When I first read
Nacirema during the class, I thought it was about a traditional tribe who
resided in Northern America. With that, in in-class essay, I wrote whether
technological advancement has brought benefit to our lives. However, as I
figured out what the essay was about, I was extremely shocked and bemused by
the secrets in the essay. Flipping back the spellings of Nacirema is America,
and thus, the entire essay was about criticizing America, not introducing a
traditional culture.
The reason why we were shocked was because of
the cultural bias we had with American culture. The fact that the culture which
was perceived as a weird, traditional culture was actually a culture of the
United States in 1956 brought enormous shock to me. I believe that 1956 was the
age of cold war, where lots of technology is showing advancements. However,
imagining such culture becoming a traditional culture, it was definitely shocking.
In this essay, there are some features that imply
Nacirema means American such as that the region is located between Canada and
Mexico. Nevertheless, for me at least, it was hard to figure out what the main
point of the essay was, as not only I was unfamiliar with the term ‘Nacirema’,
but also because it’s hard to come up with the idea of flipping back the
spelling of it. Thus, the essay has criticized the social problems of united states
without directly addressing it.
With this, as I realized what the essay’s goal
really was, I was definitely shocked. Furthermore, it helped me to think about
how we should look toward a culture. Through the understanding of the passage,
I felt that it is important to not have bias about a typical culture. Normally,
when people discuss about traditional cultures that are passed down from the
past, we usually imagine something spiritual and unordinary customs. However,
realizing that such a culture is actually the culture of the United States,
which I thought to be somewhat modern, we should not try to examine a culture
with prejudice, as it can hinder us to make exact realization of the culture.
