The Elusive Nacirema Tribe Essay Example for Free

The Elusive Nacirema Tribe Essay In the everyday life of the perceived â€Å"normal† individual, rituals and rites performed by individuals as part of a different culture might seem harsh, cruel or even barbaric. After my first read of Body Ritual among the Nacirema, that is how I perceived their daily way of life. They believe in magic potions, seeking pain from the â€Å"holy – mouth – men† a couple of times a year, and the men and women perform acts that seem to contradict one another by trying to obtain abnormal body shapes, and then the men cut their face daily and the women â€Å"bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour†. What I discovered when reading this article again was that the author, Sir Horatio Galbraith, put a spin on words in many different ways, but this article just goes to show that what may seem normal to you could be portrayed as a terrible way to conduct daily life to others. In this article, Galbraith made mention about the Nacirema people being incarcerated into ugly and disease ridden bodies, and they make extreme efforts to â€Å"avert these characteristics through the use of the powerful influences of ritual and ceremony. He also noted that these people make visits to receive excruciatingly painful procedure they consider an â€Å"exorcism of the evils† from a magical practitioner best known as the â€Å"holy-mouth-men†. At first glance, both of these points the author has made make it seem as though these people are very rigid and harsh with their decisions in life. It seems almost like they make an effort to induce pain on themselves to achieve a culturally acceptable appearance. However after analyzing and relating these acts to my own way of life, I noted several similarities. In society today, the majority of people strive to look better than they currently do by dieting, working out and by making sure their mouth and teeth look their very best. These are just a few examples among many other efforts that are made by people to look better than they normally do, or at least get close to or above the normal standard. The â€Å"holy-mouth-men† is a clear reference to the dentist. Galbraith noted that the Nacirema people visit this man once or twice a year which falls into the normal visit frequency today’s society exhibits. The rituals and rites performed by the people of the Nacirema tribe were diversely separated between men and women. A specific ritual only performed by the men â€Å"involves scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument. † The description of this practice will lead the unknowing reader to derive this as an act of barbarity, however after trying to find a connection between this description and something that occurs during the daily life of the men in today’s society, I discovered that this is nothing more than an embellished description of a man shaving his face daily with what else; a razor! This type of twist and embellishment on words is what hindered me from figuring out what the real purpose of this article was in the first place. Galbraith makes reference to a ritual performed four times during on lunar month, only by women. His comment regarding this act by the women was â€Å"what they lack in frequency is made up in barbarity. † The ritual performed by the women was described as baking their heads in small ovens for about an hour. Of course this type of act sounds horrific when worded this way, but again I tried to make a connection. When women in today’s society get their hair colored or have a permanent curl put in their hair, they have to sit under the dryer on the chairs that line the walls of the hair salon. I have sat under one of these chairs myself, and I cannot imagine that it is even anywhere near the same extreme of baking your head for an hour in a small oven. I believe one point the author was trying to make was that not only are these people obsessed with their appearance and overall health, but they are more obsessed with being to control and change it as they see fit. Galbraith also seemed as though he was trying to make note of the fact that they want to look better than the average, but in doing so, they want to keep it a secret as if the surrounding members of their society will not discover that they are not naturally made that way. Ethnocentrically, these types of practices seem strange and it seems as though these people are trying too hard; however, from a culturally relative point of view every individual has the right to practice whatever rites and rituals they deem fit and proper, as long as they do not fall on the wrong side of the legal law that resides over their area. As part of this assignment, I am supposed to list how I would react if placed in this culture; however I believe I am already living and functioning in this culture. Galbraith did not just make a play on words when describing the normal acts of the day to day individual, he also made a play on words when he named this tribe Nacirema; spelled backwards it spells American. I have gone through this article time and time again and have successfully identified everything he mentioned in the article as a connection with the American people. The only difference is that Galbraith went to extremes when describing the â€Å"rituals and rites† as to mislead the reader, but in a way everything he said was accurate in context. I enjoyed reading and analyzing this article once I made the connection. In some ways it was an eye opener, and other parts made me laugh.

The Rise Of Starbucks :: essays research papers

The Rise of Starbucks   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Starbucks Corporation has enjoyed phenomenal growth since its early days in 1971 as a quaint coffee shop in Seattle, Washington. The rise of Starbucks can be directly attributed to the following factors; the emphasis placed on product quality, high employee standards, and creating the perfect cup of coffee.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How a small idea became a huge business. Growing up in Brooklyn Howard Schultz had no aspirations. His only goal was to escape the struggles his working-class parents lived every day (Schultz 107).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Eventually, Schultz discovered his talent for sales, and was hired by a Swedish housewares corporation. By age 28, he was vice president in charge of sales in the United States. He has an excellent salary, a co-op apartment in New York City and was happily married. However, Schultz wasn't satisfied with all he had accomplished. He wanted to be in charge of his own destiny (107). It was then in the early 1980's that he was introduced to the company, Starbucks Coffee and Tea. Starbucks's original was modest but full of character. Schultz was immediately impressed by its charm. Importantly, he thought the coffee was wonderful (Schultz 108). He then had dinner with a friend, Jerry Baldwin owner of Starbucks and his partner, Gordon Bowker. Schultz tried to persuade Baldwin to hire him as an employee, even though it did not seem to be a logical career move. But for Schultz Starbucks held an inexplicable attraction. He soon found many reasons to get back to Seattle and visit (108). Then in the spring of 1982, Jerry and Gordon invited Schultz to meet Board member Steve Donovan. Schultz told the men what he saw for the future of the company. The partners seemed inspired by his vision. But they had decided not to hire Schultz. They felt his vision, was not what they had in mind for the company (108). Schultz still believed so much in the future of Starbucks that he couldn't except 'no'; as an answer. He then contacted Baldwin and protested that he wasn't selfishly interested in a job but it was more so about what he wanted to do for the company. Finally, Schultz had a job working at Starbucks (Schultz 109). Then, after working there for a year, he had a simple experience that changed his life. He traveled to Milan, Italy to attend an international housewares show. While, traveling he noticed a little espresso bar.

Diffrenece Between Hypothesis and Theory

TOK essay Difference between scientific law, theory and hypothesis 551 words In the world were living in nowadays people, groups or even some nations each has a different way of thinking. That’s why opinions were created and people could have different prospectives and different ideas were developed all over the past centuries. That variation of ideas, prospective and ways of thinking had lead into the creation for methods for proving something as an idea an experiment a suggestion, and others.This essay would be discussing those ways and their differences. Firstly, the first thing that leads into an opinion or way of seeing something is setting up your hypothesis, hypothesis is an educated guess based upon observation for a certain matter. It is an explanation of a single event or something based on what is observed not deeply observed but just observed, and it also has not been proved yet. Most hypotheses can be supported or disproved by experiment or a deep observation.Some examples of hypothesis are, when an apple is put in the wind and sun it will rot, this is a simple example it’s based on what’s observed as when an apple is put in the sun it would rot but no further scientific explanation is given. After a hypothesis is set based on really weak and shallow observations it must be tested for that opinion or idea to be true it must be tested and observed scientifically and not only once it must be tried and observed a number of times, that what develops a theory and obeys scientific laws, a scientific law is a statement of fact that explains a certain matter or different action or habits.It is generally accepted to be true and universal and can be proved and tested widely and sometimes they could be written as mathematical equations. Scientific laws must be simple, true and universal. Going back to a theory it is noted as more like a scientific law than a hypothesis. It is an explanation and prove for your hypothesis and sets of relate d observations or events based upon proven hypotheses and verified multiple times. A theory could hold on a definition as it is the way people could know this certain idea or issue is true by repeated xperiments whom tern a hypothesis into a theory or it just keeps it a hypothesis untested. Some examples of scientific laws are some physics and maths rules as Newton's laws of motion, law of gravity, the laws of thermodynamics and other physics laws whom are proved and tested that’s why they turn into a scientific law. Sometimes some laws can turn to theories as the law of gravity and gravitational forces, as it could go more general to be turned into a theory.The biggest difference between a law and a theory is that a theory is much more complex and dynamic. A law runs a single action, whereas a theory explains an entire group of related matters and phenomenas. That’s what differs an experimented hypothesis whether it turns into a theory or it is more specified so it tu rns to be a law, an example of a theory is automobiles Components of it can be changed or improved upon and more things invented in it, without changing the overall truth of the theory as a whole that it is an automobile.

Chemistry Abbreviations Starting with the Letter R

Chemistry abbreviations and acronyms are common in all fields of science. This collection offers common abbreviations and acronyms beginning with the letter R used in chemistry and chemical engineering. °R - degrees RankineR - Arginine amino acidR - Chiral center for R/S systemR - functional group or side chain of atoms variableR - ResistanceR - Ideal Gas ConstantR - ReactiveR - ReduxR - Rà ¶ntgen unitR - Rydberg ConstantR-# - Refrigerant numberRa - RadiumRA - Retinoic AcidRACHEL - Remote Acess Chemical Hazards Electronic Libraryrad - radianrad - Radiation - Absorbed DoseRad - RadioactiveRb - RubidiumRBA - Rutherford Backscattering AnalysisRBD - Refined, Bleached and DeodorizedRCS - Reactive Chemical SpeciesRDA - Recommended Daily AllowanceRDT - Recombinant DNA TechnologyRDX - cyclotrimethylenetrinitramineRDX - Research Department ExplosiveRE - Rare EarthRe - RheniumREACH - Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of Chemical substancesREE - Rare Earth ElementRef - Referencerem - Radiation Equivalent - ManREM - Rare Earth MetalREQ - RequiredRER - Respiratory Exchange RatioRF - Radio FrequencyRF - Resonance FrequencyRf - RutherfordiumRFIC - Reagent-Free Ion ChromatographyRFM - Relative Formula MassRG - Rare GasRg - RoentgeniumRH - Relative HumidityRh - RhodiumRH - Rydberg Constant for HydrogenRHE - Reversible Hydrogen ElectrodeRHIC - Relativistic Heavy Ion ColliderRHS - Right Hand SideRI - Radical InitiatorRIO - Red IronOxideRL - Reaction LevelRMM - Relative Molar MassRMS - Root Mean SquareRn - RadonRNA - RiboNucleic AcidRNS - Reactive Nitrogen SpeciesRO - Red OxideRO - Reverse OsmosisROHS - Restriction Of Hazardous SubstancesROS - Reactive Oxygen SpeciesROWPU - Reverse Osmosis Water Purification UnitRPM - Revolutions Per MinuteRPT - RepeatRSC - Royal Society of ChemistryRT - Reverse TranscriptaseRT - Room TemperatureRT - Energy (Rydberg Constant x Temperature)RTP - Room Temperature and PressureRTM - Read The ManualRTSC - Room Temperature Super ConductorRu - Ruthenium