I’m working on a anthropology writing question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Answer 1 of the questions below.

1. According to Miner, what functional beliefs underlie Nacirema body rituals? (What are the purposes for them?)

2. Miner treats Nacirema behavior in caring for the body as “ritual.” Is it? What makes something “ritual” as opposed to “habit” or “custom”?

3. How do the Nacirema view the human body and health? How is this similar or dissimilar to how our culture views these things?

4. Some would say that Miner’s analysis exoticizes the Nacirema and makes them seem mysterious and irrational. What in his writing dose this? Does presenting customs as “religion” rather than as “science” or “medicine” inevitably make them seem irrational to people in our own culture?

5. Are our own customs with respect to the care of the body irrational? In what ways is scientific medicine different from others (“religious”) belief systems? How much of what human beings do in everyday life is “rational” or “irrational”? Do you think that there are cultural differences in the very concept of the term ‘rational’?