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REFERENCE listing #3:

 WRITING EXEMPLARS

A special issue of the electronic EM-Journal dedicated to "Writing for Cultural Anthropology" and containing exemplary writing by EMU anthropology students, past and present, was published online in October 2013. Please feel free to peruse its contents in any way you wish (with citation), and circulate the materials offered below to anyone you think might be interested.

The pdf version can be found here: https://canvas.emich.edu/courses/51222/pages/writing-for-cultural-anthropology

or directly accessed through this link: EM-Journal (13) Anth .pdf

An excerpt of the EM-J13 issue can also be found below:

The following materials were included in The Disciplinary Writing Repository (A. Blakeslee & C. Fleischer eds. 2019) a professional-development online (restricted-access) resource documenting best practices in the teaching of professional writing.
Please contact the author (liza.cerroni-long@emich.edu) for any clarifications.
                                                                   

                                                                    Cultural Reflexivity
                                                                                         by
                                                                            E. L. Cerroni-Long

Cultural reflexivity--or the ability to recognize the reality of cultural diversity in general, and one's own cultural membership in particular--is THE fundamental skill of professional cultural anthropologists. One way to stimulate the development of such a skill is to trigger the application of "a view from afar" in the description of some aspects of the students' own culture, following the model set by distinguished American anthropologist Horace Miner in his classic piece: "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema."
This article, an excerpt of which (https://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Miner-1956 ) I ask my students to read in both my Anth 135H ("Introduction to Cultural Anthropology"--the Honors section of the basic introductory course for our program), and in Anth 445W ("Culture Analysis Seminar"-- one of our most advanced, culminating, writing-intensive courses), was published in 1956 as a spoof of the portentous and patronizing way even some of the best modern anthropologists described the practices of the "natives" they studied. The name of the group whose "magic- ridden" ways are described in the piece is "American" spelled backwards, but many students do not realize this until we discuss the piece in class, generally greatly enjoying the double-take it triggers, and the important implications of the spoof.
As a follow-up on the class discussion of this piece, students are then asked to write a short essay on the Nacirema, in which they describe some aspect of their own culture as if they were "extra-terrestrial anthropologists" in need to ethnographically document American ways. This stimulates the skill in cultural reflexivity which is essential in anthropology, and it also guides students in understanding the basic principles of ethnography--which include both emotional detachment (eschewing judgment), and intellectual analysis (attempting to understand the possible causes of "strange" practices by culturally contextualizing them). This exercise also leads students to realize that cultural membership is expressed through behavior, and it is by observing, questioning, describing, and trying to understand behavior that cultural anthropologists do research in their discipline.
Attempting to zero in on taken-for-granted, "normal" behavior in one's own culture as if it was typical of an alien group is a real challenge even for advanced anthropology students, but successful responses to the challenge, as in the two examples offered below, confirm the validity of one of the classic definitions of anthropology as "the discipline of the sense of humor."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Student Essays Examples
Wars of the Nacirema
by Mordechai Sadowsky

Considered by many to be one of the most understudied cultures in our world, the Nacirema are becoming increasingly understood of late. Although our knowledge of their unique waysremains incomplete, many studies have been undertaken in the past century. The groundbreaking research by Horace Miner paved the way for dozens of ethnographers to explore different facets of the fascinating Nacirema culture. I have had a unique opportunity to study and live among the Nacirema for the past three years and gain invaluable insight into lives.
It has been previously suggested that the Nacirema are a highly masochistic and sadistic society. This hypothesis is supported by my examination of the war-like tendencies of the native inhabitants. The people engage in both direct and highly symbolic battle rituals, traversing many levels of societal abstraction. The Nacirema are constantly at war with one another, whether on an individual level, the family level and/or the tribal level.
As individuals, the Nacirema seem to be highly passive-aggressive creatures. They are in constant competition with one another for every trivial matter, yet they disguise their devious intentions behind kind and cheery façades. The Nacirema women plaster their faces with pigments to conceal their natural facial expressions, and women and men alike apply powerful chemicals to their underarms to mask their pheromones in order to avoid betraying their true emotions. The nature of their competition is occasionally a grand battle over social standing and the labor hierarchy, but it is more commonly over seemingly mundane matters, such as fighting over the most convenient place to temporarily store their transport vehicles.
The Nacirema also engage in inter-familial battles, over similarly trivial matters. Within the strangely geometrically organized communities in which the Nacirema reside, families whose abodes are most proximate are in constant competition. Things that an outsider would consider meaningless, such as the length of unnaturally cultivated grass surrounding their habitations, fascinate the Nacirema. The esteem in which they hold commonplace items provides the warring families with endless means to sabotage one another. For instance, the encroachment into a bed of flowers near a neighboring family’s residence by another family’s pet animal is considered one of the most challenging attacks possible.
These individual and familial battles are often highly calculated and unobtrusive, yet may occasionally break out into direct physical attacks (typically between the male family heads in the case of familiar war). These physical encounters are especially common at the Nacirema’s establishments dedicated to the ritual imbibing of fermented-grains liquids. Despite the potent toxicity of these liquids, the Nacirema engage in an apparently religious partaking of the foul potion to aid them in forgetting their social status and taboos. It is even a rite of passage for the natives that at a certain age their young consume so much of the toxic beverage as to bring them as near to death as possible, further exemplifying the masochistic nature of the Nacirema.
Not only do small units of their people practice war amongst themselves, but the Nacirema also engage in organized battle on a larger scale between various bands and tribes. This warring between tribes is highly symbolic, and unlike the smaller-scale battles, it rarely manifests itself in mass combat. Instead, the people of the tribes have erected massively complex codes of combat with many different forums for competition. The people within a tribe share almost no common interests or characteristics, yet they seem to possess an innate loyalty to their geographic neighbors. This sense of pride causes the natives to work towards striking down opponent tribes neither in the quest for resources, nor in a defensive manner, but rather in the pursuit of what the locals refer to as “bragging rights”.
One of the largest forums for intertribal combat is a highly ritualized practice known as lanoissefrop strops. These rituals involve groups of elite individuals elected to represent a tribe in different forms of battle depending on the time of year. Many forms of these strops battles throughout the year share key characteristics, which seem to have developed over a great length of time. Representatives from two tribes meet to battle in an organized and structured manner. The rules of combat are defined by culture-wide oversight organizations. The main instrument of war is usually a single, round, leather-bound object that is hurled or kicked at great velocities.
And perhaps most morbidly, tens of thousands of tribal individuals gather to watch the ritualistic battle ceremony from the vicinities.
There seems to be no practical goal for the organized battles of the Nacirema. The crowds of screaming attendees of the strops battles clearly demonstrate the strong undercurrent of sadism in the cultural makeup of this people. It is believed that the Nacirema developed these symbolic combat rituals in an attempt to alleviate the suffering they faced during their bloody history of emergence as a culture. However, it is clear to me that the bloodlust of the Nacirema may soon wipe them all out, no matter the intricacies and formalities they may attempt to veil it with.

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Nacirema Celestial-Deer Worship
by Elizabeth M. Smith

Of the many curious habits of the Nacirema, none is more intriguing than their dedication to a curious goddess and her temple of beverage. The confused symbols it is associated with, and the large, dedicated following it commands, lead one to believe that the religion is old, with many centuries separating the iconography from the ideology upon which it was based. However, material remains indicate that it may have been a religion formed in reaction to newer ideals in a world whose environmental and social state has been reportedly in decline. The nomenclature of the goddess possibly represents the ambiguous and complex motives of her followers. While represented as a green female, its name--Starbucks--evokes both celestial imagery, as well as the term for the male members of a four-legged forest species called deer. The color green, the male deer, and human females are all symbols associated with the earth, and the Nacirema hold in great esteem various legends related to the stars and the sky, including a widespread belief in horo-scopes, which are a way of predicting or directing one’s life based on star formations. The earth-sky duality is as important as the male-female duality among the members of this culture. Worshippers of the goddess Starbucks, who is represented only in two dimensions, gather at its temples to perform regular oral ablutions-cum-ingestions in her name. This religion is practiced both alone and in groups. When practicing alone, many worshippers arrive at the temple and will seek out a private table at which to reflect while they partake of their holy solutions. They will then approach the altar, where priests and priestesses in green garb will take requests for their drink, and worshippers will offer monetary donations, which are designated to correspond to the value of each particular brew. Some worshippers often elect to take in the common brew, made of water that has passed over the roasted and ground seeds of the coffee berry. Other worshippers may choose to offer greater donations and receive elaborate, frothy concoctions in an effort to win favor with the goddess, who grants stamina and mindfulness. It is possible that this belief stems from the fact that the roasted coffee berry contains caffeine, a compound which acts as a stimulant in many of the organic lifeforms on earth. Many potions which are granted in exchange for the donations at the temple contain this compound, although some of the more elaborate (and caffeine-free) beverages may be an attempt to make up for deviation from the traditional coffee berry brew after it was discovered that the caffeine compound has potentially negative health effects when consumed in excess.
If worshipping solitarily, a follower of Starbucks might bring other things to the temple,with the notion that activities performed in the goddess’ sight will be more fruitful. Many of the worshippers will read or write, while some listen to devotional music (which can also be obtained, through exchange of further donations, at the altar, in forms variously accessible through wired bottle-tops inserted in the ear canals). There is the option to take one’s sacramental drink and leave the temple to worship in private, however many followers remain, sometimes for very long time, in order to prove their devotion and demonstrate by the rites they are performing that are being fully blessed by the goddess Starbucks.
Social worship is also acceptable, with many people going to bond with friends or family among the sights and smells of the temple. It is not uncommon to meet new friends for the first time at a Starbucks temple, since it is a safe, calming environment. Many temples use the same designs, and the sight of a green-aproned priest or priestess makes one feel secure. It is unlikely that the sanctity of the temple will be violated with untowardness, making it a haven for bonding with new people.
Unlike some other Nacirema religions, in which one regularly worships at a particular ‘home church’ and feels uncomfortable in the church of another region, even within the same sect, followers of Starbucks are welcome and freely frequent any temple marked by their goddess' symbols, wherever they may be. In fact, given the Nacirema propensity for travel, this is an important feature of the cult, facilitating worship. Many temples offer their services via a “drive-thru” window, so that worshippers may take their blessings on the road with them, and temples are numerous and conveniently located so that one is never too far from one.
The followers of Starbucks represent a wide cross-section of the Nacirema people, and in spite of their differences, it is gratifying to see them come together and unite under the common green and white emblem of their goddess, who seems to pacify and strengthen their character.

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