Body Ritual among the Nacirema

THE anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different peoples behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs. In fact, if all of thelogically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe. This point has, in fact, been expressed with respect to clan organization by Murdock (1949: 71). In this light, the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go. Professor Linton first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists twenty years ago (1936:326), but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood. T h w r e a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the east

Kitāb Tadhkirat al-nisyān fī akhbār mulūk al-Sūdān, [18th century?].

Careful (though damaged) copy of the anonymous biographical dictionary of the pashas of Timbuktu (Tombouctou) completed in 1751, itself a rearrangement of the history Dīwān al-mulūk fī salāṭīn al-sūdān. Contribution to the cataloguing from Hossein Mottaghi. "Briefly described and importance of text analyzed by Professor Andrew Ehrenkreutz, June 1967 (his essay in Islamic MSS administrative file, Special Collections department). The item in hand is for some reason identified as "Munajjed no. 1" in the handwriting of a librarian(?) on this essay. No such identification exists on the item itself."- from handlist prepared by R. Dougherty, 1993.Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Research Center, Isl. Ms. 904Origin: Lacks dated colophon ; paper suggests 18th century.Accompanying materials: "In manila envelope marked: 'Islamic ms./unacc./Tadhkirat al-nisyan fi akhbar muluk al- Sudan./Arabic. 18th century./North African [Maghribi] script.'" - from handlist prepared by R. Dougherty, 1993.Former shelfmark: Mich. Isl. Ms. temp. no. 53Binding: Boards covered in red brown leather ; Type II binding (with flap) ; board linings in beige paper, decoratively trimmed to accent interior of spine and fore edge flap ; upper and lower covers carry blind-stamped central mandorla (with blue-green paper onlays) as well as blind-tooled accents (including rectangular stamps and rosettes at corners with light brown leather onlays), pendants and border (in a series of rules and vegetal stamps) ; design continues on flap ; cover likely made to serve as a wrapper binding though possibly for a larger text block, certainly serves as a wrapper for the unsewn leaves of this current text block (possibly recycled wrapper binding) ; overall in somewhat poor condition with large loss to board in lower cover, other staining and abrasion, etc.Support: European laid paper with 10 laid lines per cm. (vertical), chain lines spaced 21-22 mm. apart (horizontal), and watermark of crown above cartouche with "I B" [?] and bell below (see p.4, 34, 90, 110, 134, 154, 182, etc. and compare nos. 335, 336, 339, etc. in Gaudriault, Filigranes et autres caractéristiques de papiers fabriqués en France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles), beige in color, thin and transluscent though sturdy ; in poor condition with ink burn to break-through, staining, tears and some significant losses.Decoration: Keywords and section headings in bolded dark brown ink, others entered in yellow, green, orange or red (rubricated), still others simply accented with yellow, red, etc.Script: Maghribī ; mainly serifless with dramatic effect of tilt to the right, spur-like tail on alif of prolongation, sweeping descenders, etc.Layout: Written in 23 lines per page.Collation: Any original gatherings no longer intact ; catchwords present ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals, supplied during digitization.Incipit: "الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين وعلى اله ... الطيبين واصحابه الفضلاء الطاهرين وبعد فقد رسمنا اسماء الباش [الباشات] على ترتيب حروف الهجاء التي اولها الالف واخرها الياء ..."Title from inscription on 'title page' (p.1).Ms. codex.University of Michigan Library. Manuscripts & papyri : an exhibition arranged for the XXVII International Congress of Orientalists, Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 13-19, 1967. (Ann Arbor, MI [?], 1967),Walz, Terence. "The paper trade of Egypt and the Sudan in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and its re-export to the Bilad as-Sudan." In The trans-Saharan book trade: manuscript culture, Arabic literacy, and intellectual history in Muslim Africa. Graziano Krätli and Ghislaine Lydon, Eds. (Leiden : Brill, 2011):Gaudriault, Raymond. Filigranes et autres caractéristiques de papiers fabriqués en France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Paris: CNRS Éditions, 1995.Careful (though damaged) copy of the anonymous biographical dictionary of the pashas of Timbuktu (Tombouctou) completed in 1751, itself a rearrangement of the history Dīwān al-mulūk fī salāṭīn al-sūdān. Contribution to the cataloguing from Hossein Mottaghi. "Briefly described and importance of text analyzed by Professor Andrew Ehrenkreutz, June 1967 (his essay in Islamic MSS administrative file, Special Collections department). The item in hand is for some reason identified as "Munajjed no. 1" in the handwriting of a librarian(?) on this essay. No such identification exists on the item itself."- from handlist prepared by R. Dougherty, 1993.Mode of access: Internet.Horace Miner ;Occasional glosses and marginal corrections