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Block UserIf you haven't heard of them, the Nacirema people are a society that anthropologists began studying in the 50s.
The original article is called "Body Ritual among the Nacirema": https://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html
The relevant part is actually a follow up study of the people, and an explanation of how they may die out and disappear - with a valuable message for us. It is this article that made me post this blog. I think you'll get it eventually - let me know if you don't. Very witty - I like it. http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/master.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/editors_pick/1972_12_pick.html
Way back when I was collecting degrees (I couldn't get enough knowledge), I received BA and MS in anthropology. In one of the classes I took (can't recall which one), I read the 1956 article on the Nacirema. I confess at the time it took me a few days to catch on (what can I say but that I a little slow to see the oblique). I had rather forgotten about it. Interesting how what was written in 1956 has relevance today.
RogerOnly marginally related to the piece on the Nacirema...I read an interesting round table discussion in the most recent copy of Harper's Magazine. The discussion included five reasonably well informed economists, historians, political scientists, and media. I was surprised at the general consensus...a military coup (think Gaullist Coup the ended the Fourth French Republic in the 1950s) in the US within the next decade. Although such an event would not likely mean the end to American civilization, it would certainly mean significant change.
09:09 AM PST