Body rituals of the Nacirema and witchcraft beliefs in misfortune

Rituals and Witchcraft

Body Ritual among the Nacirema by Horace Miner

Different cultures have various ways of looking at the human body and the manifestation of which in the community or society they live in. Some open societies do not mind having people displaying their bodies in public along with accoutrements that add beauty thereto. Other closed societies frown on display of any body parts especially with female members. The Nacirema of North America have a different way of looking at their bodies and for them, "the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease (Miner, 1956)." This is the same belief most cultures have regarding the human body -- the tendency to grow old and get sick, except for the part of being unsightly. The result of this belief by the Nacirema renders them to have various body rituals to ensure cleansing and rehabilitation or preventative measures in order to rid their bodies of diseases. They perform various rituals to ensure longevity and a healthy life. Unlike most cultures whereby ceremonies are organized and done collectively, the Nacirema do so individuality and in privacy and secrecy of home shrines or temples

The body rituals though cannot be deemed as totally secret and in private considering whilst these are done, there are vestals and/or medicine men present to assist the person in the performance of the tasks. For instance, the Nacirema have a particular obsession with the mouth since they believe that the mouth has "a supernatural influence on all social relationships (Miner, 1956)." As such, they have various body rituals that care for the mouth to ensure that this brings good fortune and better life for them. Like the common practice of most cultures today in the care of the mouth through brushing and flossing of the teeth and gargling with mouthwash, the Nacirema also have a daily mouth ritual that "consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and them moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures (Miner, 1956)."

In the same manner as most of us have our daily mouth rituals like the Nacirema, we also have our annual or bi-annual ones in the form of visiting the dentists. The Nacirema do so by going to a holy mouth-man once or twice a year for a private mouth-rite (Miner, 1956). The tasks performed by the holy moth-man are more sophisticated compared to daily mouth rites of the Nacirema. Aside from the mouth rituals, the Nacirema also have body-rites done also in secrecy and privacy at home shrines and community temples. One such rite is going to the temple where the supplicant performs ablutions while being assisted by vestals as the supplicant is rolled in a bed of pain. Along with this, the vestals may "insert wands in the supplicant's mouth or force him to eat substances which are supposed to be healing (Miner, 1956)."

Despite all the pain and suffering the Nacirema undergo during the various body rituals, whether at their homes or at the temple, they endure such actions because of their beliefs in the healing and curative properties of these rituals. These are no different from what contemporary medicine has been providing us whereby in order to gain health and well-being, we endure some of the more painful medical interventions and protocols. The main difference between contemporary medicine and the Nacirema body rituals is that their beliefs on the effectiveness of the rituals are founded more on faith and magic rather than science. As what Miner posits in his article regarding how the Nacirema survived for so long despite the harsh rituals they have put on themselves; still, the rituals work for them and their beliefs have seen them through the years if not centuries of existence.

The Notion of Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events by Edward E. Evans-Pritchard

Witchcraft has always been part of various cultures all over the world. There are some cultures that have practiced witchcraft as part of their religious, moral and ethical beliefs; thus serving as guides to their day-to-day lives. In the African continent, the practice of witchcraft is widespread and even up to now, there are various tribes and cultures that do so. In the study of African witchcraft though, one of the more comprehensive ones done was by Edward E. Evans that resulted in the publishing of his highly acclaimed book Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande. The 1937 book studied in detail the Azande tribe of the Sudan and how witchcraft figured in their daily lives. Of particular interest is how any Zande can explain root causes of unfortunate events in witchcraft. As how Evans-Pritchard puts it (1937, p. 64), "When a Zande speaks of witchcraft he does not speak of it as we speak of the weird witchcraft of our own history. Witchcraft is to him a commonplace happening and he seldom passes a day without mentioning it."

To the modern man, the Azande tribe's belief in witchcraft as an everyday occurrence and the raison d'etre for unfortunate events is no different from the fatalistic attitudes some of us have or those with strong religious convictions or faiths have. It is not uncommon to hear some say after facing misfortune or "bad luck" that "It's God's will" or "that's my fate." Thus this is basically relegating an "uncontrollable" circumstance to acts beyond the control of humankind. But then, most of us will have reasons for why things happen, even for unfortunate events and the rationale behind them usually are founded on scientific and medical reasoning. For example, people get sick because they did not take care of themselves or they contracted a disease. The Azande however, provides witchcraft as reasons for when bad things happen. However, the difference in their beliefs is not in the "mystical causation alone but by particular conditions in a chain of causation which related an individual to natural happenings in such a way that a misfortune occurred (Evans-Pritchard, 1937, p. 67)."