Nacirema Culture A Review of the Literature Abstract Various anthropologists and sociologists have used the term Nacirema to examine aspects of the behavior and society of citizens of the United States of America. Nacirema offers a form of word play by spelling “American” backwards.…
With the use of a wide variety of sources required of any powerful reflection of an indigenous population Richter’s book, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, successfully extends the time period and geographic location of American history; retelling the story of the European-Indian encounter in North America east of the Mississippi (including Spanish Florida and French…
Americans have a well-established tradition of imposing themselves onto other, less powerful peoples. The United States government has perfectly exemplified this when it comes to their treatment of Native Americans. Since their arrival in the fifteenth century, Europeans have exterminated Indian tribes, relocated them, and attacked their cultures. These strategies compounded and advanced well into the modern era, coming into fruition in the American government’s policies of termination in the 1950s, The Dawes Act of 1887, and Richard Pratt’s boarding schools in the late nineteenth century. Sherman Alexie’s…
Douglas Cole wrote an article called “Underground Potlatch.” The main purpose of the article was to enlighten people about a custom that because of cultural differences was banned under Canadian law. In the article, Dan Cranmer had a ceremony which is called a potlatch for his Nimkish Kwakiutl family that was a distinguished tradition for them. This particular potlatch was made famous not only because of the items that were exchanged during the celebration but because of all of the criminal charges that were brought up against the attendees. This situation along with most things in history is related to different aspects in Cultural Anthropology.…
The Novel Fools Crow written by James Welch depicts a fictional story of the tribe of the Lone eaters. The reading itself provided a different point of view of the situation that the Native Americans lived in after the influx of migrants in search of their wealth. Throughout the novel one can understand the causes of the conflict between the Native Americans and the White society. One can also depict different aspects of Native American culture throughout the novel that are crucial for understanding it’s the way it function and what were the causes of its downfall. In order to understand the situation in more depth one must see the historical connectivity with the fictional story as well.…
Leslie Marmon Silko is a Laguna Pueblo writer who was born on March 5, 1948 in New Mexico. Inspite of the fact that she as published many works, such as Alamanac of the Dead (1991) and Gardens in the Dunes (2000), the main work that made her famous (ide valami szofisztikáltabb kellene xd ) was her first novel, the Ceremony (1977). Growing up on the edge of the Laguna Pueblo Reservation, her earliest experiences were between culture and traditions. Most of her works focus on the alienation of Native Americans in a white society. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how brilliantly she demonstrated mixed blood indentity in Ceremony, which was a common theme in twentieth century Native American literature.…
The Green Corn Ceremony is an important Native American gathering. This passage will pertain solely to the Floridian Seminole ideas with some mention of Oklahoma Seminoles. Each tribe has their own rituals and traditions but are fairly all connected. To the Seminoles, the Green Corn Ceremony represents the first corn of July or August. Therefore, the special event is held every year to celebrate the growing season and a new year or new beginnings.…
Have you ever thought about the difference between Native American tribes? I am going to discuss the different ways of how the Dakota and Ojibwe Indians lived. Both Dakota and Ojibwe had specific tasks for men’s and women’s some of these tasks were the same and somewhere different. They also shared and defined food and dwelling. In this essay I am going to compare and contrast the Dakota and Ojibwe Indians.…
Some of these rituals include a daily mouth-rite, visits to the holy mouth men, and visits to the latipso if they are sick. Through this essay, the author uses repetition to help get his point across. He uses the word Nacirema to help readers distinguish the culture that these people are from. He also uses this word a large amount of times to help familiarize the readers with it and also help them figure out that Nacirema is actually American spelled backwards.…
I have always imagined that there was more to the culture and history of Native Americans than just what I was taught in school; for that reason, In the Hands of the Great Spirit by Jake Page attracted me. Although I realized that a book about the twenty thousand year history of Native Americans would be like reading a textbook, which is not something I do during my free time, I considered the fact that I would actually learn more about a topic that is not “properly” taught in school. One of the biggest topics that I explored in this book was Native American culture; this is an aspect that I had never been taught anywhere else, but that Jake Page really illuminates with myths and pictures placed throughout the book. In addition to that, I…
The effect the European American’s culture had on the Native Americans is still very prominent today because the stereotypical American Indian still persists both in life and literature. By erasing their languages and teaching European ways exclusively, the Native American culture has slowly disappeared. The culture has been slowly degraded by an increase of acceptance of Native American stereotypical attributes such as alcoholism, laziness, and gambling addictions among others. Indigenous people were deeply affected by European American culture and have been fighting stereotypes to rebuild the foundations of their identity that have been neglected throughout a painful history. Often times, stereotypes can be positive, but more often than…
Native Americans have always been given the stereotype of "wild savages" by white settlers. The Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison gives a more caring, and human quality to the so-called "wild savages". Through Mary's narrative, the traditions of Native American, as well as the domestic roles of men and women are analyzed. Throughout her captivity, Mary mentions that she was treated with the utmost respect by her Indian family.…
The Stolen Generation Elouise Campbell 8C The poem, The Stolen Generation, is a message about the loss of Aboriginal culture and the transformation into ‘white society’. The poet, David Keig, conveys the message that people get taken from their parents as merely babies, growing up in church schools, and turning those kids into ‘civilised’ people. The structure of this poem is a short lined, 8 verse poem developing the ideas of changing culture and religion. By using shorter lines, and stronger words, the poet has put emphasis on the harsh emotional disturbance those children and adults had to endure.…
The article Body Ritual among the Nacirema by Horace Miner is about culture and rituals. Culture is defined as “a system of ideas, values, beliefs, knowledge, norms, customs, and technology shared by almost everyone in a particular society” (Basirico, Cashion, and Eshleman 99). In other words, it’s a way of life in society or a specific geographical area. According to the author, Nacirema is between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui, and Tarahumare of Mexico, which offer the readers some insight of the true meaning of the text.…
The Secret Ingredient to Reading Enjoyment “A watched pot never boils.” Whatever that means. That is just one of the many phrases my mom reiterated during my childhood. Of course, I never gave it much thought. It sounded silly to me.…