Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Miner is an essay meant to challenge people wh

Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Miner is an essay meant to challenge people who are new to “thinking anthropologically” and to the idea of participant-observation research. It demonstrates the power of description, but also suggests that our biases influence how we write or read a description or analyze what we have observed. As your textbook notes on page 42, many people who read “the Nacirema” for the first time do not realize that it is about Americans. In fact many people simply accept the way that Miner frames his description as a religious ritual and not as a dental checkup.
Your assignment is to use Miner’s essay as a model to write a description and analysis of an ordinary behavior, tradition, or practice with which you are familiar but to describe it as if you were seeing it for the very first time and trying to make sense of it. Imagine the possibilities! What if you had never heard of Halloween, and one night costumed figures came to your door and demanded treats? What if you had never heard of Santa and Christmas stockings, and found yourself observing a family nailing a big sock to the chimney while leaving cookies and milk on a nearby table with no one there to eat it. What if you had never heard of an all-you-can-eat buffet, and saw people returning again and again to load up their plates without the staff saying a word about it. How would you describe and analyze these experiences?
To receive full credit for this assignment, your description must be no fewer than 350 words with a 500 word maximum. After you have posted your description, read at least two of your classmates’ posts. Comment thoughtfully on their posts, telling them 1) what surprised you most about the description they wrote; and, 2) what was your favorite part of their description.