Beliefs And Worships

Term Paper Title	Beliefs And Worships
# of Words	548
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	2.19

Beliefs and Worships



February 3, 2002                                                                                 Article #31

            Many cultures practice various rituals and ceremonies as a tribute to their beliefs and worship.  The bizarre values and customs of the Nacirema tribe present such unusual characteristics of cultural behavior.

            �The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease.  Incarcerated in such a body, man�s only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of powerful influences of ritual and ceremony� (168).  Located in the family home are shrines where these ceremonies are carried out privately.  The ceremonies and rituals vary in nature ranging from the daily ritual of the mouth-rite to the harsh latipso ceremonies.

The mouth-rite is performed daily for the exorcism of evils of the mouth.  �The ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs in to the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and the moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures� (169).  Once or twice a year one would turn to the proper practitioner to perform the mouth-rite ritual, this practitioner is known as the holy-mouth-man.  Sometimes the ritual requires a painful routine of enlarging holes in which decay has occurred in the teeth where magical materials are then placed within.  If there are no naturally formed holes in the teeth, one or more teeth are then gouged out so the magical substances can be placed within.  The purpose of this painful ceremony is beneficial to rid the mo...

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