Body Rituals of the Nacirema Discussion Questions

"Body Rituals of the Nacirema" Discussion Questions

Initial Questions - Assess the Quality

1. How do the public portray the Nacirema? 2. Why are they isolated from society? 3. Why are one of the main beliefs that the body is ugly? 4. How did Horace Miner manage to get his information? 5. What is moon? 6. Was the anthropologist American? 7. Why do they go to the restroom in secret? 8. Why do they think mothers curse their babies? 9. Who is the sadist in our community? 10. How does this story describe our 21st century? 11. Is this an example of how conquerors/observers have a bias? 12. Why is intercourse taboo? "Body Rituals of the Nacirema" Discussion Questions

Criteria for useful discussion questions

 Interesting and thought-provoking to the participants  Open-ended and have no simple or single "right" answer  Lead to greater understanding of the ideas in the text  Include clues (explicit or implicit) from the text

New Questions - Revise, Organize, and Prioritize 1. Why are they masochistic?

2. How do you feel the author manipulated you into thinking it was a foreign tribe and not American?

3. Why does Horace Miner talk about dentists and hospitals like that?

4. What is the author's tone, bias, or not bias?

5. Why would an American anthropologist say "Nacirema" rather than "American"?

6. Why did Horace Miner decide to describe this culture in such a precise way? What was his purpose? What is his point?

7. Is this an example of how conquerors/observers believe that what every tribe does has to do with magic?

8. Why does everything the author/anthropologist describes in the article seem so weird?

9. Why is the author using symbolism instead of being explicit?

10. Why was magic such a big deal?

11. Why do women have to dress to hide their "condition"? Why is it referred to as a "condition"?