Nacirema

When I started college I had no idea what I wanted to study. So, naturally, I took a variety of different classes for no apparent reason. One of my favorite classes was Anthropology. In this class we studied a culture/group of people called the Nacirema.

These people are masochistic, narcissistic and barbaric. They have hundreds of odd rituals that are done on a regular basis. Here is an excerpt from an article about them.

The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.

In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy- mouth-man once or twice a year. These practitioners have an impressive set of paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of augers, awls, probes, and prods. The use of these items in the exorcism of the evils of the mouth involves almost unbelievable ritual torture of the client. The holy-mouth-man opens the client's mouth and, using the above mentioned tools, enlarges any holes which decay may have created in the teeth. Magical materials are put into these holes. If there are no naturally occurring holes in the teeth, large sections of one or more teeth are gouged out so that the supernatural substance can be applied. In the client's view, the purpose of these ministrations is to arrest decay and to draw friends. The extremely sacred and traditional character of the rite is evident in the fact that the natives return to the holy-mouth-men year after year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay.

It is to be hoped that, when a thorough study of the Nacirema is made, there will be careful inquiry in to the personality structure of these people. One has but to watch the gleam in the eye of a holy-mouth-man, as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of sadism is involved. If this can be established, a very interesting pattern emerges, for most of the population shows definite masochistic tendencies.

So why am I telling you about these people? Well, I did something yesterday that I hated. I went to visit a holy-mouth-man and had my teeth scraped with a metal hook. Yup, the dentist.

The good news is I still don't have any cavities (26 years and counting). Although my kids have 4 between the two of them. Poor things.

And in case you havn't figured it out yet, read Nacirema backwards. If you're interested you can read the whole article here. It's pretty cool.