By now you should all be familiar with the Nacirema, that bizarre, backward, and superstitious, but fascinating tribe, living in the territory between the Cree, the Yaqui, and the Carib.
What further anthropological insight has been brought to bear upon them? Any new findings to report?
[sub]Before anyone jumps on me, when I first read the article back in cégep, they were the Naidanac…[/sub]
The Nacirema are now on the warpath. They hunt the Towelhead Tribe, who made evil magic, & caused Great Silver Thunderbirds to fall from the sky and slay many hunters & gatherers. It also carried away all of the Nacirema’s negotiable debantures.
When they catch up to the Witch Doctor who made the evil magic, they’re gonna make a human sacrifice.
Hm… never heard of 'em. Have I missed something in the news?
[sub]First thing I thought when reading the subject line: Oh, no, that stupid dance craze is back![/sub]
Whoosh.
Read the name of the tribe backwards, Maeglin. Much will become clearer…
Reminds me of an article our teacher gave us to read in (IIRC) 6th grade, about a tribe that worships “racs” despite the awful mess they made, how many people they killed each year, and so on. I figured it out a few paragraphs in.
Ferrous, I got it quickly as well when I read about “them”. Made me laugh my ass off!
Yeah, our teacher gave it to us the first day or so of Political Science this year (my senior year). The same one you linked to, matt_mcl.
Ferrous, wouldn’t that be “srac”?
As for the OP…the Nacirema also enjoy a game in which the skin of a dead pig is hurled through the air. Indeed, one day a year, the biggest and most barbaric of the tribe prepare for this ritual. All the male members seat themselves before the cube shaped orb and partake of pork rinds and alcoholic substances in order to fatten themselves. Yes, it is a violent and cruel ritual, but let us not judge these people, primitive as they are in their ways.
I loved this piece when we read it for my World Religions class. I got the joke at the beginning. It really made us all think.
Didn’t make me think. Seemed bloody silly to me.
Ah. Whoosh indeed. :smack:
They’ve started a SPIT program. Sounds yucky.
Is that SPIT as in “I just spit soda all over my monitor?”
Ah yes, the Nacirema. They have a new spiritual leader named Mailliw Setag. They worship him because he owns all the ones and zeros.
We read the Nacirema article too, back in high school World Cultures. My favorite part was the women waitin in line to pay to have their heads baked.
Haha, seeing how long ago everyone got this article made me realize even more how much of a joke my Sociology 101 class was in college.
We did have an assignment to consider another aspect of culture from this standpoint. It was really amusing. Sports can be really strange if try this (I’m guilty myself–if you think about it, being a fan is weird; wearing a shirt with someone else’s name on it?).
Ah yes, a friend of mine observed that the southern peoples of this tribe enjoy a peculiar drink called “aet deci”.
To make this drink you pick the leaves from a certain plant when they are ripe and green, then lay them out until they are dry and brown.
Then take the dry brown leaves and add water to them to make them wet again.
Then put the leaf-water over fire to make it very hot.
Then remove the leaves.
Then refrigerate the liquid to make it cold.
Add sugar to make it sweet, then lemon to make it sour.
Raise a glass and say “here’s to you!” and drink it yourself.
Strange indeed.
And Ahtram Trawets is hated by everyone for making us feel guilty because she has too much time on her hands!