Body Rituals of the Nacirema - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 610 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2019/08/02 Category Sociology Essay Level High school Tags: Nacirema Essay Did you like this example?   In Body Rituals of the Nacirema, we learn about a North American group, known as the Naciremas. This group of people are known for their culture, where their rituals deal with the full body. Going further into the article, we find out about shrines where they practice their religion. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Body Rituals of the Nacirema" essay for you Create order Within the shrine, are charms placed inside for safekeeping to be used again at future rituals. Below the shrine is a font which is a receptacle for holy water; where that holy water is placed. That holy water comes from the Water Temple. After that, the Nacirema make a few visits, usually twice a year, to holy mouth men, known as professionals of the mouth. Further in the article, Miner talks about an individual that listens to the concerns of a person starting with the earliest memory of their life and play with magic to get rid of the fears they had. During this visit, they are required to take different potions and healing charms given to them by the medicine man. In addition, if they are very ill during the visit, they go to the latipso. In the latipso, they are forced to take off their clothing and have ceremonies acted out by a magician. We also learn towards the end, that the Nacirema have a belief that the body is ugly, and through activities they perform, included with the rituals, it will bring them enjoyment and meaning to their life. They also have rituals to make fat people thin, and thin people fat. In addition, procedures are done to women to make their breasts bigger and smaller. This all shows the importance of their bodies.   After fully taking apart the Miners article, we find out that the Nacirema are in fact, us, Americans. Everything mentioned in the article from the rituals to the latipso are things that we do today, just a bit different. In the shrine, there is also a charm-box which was used to hold magic potions to be used later. Today, we have medicine cabinets to hold all of our medicine to be used in the future. Also in the article, it talks about the holy mouth men, that must be seen twice a year. His job was to expand the holes a person might have that might decay in the mouth. On the other hand today we have dentists that we visit twice a year. In addition, there is an individual that listens to a persons concern. That is the same as us having a therapist or psychologist today. People nowadays go to therapists/ psychologists to talk about problems they have so they could be worked out and fixed. Back then, women were known for baking their heads in ovens. Today, that is the same thing as women going to the salon and getting our hair done under the heater. Further on, Miner talks about men using a sharp object to use against the outer layer of their face. Today, we have razors that we use to get rid of hair. Likewise, the ritual ablution of the mouth for young children referred to cleaning someones mouth out with soap if they said something wrong. Furthermore, the belief is that culture is built upon ones rituals. From Miners article, he compares our rituals to what we, Americans do today. There are cultural groups and societies where we might not recognize at first because they might have different customs than us. That is the case with the Naciremas. They are just like us, but the only difference is the way they did it. Since we are more technologically advanced in our system, we do things differently now.

Gustav Mahler An Era Of Musical Progression - 1401 Words

Inspiration, idealistic, caustic, unorthodox, assertive, ambiguous, Gustav Mahler has astonished the world with symphonies ranging in violence to tenderness throughout the 20th century. During an era of musical progression in fin-de-sià ©cle, an anxious mood, Mahler, a conductor and composer, took an inherent stance in composition. Even though much of his musical works weren’t popular until 40 years after his death, the discovery of his ingenious talents were unparalleled to other composers of that time. His role in war and revolutionary music has led to advancements in orchestral repertoire in his career as an opera conductor across Vienna. A unique sound in his nine full symphonies of various forms of Romanticism made him a pioneer of compositional techniques that refined music and influenced Arnold Schoenberg, Benjamin Britten, Dmitry Shostakovich, and other artists that have contributed to revolutionary music. Mahler’s life began in KaliÃ… ¡tÄ›, Bohemia of Austrian Empire, on July 7, 1860. He was born Jewish and part of a German-speaking minority, as opposed to the Czech population. Because of anti-Semitic discrimination, that was becoming increasingly popular in that region, he had fewer opportunities than most Aryan Germans. His interest in music first sparked as early as 4 years old after he assembled common melodies on a piano from his grandmother’s attic. At this age, his talent in military music is also observed as he indulged in a folk song he heard near barracks byShow MoreRelatedThe Works Of Gustav Mahler2418 Words   |  10 PagesBefore gaining positive reception, the works of Gustav Mahler were rejected by his contemporaries for their incomprehensibility. In the 1960s Mahler boom, his compositions soon became staples in the orchestral literature (Botstein, 2002); the newer generation embraced them unsparingly, evincing the gradual apprehension of the intricate emotions embodied. Mahler’s distinctive qualities implore thorough study in order to understand how it brought about such perplexing phenomenon. Within the contextRead MoreThe Impact Of Beethoven On The Development Of The Symphony Until Mahler3555 Words   |  15 PagesDiscuss the impact of Beethoven on the development of the symphony until Mahler. Difficult as it may be to define the true relationship of an artist to his successors, this difficulty is enormously increased when the subject is as complex a man and musician as Beethoven. His role as both a â€Å"preserver of the eighteenth-century tradition1 and a pioneer of romantic self-expression, has secured his status as one of the most revered composers in the history of Western music. Throughout his symphonic cycle

Technology and Modern World Free Essays

Technology is currently taking over our modern world. Just a few years ago flying cars was something we only saw in a futuristic universe on a movie screen, but now, technology like this seems to be right around the corner for society. We are constantly advancing our technology to cater to our wants and needs. We will write a custom essay sample on Technology and Modern World or any similar topic only for you Order Now We are gaining more and more knowledge as we advance and move forward with technology. Even children are becoming smarter from this technology, but would anyone ever guess this could be because of video games? Studies show that video games could improve a person’s intelligence and possibly lead to the solving of some of the world’s problems. Of course, the world’s problems today are extremely drastic and complex in today’s society, but what if gaming could change all that? According to Jane McGonigal, a game developer, it is far less improbable than it may seem. She believes that gamers can use their creativity and ideas to change and possibly save the planet. McGonigal’s work was deemed as one of the â€Å"Top 20 Breakthrough Ideas† by HBR as well as â€Å"#1 Bright Idea of the Year† by Brandweek. She has worked hard on discovering ways in which to prove this topics importance. At the World Innovation Forum in 2012 she spoke of her innovative idea, she stated that there are one billion people that play games for at least an hour a day and gave valid statistics of the popularity of certain games. This shows the large amount of people with very creative capabilities in the world today, including young children. Gamers are proven to be capable of solving real world problems easier than those who neglect the hobby. Overall, gaming is deemed important and several studies show that gamers could lead to solving the world’s problems with their ideas and inventions in the future. The Book â€Å"Can Digital Games Help Seniors Improve their Quality of Life?† by Sauvà © L., Renaud L., Kaufman D. and Duplà  a E. provides information how not only children, but it is proven that already full-grown adults can learn and play digital games that could possibly influence both their health condition and their ability to carry on activities in their environment. The study that was provided with this idea consists of a goal to explore and define the user requirements for developing digital games of learning among older Europeans. This focused mainly on types of learning games, motivational and social aspects, and the preferences and views people may have on game controllers. An experiment was performed in the initial stage which included a qualitive focus group study of people in the countries of Spain, The Netherlands, and Greece. In this group games existing in the market and others that were developed and created as other European Commission projects were also included and presented to them. Both games were presented on video presentations and there was a possibility that some of these games were also provided to be able to be tested out as well. From this experiment, it was found that the causes or main keys to adults desiring to play these digital games was challenge, fun, escape from daily routine, socialization and the providing of learning opportunities. These learning opportunities and attractive qualities to these games could lead to better creative thinking and the more they are played due to their addictive qualities, the better thinkers these gamers become. These game users describe themselves with characteristics such as active and participating in many leisure activities. This level of activity the subjects describe appeared to be related with the contents which are proposed for videogames such as physical activity, culture, arts, history, geography, traveling, human sciences, daily life skills, etc. This knowledge and information gathered and interpreted from focus groups can and will be used as input for the design of a learning game that will be largely compatible with the needs and abilities of a wide range of the older Europeans. The New York Times wrote an article on the statements and questions of experts who have played the videogames that Americans have spent ten thousand hours playing by the age of twenty-one. Edward Castronova, a professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, provides information that, â€Å"Gamers are engaged, focused and happy. How many employers wish they could say that about even a tenth of their work force?† Castronova has also studied and designed games online and goes on to state that there are similarities between the activities in games and the activities done at the work place. He states, â€Å"Many activities in games are not very different from work activities. Look at information on a screen, discern immediate objectives, choose what to click and drag.† A well-known and credited game designer and researcher at the Institute for the Future, Jane McGonigal, sums up this new arisen argument in her book, â€Å"Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.† Her book basically provides the encouragement as well as the persuasion for designers to aim higher with games that could solve scientific problems and possibly promote happiness in daily life.In the way distant past even, the emperor Charlemagne called a scholar who then gathered puzzles and games to challenge the young minds of the century at the time. Even the British during the less distant past credited their victory over Napoleon to the intelligence games played on the fields of Eton. When the time eventually came to the age in which intellectual games went digital the activity was denounced as â€Å"escapism† and an â€Å"addiction.† This was due to the fact that industry’s revenues rivaled Hollywood’s at the time. This time was also when children and adults gradually started to become more and more absorbed in these games and soon they even forsook television. This caused for gaming’s unhealthy and troublesome reputation that has carried on over through the years, even up to present day. But meanwhile, at this time a group of researchers seemed to be more interested and occupied in understanding why players had become this focused and absorbed into the games they played in the first place. Gamers seemed to be achieving a certain state of â€Å"flow† that psychologists had used to describe championship athletes as well as master musicians. Except with gamers, this flow did not take years of training to accomplish. Nicole Lazzaro, game-design consultant and president of XEODesign, conducted an experiment or study in which she recorded the faces of those who were playing video games to take note of their facial expressions. She also planned to interview the gamer as well as their family and friends to find the important and crucial factors provided within a good game. â€Å"Hard fun† was a factor that was said to be important to be included in an entertaining game. â€Å"Hard fun† is described by Ms. Lazzaro as conquering and surpassing obstacles to reach an end goal. Even games and puzzles of older design had this attractive factor to them that gamers enjoyed. But the difference is that with video games, they now provide instant feedback and continual encouragement from the technology used, as well as fellow gamers. Most games provide video gamers with rewards using a steady and constant system throughout the entirety of the experience. As they progress in gaining more points and reaching higher levels, the challenges faced increase in difficulty as the players experience with the game as well as their skill with it increases. This causes for motivation and determination to defeat and progress the game despite the repetitive failing included in the experience. Dr. McGonigal has worked constantly on using this feeling and vibe from games for good in the real world. She has designed Cruel 2 B Kind. This is a game in which players advance by being nice and showing kindness to strangers located in public places. It has been played in more than 50 cities on four continents and has only had a positive impact overall. There are also other games and websites like Cruel 2 B Kind that improve peoples mood as well as actions and interactions with others. There is a massive number of positives to video gaming as well as this type of interaction that occurs between people. As we improve our technology further we are also improving the quality of video games and their positive influences and impacts on not only children, but adults as well. Hopefully as we continue to progress, the purposes of video games will contain more importance as well as unique and critical lessons and knowledge for all. But for now, video games are positively and greatly affecting our world and will hopefully continue doing so for generations to come. How to cite Technology and Modern World, Papers