Nacirema

Nacirema [nak-uh-ree-ma] (American backwards) is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the people of the United States. Anthropologists and sociologists use the term to examine (with a degree of anthropological self-distancing) aspects of the behavior and society of American people.

The original use of the term was in ‘Body Ritual Among the Nacirema’, which satirizes anthropological papers on ‘other’ cultures, and the Northern American Culture. Horace Miner wrote the paper and originally published it in the June 1956 edition of American Anthropologist.

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