SOCIOL 1Z03 Lecture 6: SOCIOL 1Z03 Lecture 6 – Culture Continued

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCIOL 1Z03
• Professor: Gerald Bierling, Jessica Braimoh

Document Summary

Belief: the human body is ugly, natural tendency is to debility and disease. Can only avoid this through ritual and ceremony. Each house has 1+ shrine for this purpose. Practices are private, only shared with children when they"re being taught. Box/chest built into wall: charms, potions that they believe help them live. Medicine men don"t provide the potions, but decide what ingredients should be: written in ancient language, only understood by medicine men and herbalists. Rituals of the mouth are important for success of social life: oral care is relating to moral strength. Nacirema" is american spelled backwards: this was just listing body rituals of americans, the shrine is the bathroom, medicine men are the doctors. When we describe other cultures, we can describe them as very distinct and far from our own: this can be very difficult for us to do for our own society. Cultures are products of unique histories and contexts.