Assignment：
1.Read the text;
2.Consult the dictionary to find out the meanings of all the new words;
3.Try to understand the body ritual of the Nacirema, esp. the details as
suggested by the expressions in heavy black黑体;
4. Reflect on your interpretation by resorting to bottom-up and top-down网络营销广告的形式
processing.
Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
Horace Miner
The anthropologist has come so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different peoples behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprid by even the most exot
ic customs. In fact, if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he is apt to suspect that they must be prent in some undescribed tribe. This point has in fact, been expresd with respect to clan organization by Murdock. In this light, the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema prent such unusual aspects that it ems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go.
Professor Linton first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists twenty years ago, but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood. They are a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumara of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the east.
Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy which has evolved in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people’s time devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of the fruits of the labors and a considerable portion of the day ar
e spent in ritual activity. The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people. While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its ceremonial aspects and associated philosophy are unique.
荒蛮故事
心得体会总结The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and dia. Incarcerated in such a body, a man’s only hope is to avert the characteristics through the u of the powerful influences of ritual and ceremony. Every houhold has one or more shrines麻仁润肠丸说明书 devoted to this purpo. The more powerful individuals in the society have veral shrines in their hous and, in fact, the opulence of a hou is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it posss. Most hous are of wattle and daub construction, but the shrine rooms of the more wealthy are walled with stone. Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine walls.
辰楠旧事
The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall. In this chest are
kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live. The preparations are cured from a variety of specialized practitioners. The most powerful of the are the medicine men, who assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts. However, the medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their clients, but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and cret language. This writing is understood only by the medicine men and by the herbalists who, for another gift, provide the requited charm.
The charm is not dispod of after it has rved its purpo, but is placed in the charm-box of the houhold shrine as the magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or imagined maladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to overflowing. The magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purpos were and fear to u them again. While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical material is that their prence in the charm-box, before which the body rituals are conducted, will in some way protect the worshipper.
Beneath the charm-box is a small font. Each day every member of the family, in succession, enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablution. The holy waters are cured from the Water Temple of the community, where the priests conduct elaborate ceremonies to make the liquid ritually pure.
In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine men in prestige, are specialists who designation is best translated as “holy-mouth-men.” The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends dert them, and their lovers reject them. They also believe that a strong relationship exists between oral and moral characteristics. For example, there is a ritual ablution of the mouth for the children which is suppod to improve their moral fiber.
The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that the people are so punctilious about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice that
strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inrting a small bundle of boar hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powder, and the moving of the bundle in a highly formalized ries of gestures.齐大胜
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