On Monday we were assigned to read pages 87-91 in Down to To Earth Sociology. The section talked about a tribe who believed in magic. The tribe people would have a shrine, and a box filled with medicinal potion/herbs. They would see a person to have decaying teeth treated with some magical substance. It went has far as having their own version of an exorcist that would purge their mind. This tribe was known as the Nacirema tribe. In reality this tribe doesn’t exist; its just regular Americans. The section was really about contemporary America at the time. Their exorcist is a psychiatrist, their dentists is a dentists, and their shrine is a bathroom. What the author of that article did was taking American culture and showing it from an outsider’s view.
01/30/2019
Sociology Blog 