Why does the case study of the "Nacirema" become so obvious after we have discussed it as a class? Why do 90% of the people who read the case study for the first time miss the meaning? What does that say about the importance of developing an active sociological imagination?
22 comments:
when reading about it in class i think that we are so consentrated on the nacirema and their culture that we dont really look into the details, we dont open our mind enough to think hey this sounds not that different to us. then after we start to realize the similarities and that it is us. thats the same with the 90% that miss the meaning that they concentrate so much on the culture and the people that they dont open their minds to that possibility. this says i think that its very important to develope a sociological imagination becasue we have to be open minded to learn about other cultures and the change in ours, or else we will never adapt to that change.
It appears obvious after class because we over analyzed what the article was really trying to discuss. Our main concentration was trying to gather more knowledge about Nacirema. By doing so we missed the connection to American culture. I think America has high standards as a country and seems blinded by other cultures and their way of living. Americas main foucs is creating change in our culture and way of life. By allowing people to vote and have religious freedom, America is a dominant country with sociological imagination. This is important because it allows people to have choices in life and to have many opportunites.
Jenna Tinti
Period 7
The case of the Naricema becomes so obvious after discusing it in class because many people are too lazy to take the time to look above and beyond the topic itself. Some people are lazy just to actually put thought in things. After discussing the Naricema in class many people felt stupid that they couldnt figure that out on their own.This is the reason why 90% of people miss the meaning of Naricema. This shows that the importance of sociological imagination is very good to know because when you dont have this things seem very wierd and just basic, and on the other hand people that do have sociological imagination tend to look beyond the obvious and figure out way more things also opens up many more options for themselves. Some people also did over think this article more than it came out to be. To be honest when i first started reading this article i thought to myself ive never heard anything like this before, then after a little while i actually caught on.
The main reason 90% of a people who read the case study for the first time miss the meaning is because, their sociological imagination isn't fully developed yet. I believe after this class, they'll be more perceptive to smaller details and be able to draw connections between other cultures and their own and see the similarities.
I agree with Emily. I think that when most people read the article about the Nacirema, they are so focused on the culture and how those people interact with each other that they aren't thinking about a deeper meaning. They aren't looking for backwards words and double meanings. You think you are reading something about the Nacirema culture, not about Americans. We just need to develop our sociological imaginations.
The case study of the "Nacirema" was a interesting way to test our social imagination. I believe the reason 90% of the people reading it missed the meaning was because it was about our own culture. Even after reading that the location of these people was between Mexico and Canada. I never thought I was reading an article about my own culture. At first I thought it was some tribe or cult that secretly did these rituals in America. After discussing it in class I realized that all the strange things the "Nacirema" people did was what we do in daily life, Just described in a different way.
- Nathan T
The case of the "Nacirema became so obvious after we discussed it because we didnt really look deeper into what the article was saying. We just were getting the information on how and what the Nacirema people did. By us not realizing exactly what the article was talking about it mad us miss how it was connected with us, americans. 90% of people miss the meaning of it the first time because they just want to get the case study over with, they dont want to take the time and actual do work. That says that the importance of developing an active sociological imagination is so that when we read things, we look more into it and see the obvious things better.
It became so obvious because we concentrated in depth to find the real meaning that we didnt realize that we just had to spell it out backwards.The reason 90% of us did not really understand the "nacirema" was beacause our main focus was to think about a different culture, that we didnt realize it was our own culture. Also everything in the passage seemed to be completely different, for example how they described everything seemed so bizarre to us, yet it was about our culture and things we do everyday.After reading the nacirema and seeing the difference between my explanation of the culture and the real meaning i learned that having a sociological imagination is a very important thing and it gives you a deifferent perspective of life and culture and it amy help a lot in the future.
It becomes obvious because most people dont take into consideration the broader meaning of things. When we were reading it on our own we were looking for somthing that was pose to stan out, somthing that wouldnt be so obvious. Later realizing that when thought of with an open mind the Nacirema turned out to be us. I believe most people miss the meaning because most of us dont have as good as a Sociological Imagination as we should. We have not been challenged in the area of looker at the bigger picture than what we should have. This says that in order to develop a strong sociological imagination we must subject ourselves to the understanding of out side interelated parts that define thw world as ONE unique system.
As we read this case study individually we were so focused on getting the right answer and analyzing these people that we were ignorant to the fact that the study itself was analyzing us and the way we live in today's society. When we discussed it as a class it was easier to take a step back and really see the big picture and connect each act to an act of our own such as putting the hair in our mouth which is similar to our grooming techniques such as brushing our teeth. when looking for something soo specific, at least 90% of the people will miss what the article is trying to get across.
Although the article seems very obvious once you know what it is about, it was at first very misleading. No one expects it because we are expecting to learn about some sort of savage tribe so although everything seems very strange to us, we didn't read between the lines. It was also our first case study and our sociological imaginations may not have been very well developed or developed enough. It is also harder to pick up things like that when you read in class because most students do not enjoy reading in class.
After discussing the article in class, I think that it seems more obvious because we were not able to see the things that we now think are obvious. However, I will say that I think it was a very flawed case study and that some of the information presented provides an inaccurate picture of American life. However, it does show the importance of a sociological imagination because we are able to see how we are so used to our own culture and society that we may sometimes think things are so different from us, that we might not think we see any similarities. Hence, we should try and be more open minded and see how we can be similar to other people and cultures.
Like emily said, when your reading it for the first time you are thinking very literally, thus making you believe that the Nacirema is some crazy tribe in the depths of aftrica. But then for most people if you tell us that it is really about americans, its much easier to make that connection and see what the crazy things really are. like the holy mouth men really just being dentists. it shows that if you have an open mind you can let your sociological imagination grow, and if you dont have one already, there are many things that you will probably encounter to make it grow.
I believe 90% of people don't initially think that the Nacirema case study is about our culture because the way the rituals are described it seems foreign to the average American. But after further discussion we can easily connect the similarities in the things we do everyday to their "rituals". When looking back on the article it is obvious that this case study is about the American way of life. An example of an obvious detail could include when it mentions its in between Mexico and Canada.
I think it's funny how while reading this article, most of us pictured the Nacriema as some group of people that are actually a tribe in our country. I, for one, thought that when the article mentioned that they lived between Canada and Mexico, that they lived somewhere in the heart of America where nobody notices what goes on. The shrine box they mentioned seem something more valuable than a toilet, but regardless it was still a great addition to the article. In addition, the dentist piece was extremely well written. I thought that this tribe was crazy to have a person use drills to make a problem even worse, but shows how this happens whenever we go to the dentist. Just like Jenna said, we over analyzed this article extremely, and we were all baffled when it was revealed that is was the Americans.
The case of the Naricema becomes so obvious after discussing it in class because, when reading it before almost everyone missed the key facts and didn't open their minds enough to make the connection that the Nacirema were actually Americans, I included. I think that we were so focused on the strange way the Naricema lived their lives that it never crossed our minds that it was talking about Americans because we don’t think of ourselves as living like that. Sometimes it hard to see what is right in front of your face. I think that this says developing an active social imagination is very important, because it can teach us to open our minds and adapt to changes and different ways of living. It teaches you how to look at life from a different perspective, which I feel is important.
I think when reading it for the first time you take for face value. It also shows how we do not think of ourselves as a country based on hatred and self destruction like it says in the case study. Once you analyze the article the meaning becomes clear. This shows that a sociological imagination is important because you can learn some much more about life and how you live your life when you do not take things for face value. It shows you that looking into things deeper will help you become less ignorant and help you to see better of what is going on around you.
When first reading about the Nacirema was first difficult to understand but after class discussion it became very apparent what the article really was talking about and after being explained it shows how it reflects upon us. I think that most people who read this article miss the concept because it's not broken down in terms that most won’t understand and it talks about weird behavior which Nacirema display when it is ourselves that is being talked about. Through reading this case study it really shows the importance of gaining sociological imagination and becoming of an open person and gaining different perspective on the world and just life in general.
I think that it's because we as a culture always want to pick on differences and pointing out things that we aren't familiar to and using them as a way of judging people that's why we used all of the information given and only look at the things that we were not familiar with to judge the culture of the people instead of trying to see ways that are smiliar to us and analyzing our own way of living with that of the "Nacirema" culture. This says alot about developing a social imagination because if one is never developed then we will continue with the same way of thinking and never grow as people
When reading the nacirema article many people thought they were a tribe and read about their life and the way they lived. They didn't realize that the answer was right in front of them. Most of the people did not notice that the word was American backwards. It was very obvious after class which shows that we don't have a big sociological imagination. We were not thinking outside the box and didn't realize that the things they did in the article were the things we do on a regular basis
I agree with Mithun on this. 90% of the people that didn't understand the Nacirema is because their sociological imagination isn't fully developed yet. Also I agree with other people how that everyone was overthinking and too concentrated on what the Nacirema do, and not thinking about who the Nacirema are really.
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