a Writing about Writing about a Writing about Nacirema

americanacirema

After paying a quick glimpse at Body Ritual among the Nacirema by Horace Miner, my immediate response was neither very bright nor positive. It was near shock with the thought of, “They are weird!” which didn’t change much even after a few more tries on the piece. At first sight, the Naciremas were this primitive, barbaric tribe in which the people’s rights weren’t even guaranteed. I made comparisons between the Naciremas and the Mayan Civilization, arguing that they were similar in terms of how they’ve held such barbaric rituals and which inflicts pain to people. I had thought that it was pretty intriguing to have two distinct tribes, which has similar lifestyles, to arise in similar geographic locations.

The article was convincing enough to fool all of my peers into thinking that the Naciremas is a distinct tribe that we never heard or know of. It sure had an academic tone, rich fluency, and those sophisticated, big SAT vocabularies studded in between sentences. Everyone seemed to be flabbergasted at the difficulty of the text, and had no time to dwell on each terms’ meaning that were frequently given hints of because we were all too busy reading and processing the packs of information hurled at us at once.

And the night before I walked into Mr. Menard’s writing class again, when I had just snuggled into bed, the Naciremas suddenly came up in mind. I decided to hold a research on them, and found out what this article was really about. I went through the article again with such knowledge, and everything made so much sense.

Had this article written in norms, using familiar words such as “American”, “hospital”, “Washington”, or “getting one’s hair done”, it wouldn’t have been as catchy and mindboggling when Miner’s intentions in writing this were revealed. Because there were terms I never thought I’d come across, I was able to have a more objective view on the everyday environment I’m living in, and it was interesting to think that this is what Indians would have thought of my everyday life to be when I was living in India. I guess language and tone plays a big role in how the essay could be perceived by other people. Also I thought that all those weird stories we hear about other civilizations: how weird they act and what weird things they do, those aren’t as weird for them as for us. The Mayans’ human sacrifice, or the gladiators of Rome? Just like the Nacirema, it would be beautifully normal for them to do those “unusual” activities.

After having the moment of epiphany regarding the true meaning of this article, I was shocked, again. It wasn’t because of the Naciremas’ cruelty, but because I came across this really new kind of writing style. I’ve always wanted to incorporate such sarcasm and wit (smrt) in my writings which I’ve always failed. By writing this article, Miner caught two rabbits at once: mocking the American civilization by his satirical writing, and providing a new view on how writing can effectively affect its readers, which are the intrinsic values of this piece.