Nacimera? American!

Nacimera? American!

121132 Jo Hyung Woo

      When people judge certain culture or a society, they do it in their own standards. Therefore, the evaluation differs from a person to person. This variety has derived from difference in personal experience, knowledge and the environment that the each panel was raised on. By their own standards, people sometimes criticize others and praise others. Therefore, there are some situations which seem extremely bizarre while others think it is not.

     For those people like me who are not familiar with metaphors, Body Ritual Among the Nacimera seemed like an article criticizing at Nacimeran culture. After having a lot of researches, however, I soon recognized that the article was actually focusing on American culture. When we spell the word nacimera backwards, it actually becomes the word American. Men scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument meant shaving and women baking their heads in small ovens for about an hour meant drying hairs. Furthermore ancient code alludes that the doctor’s handwriting is illegible in prescription. There are other numerous metaphors that could be found in the book such as holy mouth man, medicine man etc. Actually, every sentences are metaphor of daily lives of American.

     After finishing the research, I was able to find out that the author was actually talking about the American culture. When I first read the article, I was not able to comprehend author’s intention since I was reading the passage based on by personal experience. There is a famous saying “ritual makes a society one, but it does not make societies one.” Rituals are an indigenous part of the society which differentiates society from others. Therefore, to fully understand others culture, one should approach in different perspective. The most important thing to understand other culture is to become free of bias which has been formed by rituals in one’s own society. As a matter of fact, to understand different culture, one should exclude prejudice and think outside of the box.