In the academic essay " Body Ritual among the Nacirema", by Horace Minor, we are shown some of our faults in a deceiving manor. We are convinced that there is such a tribe as the Nacirema, and as we are told their rituals seem extreme and almost ridiculous. When we finally reach then end we realize that the whole time Minor is really criticizing our American culture. The satirical tone that Minor affects the by showing us how obsessed we are with our body image. The words that he uses to describe what goes on (rituals, rites, shrines) are very influential in the extent of how much we buy into this culture.
The first thing that affects the reader is Minor's overall tone about the Nacirema rituals, a tone of satire and sarcasm. As the reader starts reading and the tone sets in, the readers themselves start to develop the same tone in their reactions to the text. When we read his criticism on the bathroom rituals we have (without understanding that he's describing our culture) our reactions often include those of surprise at the extent that these people are going to with their shrines and such. " That the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency to debility and disease. Incarcerated in such a body, man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of the powerful influences of ritual and ceremony. (Paragraph 4)" The tone alone is not enough to change our perspectives, this is why his words help do that.
In using words like ritual, rite, shrines and renaming doctors, shrinks, ect. Minor is able to sway our thoughts and make us truly believe that this is a different culture. "The patient simply tells the "listener" all his troubles and fears, beginning with the earliest difficulties he can remember. (Paragraph 17)" When he first starts discussing medicine men and listeners, we assume that there is no way this can have anything to do with our culture because no where in American society do have either of these things, but in reality we do.
