Heyyy Nacirema

Americans are strange. We have weird habits and are very hypocritical. In fact, we always judge other people for taking part in activities that are out of “our norm”. I searched up “cultural traditions around the world” on Google and every search result talked about “bizarre” or “weird” customs. Using these words to describe such traditions seems sort of disrespectful. Usually these words are connoted negatively and associate with oddities that might be in a circus, not a traditional custom. Why do these things have to be "weird" as opposed to being admirable or cool? Plus, who are we to judge these people for doing “strange” things? Americans gather in a city every December 31^st to count while people in Denmark throw utensils at their neighbors’ doors. We have no right to say that one thing is weird when we do some pretty strange things ourselves. After all, for 364 days a year, all children are told to not take candy from strangers. But suddenly, if it is October 31^st and you know how to say “trick-or-treat”, your parents encourage you to roam the streets at night going up to strangers’ houses. We can’t say that this is perfectly normal and that finger amputations in the Dani tribe to express grief at funerals are “bizarre”. Horace Miner, the writer of “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” has already deemed that Americans express “the extremes to which human behavior can go”. It is believed that there is no way for anybody else to be more eccentric than us. Who else would keep “magical materials… for certain ills, and… real or imagined maladies”?

The only search results that came up had to be associated with something "weird" or "bizarre".

Finger cutting to express grief is normal.

Tongue piercing to show religious devotion is normal.

Not being able to use the bathroom for 3 days after marriage is normal.