Body Ritual Among the Nacirema  

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"In conclusion, mention must be made of certain practices which have their base in native esthetics but which depend upon the pervasive aversion to the natural body and its functions. There are ritual fasts to make fat people thin and ceremonial feasts to make thin people fat. Still other rites are used to make women's breasts larger if they are small, and smaller if they are large. General dissatisfaction with breast shape is symbolized in the fact that the ideal form is virtually outside the range of human variation. A few women afflicted with almost inhuman hypermammary development are so idolized that they make a handsome living by simply going from village to village and permitting the natives to stare at them for a fee."--"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" (1956) by Horace Mitchell Miner

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Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” (1956) is a text by Horace Mitchell Miner.

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References

Linton, Ralph 1936 The Study of Man. New York, D. Appleton-Century Co.

Malinowski, Bronislaw 1948 Magic, Science, and Religion. Glencoe, The Free Press.

Murdock, George P., Social Structure

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