Health

Creature Torturing System

The Nacirema tribe, who live north of the Mixtec tribe in Mexico, have very compelling rituals and beliefs. One of their beliefs is that their creatures are very sensitive and need to be taken to the healer every couple of months.

The Nacirema undertake this ritual by putting a rope around their creature’s neck and dragging them into the torturer's castle. The creature goes unwillingly, as their captivator forces them to be treated. The creature is then met by the spirit laborer, who will log your creature into the torturing system. Once they have finished that, you are then you sit in chairs and wait for the holy spirit torturer. Once the torturer arrives, you are forced into a chamber and the door is shut with you and your creature inside. The torturer then takes your creature and asks you many questions about your creature. I noticed that the torturer tools that he used were off-limit to all of the other souls. The torturer then takes your creature and leaves you in the room waiting. If you make any loud noises, that is considered rude.

The torturer uses lots of fancy gadgets, such as orbs, spheres, and other unidentified objects to poke and prod your creature. Once the torturer is done with your creature, they send you away with medications to torture your creature with, as you have to shove the medications down their throat. As I was watching the Nacirema, I noticed that they cherished their creatures very much. They kept chanting to them, over and over again. The torturer must be very high in power because the other souls seemed to do everything he said.

Once you are finished, you take your medications and leave. The Nacirema seem to believe that if the creatures don't get tortured every so often, then they will get sick, and hurt, and nobody will want to be around them as they will be stinky and falling apart.

In conclusion, the Nacirema seem to believe that taking their creatures to the torturer is extremely necessary, as they do it very often. The Nacirema have imposed a huge burden upon themselves. How have the Nacirema been keeping up with this ritual for so long?

~ Keira D.

Gruesome Gemstone Ritual

The Nacirema are a tribe north of the Tarahumare people of Mexico. One of the many beliefs that the Nacirema have is that the human body is boring and the only way to make it exciting is to cover it in gemstones and jewels.

The Nacirema have entire temples dedicated to this belief. Inside the temple women perform rituals on young children, generally girls. During this ritual the child sits in the torture chair as a woman takes an elixer and rubs in on the child’s ear to purify the surface of the skin. The woman then takes ink and draws a religious marking on their ear, then the woman then picks up the small spear and stabs the child where she put the ink. The child screams and thrashes as the woman then does this to the other ear. The woman quickly hurries to grab a gemstone and stabs that in the hole that they created with the spear in the child's ear.

After the ritual ends the child must clean the surface of the ear daily as to not have the wound get infected. If the gemstone is removed from the ear and stays removed for a long period of time, the wound will heal itself and the child will have the ritual done again. This ritual can also be done with people of all ages but it’s generally done for young children as it is easier because they won't remember the pain when they are older.

In one interview, I asked a woman from the Nacirema why she went through with this ritual as a young girl, her answer was, “My mother thought that people would mistake me for a boy.” As gender distinction is an important part of the Nacirema couture, oftentimes the Nacirema people will put themselves through hours of pain so as to not be mistaken for the opposite gender.

The Nacirema people do whatever they can to be interesting and draw attention. It’s really amazing how they have gone on for so long with their gruesome beliefs and rituals.

~ Erin I.

Torture for You, Torture for Me

The Nacirema believe that if they are tortured they will live longer, and might be tortured worse if they don’t go to the torture temple. The Nacirema have to pay to be tortured and the money that the torture temple makes helps torture people in the future a lot worse. They have many tools to torture them including knives that they use to cut them, and a metal fang that they use to put people to sleep so they can cut up their organs.

The Nacirma believe that if they are not cut up with knives and have sliced organs they will die quicker. They have to pay to go to the torture temple and for the Nacirema who don’t have as much money they try not to go but then get punished with getting tortured worse by their Gods. Hundreds of years ago they made an invention for torturing the Nacirema that latch on to the organs and make the organs stay together and they never come out of the person. The people who do all of the torturing also get tortured but not as much and get paid a lot of money to torture others.

The Nacirema also have a weird way of living including taking people's blood and organs and torturing the organs by cutting them so they can fit into another human being and manipulating the blood and inserting a sharp object that has their blood in it. When the organs are switched they can change the person, sometimes a little of the previous person's personality. Some people don’t have the same blood since it hasn’t been manipulated yet and no one can help them which makes them die.

In conclusion, the Nacirema have made the torture temple a part of everyones life from life to death. Do you think the Nacirema should put themselves through this pain to become “healthier” or do you think it's ridiculous and should stop hurting themselves to live longer.

~ Sydney V.

A Sudden Supernatural Shift

One thing the Nacirema made clear to me throughout my time with them was that most had outgrown a belief in the supernatural. They insisted that rituals involving gods had been replaced with supposedly rational thought. Yet one very strange and surprising ritual proved that this is false.

I first witnessed it as I was participating in an intense interview of about ten Nacirema under the shade of a native tree. As one high-ranking leader in the community was offering a complex explanation of their evening rituals, suddenly another member of the group began gasping for air — slowly at first, then frantically, culminating in a burst of energy emanating from his nose and mouth that I can describe only as a cosmic explosion of saliva, mucus, and carbon. Instantaneously, the leader halted her sentence midway through, and she and everyone else turned to face the poor soul, whose head had turned bright red. This, however, was not the strangest part: Immediately everyone in attendance began chanting a single prayer, in unison, begging their god to keep their comrade alive and bestow him with blessings, lest he should perish from the Earth. Just as I was about to ask what had happened, however, they all turned back to the leader, who resumed her explanation of the evening ritual as if nothing of interest had just occurred. The moment for me to inquire had passed as quickly as it had begun.

One thing is for certain, though: The Nacirema believe in an all-powerful deity with the authority to grant life and take it away as punishment for polluting their precious air with more carbon than humans typically emit. Perhaps the Nacirema have yet to abandon their old ways — or perhaps they understand how serious the problem of global climate change is and are desperate to save themselves through prayer. I cannot imagine what they must go through, living in constant fear that one day, if caught spewing carbon without another human there to bless them, their god will simply let them die, right there under the shade of that native tree.

~ Mr. Fishback

The Hair Ritual

The Nacirema believe that their hair is not valuable enough and that they must practice ceremonies to decorate their hair in order to fit into their society's standards and belief system.

On one of my last days spent with the Nacirema, I decided to follow one of their people. The most interesting ritual I noticed only happens every once in a while. Said ritual starts with a trip to a temple, the inside structure covered with reflective decorations that the Nacirema constantly stare at as they fiddle with their hair. Once they are called to the back, they sit down on what looks like a soft, cushiony rock with a metal rod on the bottom, coming out of the floor. After, another member of the Nacirema comes over and begins touching the other’s hair while also staring at a reflective surface.

Once they are done with this process, they typically start adding reflective sheets into the hair, along with a goopy substance. They do this with a small tool that has small spikes all over it and glides through the hair. Following that, the Nacirema member sitting in the chair heads over to a basin and proceeds to dunk their head inside to have their hair cleansed from the goop. After this, they have a tool pointed at their hair, blowing out hot air until the hair is completely dry.

Finally, the Nacirema member who is performing the ritual on the other’s hair, grabs a metallic tool with two sharp ends and starts to open and close it, moving it all around the hair, making sure to not miss a single spot. As they do this, chunks of hair slowly float to the ground and land in a heap. During this entire process, they listen to chants that echo throughout the entire temple.

After the ritual, I approached a member of the Nacirema and asked them why they occasionally decide to do this. They told me that if they didn’t, they would feel very uncomfortable, saying that their hair would look unruly and messy.

Overall, the Nacirema seem to value beauty and feel the need to fulfill their tribe's standards in order to feel confident. I wonder why this ritual has lasted so long since it is very time-consuming and countless different ritualistic tools are needed for the process.

~ Olivia G.

The Strange and Magical Ritual of Eeffoc Among the Nacirema

The Nacirema people, who live north of the Tarahumare tribes of Mexico, are a strange and magical people. Among the many rituals and unusual habits displayed by the Nacirema, one in particular called out to me. This ritual that so interested me is something that the natives call ‘Eeffoc’. Eeffoc, as I later learned in my study of the Nacirema, is a foul-tasting, dark brown liquid made from boiled water mixed in with the ground and roasted seeds of exotic plants. Eeffoc is served in either crudely fashioned cups made from hardened river clay, or sheets of pulped plant matter shaped into cylinders. This Eeffoc substance appears to be quite the cultural ritual and I have had an interesting time investigating and analysing it.

In my study of Eeffoc, I have had the opportunity to interview the Nacirema about their seemingly excessive consumption of a substance that many of the natives still seem to think is bitter and unpleasant and have come to the conclusion that Eeffoc is not consumed out of pleasure or for a social experience, but out of sheer addiction to the substance, and as general punishment for any wrongdoing. In my interviews, the Nacirema have told me that quote, “the first thing that I do in the morning is make Eeffoc.” And, “without Eeffoc I get grumpy and am prone to headaches.” Or, “Without Eeffoc I could never get any work done.” I have also found that the Nacirema assign seemingly arbitrary grades that have to do with the perceived quality of the Eeffoc bean. I also interviewed the Nacirema about this strange habit and about what Eeffoc beans they like and dislike and can say with confidence that the Nacirema seem to have a particular dislike of Dnalk’rik beans, and seem to quite like Eojredart and Evrev beans. One particular purveyor of of Eeffoc, and other multicoloured torture liquids that has a cultlike following amongst the Nacirema, is called Skcubrats. Practically the only members of the Nacirema that have not been inducted into the most foul and slavelike ritual of Eeffoc, are children. And the only reason for that, appears to be that the highest ranking medicine men declared that any member of the Nacirema beneath the age of 18, would shrivel into raisins if they did.

In my time amongst the Nacirema, I have gotten to explore the strange culture around the ritual of Eeffoc, and from my extensive research and interviews of the Nacirema, I can say with confidence that this self inflicted unpleasantness appears to be a mandatory facet of life among the Nacirema. Why the Nacirema started this ritual, or why the whole nation of Nacirema has not collapsed into civil war over it, will remain forever unknown.

~ Hazel F.

Sweet Retreat

The Nacirema live north of Mexico and believe that eating normal food is boring and gross, so they decide to abuse their mouths with a tooth threatening food. I thought it was weird that they put this in their mouth even though it causes their teeth to rot and get a hole dug in.

I met with the Nacirema and they do strange procedures to get this tooth threatening food. First of all, there are several ways to get it. One way is going to this tall rectangular boxy machine with a bunch of tasty things lining the inside. You just fiddle with buttons and the machine spits out the tooth threatening food, but it only does that sometimes.

Another way is to go into a huge block-shaped object which has many bright glaring circular suns. Inside there are many many standing white boards against the wall. They have weird squishy bears, or dark long bars of sweet smelling stuff. They could also have big bags of curly crunchy goodies! They even sell items that use the sweet smelling stuff, but in circles and colored!!

After the Nacirema eat the tooth threatening food, they are told to torture their mouths with exotic fibers very well that night. That means that their mouths have to receive the extent torture. If they don’t do this well, their white teeth start to get a pit that is black. (Yuck) Then the holy mouth man, who is a person who will cause pain to many many people’s mouths, will have to either remove their entire tooth or fill the hole with weird stuff. So even if it hurts, you must torture your mouths to the very best to avoid a black pit in your tooth.

I can’t believe how long the Nacirema survived with this tradition. Sometimes the Nacirema gets holes dug in, and sometimes not. Although, I guess even though it’s a threat, it’s still a nice way to make themselves happy.

~ Isabella C.

Shiny Creature

~ Hendry A.

The Decorations of the Nacirema

~ Anvika B.

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