Week 3 Reflection Assignment PDF

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Week Three Reflection Assignment The article Body Ritual Amongst the Nacirema  is about the American society. I was able to understand this because of the satire in the piece. He describes the Nacirema as a North American “tribe” which also sprawls out to Canada. The purpose in this piece is to make fun of the culture that we have created in the United States and in North America. Ethnocentrism is the tendency of people to judge other cultures and their ways of life, in a way that makes their own culture seem superior to others. After reading the article, it is clear that Miner is describing how American’s practice hygiene and the application of cosmetics. The ethnocentrism is applicable when Miner attempts to make us (the reader) think that the culture he is describing is strange compared to the one that we live in. However, the reality is that he is describing our culture. In a way, the article played with my brain, because for a second I thought my own culture was superior, when the reality is our culture has similar practices or traditions to other cultures as well. Cultural relativity is the concept of how people view other cultures from the perspective of their own. As I mentioned earlier, I viewed the culture that the author was describing in the essay as strange, until I realized that it was indeed American culture. In other words, from the perspective of my own culture, I began to judge the Nacirema's ways of practicing hygiene and cosmetics, which is indeed cultural relativism....