. This sort of ceremonial treatment is necessitated by the fact that the excreta are used by a diviner to ascertain the course and nature of the client's sickness. Female clients, on the other hand, find their naked bodies are subjected to the scrutiny, manipulation and prodding of the medicine men." Damn. Is it just me, or is that strangely arousing?
  • Dr. Miners study of the Nacirema was "revered" as a prime example of anthropological methodology when I was studying in the merry 60´es, and surprisingly few of the 1st year Antrhropology students latched on to the joke until it was actually explained to them. Amazing!
  • Why did kimdog learn the Macarena in an anthropology class?? Me so confused.
  • My Anthro 2 (Intro to Cultural) professor made us all read it five years ago and about half the class got it and we discussed it in a very tongue-in-cheek fashion while the other half looked at us like we were crazy. I do believe one classmate said something like, "What tribe is this? They're, like, all over the United States."
  • Well, Goetter. The year was 1993 and it was an anthropology hazing incident.