Thesis Statement
Discovering America’s diversity and/ or ethnocentrism through the use of sociological imagination while exploring the body rituals and customs used by Nacirema (American) Tribes.
Introduction
Anthropologists strive every day to employ culturally relative methods to their research, and have made great strides in the understanding of foreign cultures and societies. We must also, however, notice that these ethnocentric interpretations are sometimes more accurate than we can imagine. Cultural relativism is crucial to our understanding of unknown people and cultures. Without it, we are subject to misinterpretation and incorrect assumptions, which is exactly what Miner was trying to tell us. Being able to subjectively take a step back from the safety and comfort of our own well placed and overtly understood glass houses, while acknowledging that to know another culture requires a full understanding of that cultures beliefs and motivations. Given our normal every day rituals, we interpret what we do or say as the truth, despite the fact the different people have different cultures binding and guiding them as their norms. Therefore, the diversity can be just as surprising for the outsider, as perhaps it is for us at times. The author (Minor, 1956) details his script while using qualitative research methodology of the Nacierma (American) people and their explicit body rituals and beliefs through humorous observations and cleverly defined language defaults. He thoughtfully defines our ideologies with our economic pursuits, along with our stronger sense of development with the improper self -diagnosed images, known as our bodies, appearances and the American way of living. We as Americans, a unique cultural group, can be viewed by many others as being extreme or bias in our own self impressions, beliefs, and even undefinable