Within Outward Appearance

             It is shown through these stories that in societies humans have rituals to make them beautiful. With the bizarre rituals and beliefs as stated in Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, the author Horace Miller feels the Nacirema practices are unusual. In his style of writing he uses anagrams to portray the Nacirema is American. The Nacirema have a lot of magical beliefs and rituals they use in order to stay attractive and use these in day to day life. Whereas the autobiographical essay In the Kitchen, the writer Henry Louis Gates, Jr. feels proud of the struggle blacks in particular go through to look beautiful. He writes with love for his mother and memories he personally has about hair being beautiful. These essays show how in society people have different rituals for striving to look beautiful.
             With so many different rituals to look beautiful, the Nacirema and black people have to be patient because most methods are time consuming. There are many rituals in the Nacirema society. The Nacirema has a ritual where they insert, "a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures"(7). Miner feels that to strangers this ritual can be confusing as well as disgusting. That if this ritual were not performed would effect the Nacirema's teeth to decay and look so revolting that they would not have any friends or lovers.
             If falling ill the Nacirema go to a latipso. Their children do not want to go to a latipso because, "that is where you go to die"(7). With all the rituals the Nacirema perform, women go to the latipso end up feeling bad about their bodies. They find that, "their naked bodies are subjected to the scrutiny, manipulation and prodding of the medicine men"(7). Since the women have come to the latipso for help, and paid the price to ge
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Within Outward Appearance. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 06:34, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/90705.html