Body and Soul of Nacerima

 

After reading the insightful information about the Nacerima population: I have concluded that they are very spiritual, secretive, organized, traditional and dedicated.

Their spiritual beliefs go beyond what I have ever imagined or let alone experienced. To start off, they believe in magical medicine and magical tools. Horace Miner explains in the first paragraphs of Body Ritual of the Nacerima that the Nacerima population exhibit a shrine in their homes and provide magical offerings. “In the chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live.” (Horace Miner, Body Ritual of the Nacerima, 1956). In addition to having magical potions in their shrine, they bring daily holy water purified by a priest, “The holy waters are secured from the Water Temple of the community, where the priests conduct elaborate ceremonies to make the liquid ritually pure” (Horace Miner, Body Ritual of the Nacerima, 1956). Those that can afford more than one shrine have multiple rooms. Not everyone is allowed to see their shrine in their home. You must meet a certain age and meet their criteria.

Which leads me to my next point. The Nacerima people are very secretive, even among themselves. The rituals that they perform can only be done by certain members of their village. This is evident when Miner, 1956 stated “…the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but private and secret.” Miner was not able to see the shrines but was authorized to hear about the contents of them and the rituals performed. Another example can be seen in this line, “… but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language” (Horace Miner, Body Ritual of the Nacerima, 1956). The magical potions are never spoke of but instead written in a secret that only Medicine Men are allowed to decode.

The Nacerima follow a hierarchy of practitioner. Among those practitioners are the medicine Men I previously mentioned. The “Medicine Men” are in charge of deciding what goes into the medicine potions. Next is the “Holy-Mouth-Men.” The job is to exercise the rituals to create a strong bond between oral and moral characteristics. Finally, are the “Listeners.” The listener is the Witch doctor that they see to remove evil from their heads. This civilization has structured their community where every practitioner has a specific job to purify their mind, body and soul.

The traditions of selecting who get to be a Medicine Men, Holy- Mouth- Men and a Listener have been passed down from generation to generation. Even women play a role in Latipso ceremonies. Traditionally during Latipso ceremonies the person getting the ritual performed on them would need to present a rich gift, This is evident in the following statement, “… will not admit a client if he cannot give a rich gift to the custodian” (Horace Miner, Body Ritual of the Nacerima, 1956). This gift is seen as a thank you gift for allowing them to even be considered for the healing ritual. Those that make it out of the Latipso ceremony must then present another gift to leave. I believe that traditions are what make up a person. Whether it’s bringing a gift to get healed or having Christmas dinner. A tradition is something that we cherish dearly.

My overall understanding of the Nacerima population is that they are very dedicated. Their dedication is demonstrated time and time again as they continuously practice their rituals. It seems that the outcomes of these rituals do not play an importance. Instead, they believe in their out bringing and demonstrate to their ancestors that this is the way it must be done. They follow the blue print that has been lay out to them and do not ask questions. Simply do what must be done because is the way of the Nacerima. 

 

Although I was born in the United States my parents are Mexican. My up bringing is also Mexican traditions. We do not practice many American traditions aside from 4th of July and Thanksgiving. I come from a very traditional family; and I believe having experienced a traditional household lead me to better understand the Nacerima people. My descriptive words were very understanding instead of judging their practices. I think more people need to be understanding of other peoples cultures. Instead of being bothered they need to ask why are they practicing these traditions and how are they similar to us. We shouldn't just see the differences. 

Throughout the reading, I would go back and think to myself "well that's different." I would reread the section again to understand how they continuously seek these traditions. It made me wonder how many generations have been practicing these rituals. Having these thoughts made me think of the ethnocentrism reading. Coming up with these questions made me feel closer into thinking like a true cultural anthropologist and comprehend what is it like to exercise ethnocentrism. My selection of words did not show any biased because I tried to understand how the Nacerima people do their traditions. My parents always taught me to be understanding of other peoples cultures and be compassionate. I think that has also played a role in my chose of words. 

 After reading about the Nacerima population I have come to the realization that I still have  a lot to learn. There are many cultures around the world that we have yet to learn about. We shouldn't limit ourselves to believing there are only a set of cultures and traditions. I'm sure that other cultures feel the same about us. We should always be opened minded when learning about other experiences. We should want to be treated with respect, after all we are all human beings. Being a cultural anthropologist you have experience many cultures and have met numerous people. I think it is impossible to state that you will never exhibit cultural bias. I'm sure at first glance, a cultural anthropologist tries to relate to themselves. After they relate to themselves, they start to reflect on why, how and what makes up that certain group.