The Nacirema Culture and the Differences in the Gnivahs Ritual for Men and Women
Rituals of the Nacirema were first brought to my attention many years ago. The culture of these people is very hard to understand. Not much is known about their origin, but it's said that they came somewhere from the east. From a continent that is the third largest in the world somewhere in the western hemisphere. It's mostly between the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean.
The continent is surrounded by many bodies of water and on the south is South America and on the top is a place called Canada. There is said to be millions of people living there. The Nacirema culture is recognized by a mixed market economy that has been highly developed. But for most of the day they spend their time performing everyday body rituals. These rituals that they perform are important in their everyday lives. There's a large concern for their appearance and how they look. Society looks at their appearance to see if they are accepted and not looked upon differently from outsiders. But The Nacirema believes that the human body is ugly and that society will not accept them by the way they look unless they change something or fix something. One of the body rituals that they perform caught my eye. It is called Gnivahs. Some of the Nacirema people do this ritual everyday while others may only do it three to five days a week. Nacirema men and women perform the ritual differently. The ritual is normally performed in a holy room in their house. This room is located in all the Nacirema houses.
It is a place where you splash holy water on yourself. Also where is a large tub where the water is drained from the sprinkler. When the Nacirema women enter this holy water room they get in the tub and rub some kind of lotion on their legs. Normally the procedure is standing up while the sprinkler is spraying holy water on them, and other times they may be sitting down in the tub while it fills up. Then the women take a small sharp blade and wipe it up and down on their leg all over. The women take the blade and wipe off the lotion they put on. They repeat this with the other leg too. Sometimes when the women take this blade and scratch off the lotion they scratch too hard and cut themselves. If one of the women accidentally scratch too fast or push down hard they will cut themselves and bleed. Gnivahs is performed to take off the stubble on the women's legs. They also repeat the ritual under their arms. On the other hand Gnivahs for men is a little bit different. The ritual is performed in the same room as the women, the holy water room. The men enter this room and go to the box with a watering hole on top. The ritual is performed standing up in front of the watering hole.
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The men take lotion and rum it on their face. They take a blade similar to the one Nacirema women use, and then they begin the procedure and start gnivahs. They take the blade and wipe it across the hair that they may have on their face. They do this to possibly feel cleaner and so women will be more attracted to them. But some of the Nacirema people do not do this ritual. Some of them do not feel the need to do it because they feel that the way they look is acceptable, and sometimes they are accepted by everyone else around them. But some of the Nacirema people do not accept them because they feel they are not clean and the only way to fix that is by performing the ritual at least one or two times a week. This is why the Nacirema find this ritual to be very important to their people.
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The Nacirema Culture and the Differences in the Gnivahs Ritual for Men and Women. (2023, Apr 16). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-nacirema-culture-and-the-differences-in-the-gnivahs-ritual-for-men-and-women/
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