Things in
Language, Things in Us.
When I first met
the Nacirema, I was astonished by their primitive and cruel culture. Sympathy
toward the patients in latipso made me grimace. Jabbing equipment into an
exposed nerve, gouging out the large sections of one or more teeth were thought
to be rare in modern days and unfamiliar to me. However, I soon found out that
we may be the patients at latipso of another tribe, Nareok, obsessed with dental
cleanness, suffering from the depreciation of human body and the lookism prevalent throughout
the society.
I was astounded
to find out the Nacirema actually portrayed the life of American. There was a huge
difference between reading the article before knowing that the Nacirema are
imaginary and after. However, I found one thing in common in both cases of
reading this article for the first time, and after realizing this was faked; Language
played a significant role in both cases. In this reflection, I will briefly
mention the first case, and primarily focus on the second case.
While reading ‘the
body ritual among the Nacirema’ for the first time, not knowing I was being
tricked, I was interested at that the medicine men uses ancient, secret
language so that only themselves and herbalists can know what’s written. I
thought this could be the factor of normal Nacirema’s inability to resist their
eccentric culture. According to the article, the patients are forced to blindly
follow whatever medicine men say. They keep ‘magical potion’ even though they
don’t know what function it serves. In latipso, they receive all kinds of
treatment despite the psychological shock and discomfort. In short, the
medicine men possess ultimate power in Nacirema society. I expected ancient language
veiled in secrecy to be the key of their power. They use restricted
communication to basically prevent crowd from approaching their power and
social status. Normal Nacirema have nothing more than just to follow what they
are assigned to do because they don’t know what’s going on, which made them
impossible to even cast doubt about it..
When I read the
article for the second time, I also felt that the language played an important
role. The writer, Horace Miner’s idea was undoubtedly creative to use words
such as ‘Nacirema’, ‘latipso’ and ‘holy-mouth-men’ instead of ‘American’, ‘hospital’,
and ‘dentist’ to give the reader a completely different image. He also used ‘ritual’,
’magical’ several times, generating an image of ancient, primitive tribe
relying on unrealistic world, and specific terms like ‘sadism’, ‘harsh’, ‘lacerating’,
‘gums bleeding’, making the reader feel aversion and disgust. Lastly, Miner
criticizes the reality and gives new image of terms by setting a different
meaning. For example, ‘latipso’, wordplay of hospital, is described as ‘temple’,
and it is said that ‘that is where you go to die.’ He used this term, implicitly
criticized and humiliated of American culture. Using new terms along with new
definition exposed the inconvenient truth. He is describing the culture of
Americans in 1950s, but his writing style and the use of language created an
aversion and new image. By selecting such terms, the writer could satirize the
lookism and obsession of Americans in 1950s, making the article an interesting
and impressive piece.
We wouldn’t have
considered the same culture cruel if we used ‘Americans’, ‘hospital’, and ‘dentist’.
But, since the small changes in language defined the image and ambience of the
whole writing, I found myself trapped by reality disguised by the linguistic expression.
Then I realized the same could happen in any case. When translating the
traditional terms, little altering can cause huge misunderstandings, and I
think nobody can judge the culture just by some article or references. Unless
he or she goes to the field and examine the culture with their own eyes, they
are easy to develop wrong and biased point of view affected by the writer of
references. In fact, it is same for everything that we shouldn’t hasten judging
the matters. After reading ‘The Body Ritual among the Nacirema’, I grew to be
discreet on judging and deciding my point of view.
‘The Body Ritual
among the Nacirema’ is the most unique writing I’ve ever read. Horace Miner made
a success in effectively criticizing the lookism, obsession, and depreciation
of human body by special terms and language. However, these are still prevalent
and the Korean also show the same tendency. Now, we need to see things as they
are. ‘They’ can be culture or ourselves. What’s important is accepting ‘just the way they are’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhCEhWiKXk
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