health-conscious - though economic prosperity seems to dominate a huge portion of "Nacirema" life, a secondary and equal value has been placed on health and ritualistic, to the point of doing certain things more than one time per day
secretive- though everyone seems to engage in these rituals several times a day, they are done in private.
worrisome - by the fact that the Nacirema do these rituals everyday, they still worry about ailments such as having your teeth fall out, bleeding gums, and other health detriments.
sadistic- these people endure great pain at times to keep their mouths health, even if it involves seeing a "holy-mouth man" who subjects them to more pain than if they abstained from their rituals in the first place.
indoctrinated - children seem to be the only ones who question sick houses like "latipsos" because they have not been fully exposed to their own culture yet. Adults seem to have no qualms about going to heal at a "latipso" if they can offer a valid gift.
Part B
1. I still feel as though the descriptive words I chose were accurate, though they described my own American culture. However, I feel as though most of the developed world acts as the Nacirema does. All these descriptive words could be used to describe more than just Americans.
2. My words are certainly not free from bias. Accurate, but not free from bias. For example, it might be condescending to say people are sadistic to endure pain for health, but its exactly what happens. However, health conscious is not charged with bias, but is also accurate. Indoctrinate can be a little biased, but its a word I picked from Miner himself. Indoctrinated would assume that these people can't reason for themselves and are products of their environment, mindlessly acting as everyone else does.
3. I would replace sadistic with brutal. Stabbing at gums with an awl is certainly brutal by most people's standards. I would replace indoctrinated with trained, because children are shaped and trained to hold the values that their Nacirema culture values.
4. Avoiding judgement is key. Just because I am examining something another group does not mean that I am entirely different from them, or better than, I could be judging aspects of myself. Also, if I am different, that does not make me better either. I do believe it is possible to avoid cultural bias once you realize that an anthropologist's task is to describe and research, not judge praise or condemn.
I agree completely with how you answered number four on part B. I think that as Americans, some of us have developed the mindset that we are above other people because of where we live, our lifestyles, the jobs or connections we have, etc. It is so important that we remember that while there are many people in other countries that do live similarly to what we are used to, there is a population just as large, if not larger, that does not and just because we were not born into those situations like they were, does not make us better.
ReplyDeleteGood self-exploration on your word choice. I was interested in your replacement word of "brutal". Doesn't that also carry a negative bias as I have never heard the word used in a positive way to describe human behavior.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot more faith than I do that we can avoid bias! We are human, so I think it is essentially impossible to get rid of all of our bias. But we are certainly more likely to avoid it if we are aware of it.
Nice job.
I will also agree that portion of the statement #4 of part B was dead on accurate. It didnt really dawn on me that many of the statements that i personally chose jumped out at me because they were words that spoke up the loudest, they were words that i could relate the most. Your statement "does not mean that I am entirely different from them, or better than, I could be judging aspects of myself" was the train of thought i couldnt phrase in my own words. But i will have to say that Im somewhat sceptical in believing that we are able to remove all bias, then again that train of though could be construded as a bias opinion. I will have to say that thru the assimilation of other cultural knowledge and understanding we can hope to reduce that bias.
ReplyDeleteMPenich...
ReplyDeleteI found one of your comments in my other class. Don't go wandering! Please use the Course Blogs link in our course to access student blogs and leave comments. Don't use the course blog to follow student username links to their blogs as you might end up in the wrong class. You run the risk that I won't see your comment and you will lose credit.
MPenich,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your blog. I share the same sentiment to your answer for question number 1 in Part B. While I was reading Miner's article, I was thinking how can this society have so many American similarities. It difficult to stay objective. Also I found myself using the relativism theory
"that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them." That is why I answered that I was uncertain whether or not a Cultural Anthropologist can be unbiased, after all we are all human! Now I know better : )
MPenich...
ReplyDeleteGreat job analyzing your work and being able to see that all of your words had some kind of bias in them, something i didnt see as clearly as you. I had a lot of similar views, i enjoyed reading your part B!
MPenich,
ReplyDeleteI'd say that even though some of the words you chose have bias, they were accurate in their descriptions, and considering that the article deliberately tries to get a person to form a biased opinion i think the words you chose were much less biased than some harsher alternatives.