The Nacirema Effect

            The piece we read about the Nacirema and their bizarre ideas about their mouths blew my mind.  The whole time, even though I was noticing the clues as to the identity of the Nacirema, I’d just think “huh, that’s similar to (whatever aspect of our culture was in question).”  I didn’t realize the subject of the piece was our own culture until Richard mentioned something about the invention of the toothbrush.

            Why is it that my brain was able to find a multitude of similarities between our culture and that of the Nacirema, but still maintain an attitude of separation and surprise at the weird beliefs described?  At the mention of the mouth-related rite of ablution in children to improve “moral fiber,” the soap incident from the movie A Christmas Story came to my mind (Miner 318).  When the Miner’s piece discussed how the people of the mysterious tribe believed all sorts of miseries would befall them if they ceased obsessive dental hygiene – “their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed … their friends desert them” – I thought of how similar this was to our own societal beliefs about the mouth, but I still didn’t consciously make the full connection (318).  Am I unusually clueless?  Yes.  I don’t know how quickly the rest of the class realized the true identity of the Nacirema, but I’m fascinated by the fact that it took at least me so long to clue in.

            I think the root cause (unplanned tooth pun) of my feelings of distance from the people described is that we are raised to view other cultures as slightly weird.  The good thing is, we’re also trained to look for commonalities between ourselves and any other group of people, which is probably why I noticed all the connections between the Nacirema and my own culture.  The disturbing revelation is that even as we tell ourselves we accept all others, that differences are good, there’s still a part of us that says “That’s weird!”, and finds the weirdness distancing.  Weird is good, I think – we want to celebrate differences.  The trick I’m seeking is the one that would allow me to say “Weird Nacirema people!” without feeling so separate from them.  The point of the piece, I think is thus: We shouldn't distance ourselves from others just because we think the others are strange, because from an outsider’s view, we’re pretty weird ourselves.