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For the best reading experience, it is advised that the reader simply dive right in with only this bit of context–"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" was originally published as an article within an anthropology journal. Don't read the rest of this preamble; just skip right ahead to the text. Then come back. I'll wait.
The text I have chosen is “Body Ritual among the Nacirema,” a journal article by Horace Mitchell Miner. The article first appeared in American Anthropologist, published in June 1956 as part of volume 58, pages 503-507. It was originally created as a satire on anthropological papers by defamiliarizing American culture, taking the reader through descriptions of the “latipso” temples of ceremonial purification (hospital backwards), rites of the “holy-mouth-men” (dentists), and exorcisms of demons in people’s heads by “listeners” (therapists). In 1972, Niel B. Thompson revisited the paper by creating a sort of sequel: a social commentary known as “The mysterious fall of the Nacirema.” This one took a more environmental activist approach, focusing on the cult of the Elibomotua (automobile backwards.) I then composed an additional text in homage to the originals, focusing more on the strange "Enohpllec" devices, and their impacts on society.
Hopefully you followed my directions, and recieved the reading experience that the author intended. If you will only fully realized the satirical nature of the piece by the end, then Miner did his work well. Only upon second and further readings does his careful criticism of anthropological articles fully shine through, forcing the reader to examine how they view journals about the "other" by reflecting on the self.
Finally, I'd like to dedicate this to the wonderful Mrs. Riley, who I elaborate on further in a later page, David Nee (a most kind and benevolent TF), and my mother. Hi mom!