The Nacirems believe that if they don’t attend their daily rituals as a kid, the gods will punish them with an afterlife of solitude and loneliness. Ever since I’ve gone to visit the Nacirema tribe I could sense a presence of dread through the air. 

It was as though everyone there would all prefer to go back home. Kids were forced to do their daily rituals by their parents who would punish them if they refused to go. I believe this was a way of taking kids to a less harsh prison than adults have. Every few days the dread grew stronger. On some days I could see all the kids being handed out tablets with different carvings on it. From my conversations with some of the kids, what they were doing was a weekly ritual and it was to test their skills, and if they failed their parents could only fear what would become of them. The room was filled with no voices and the only thing I could hear was kids carving. The priests seemed very disappointed all the time, acting as if they have never seen anything worse in their life. Sometimes I caught the priests shouting at some of the kids while other times they put the bad children in the front of the rooms and publicly humiliated them. There were a few kids who would purposely disrupt the sessions and sometimes hurt the other kids as the priest watched, doing nothing as if they didn’t exist. This happened often but mostly when they were participating in physical challenges. The kids seemed more on edge whenever this happened. Every kid would be forced to run as the priests sit down watching them, but never does it themselves. It was as though they had complete authority over the kids. But during these times the kids would be hurting each other more than normal. Normally there were specific kids who hurt others and didn’t get called out.

Since I first came here I realized that this culture says that it cares about its kids when it actually serves as a prison for them. From this I have come to a conclusion that this culture respects its elders but not their kids.

~ Ben P.

The Nacirema believe that their God will give them gifts inand exchange for offerings and that they will grow closer to their family and friends during a time of the celebration. 

Once a year the Nacirema festoon a tree. This marks the beginning of their most sacred celebration and it only happens once a year. After they festoon the tree there are a few days of preparations for a big celebration with friends and family which usually concludes with a feast. After the celebration, they lay offerings for their God. Then they enter a ritual slumber. When they awake their God has devoured their offerings and has given them in return sacred items contained in magic chests. Each of the boxes has runed marks that signify who the gifted item is for. The Nacirema believe that this brings them closer to their friends and family.  While it appears to make them happier with the sacred items they received often being items they wished for. The Nacirema believed that their God resembles an old wise man in an odd robe who will conjure the items in the boxes out of thin air. The feast and the celebration is a wonder to behold people dressed in costumes. There is usually a large roast of some sort of animal. There are usually warm beverages that are a tradition but not to requirement. The Nacirema makes special pastries with odd designs on them. Some of the younger children play odd games where they hide an item somewhere in the tree and find it to get a prize.  they also have weird devices that make popping and crackling sounds when you open them. 

The Naciremabelieve this time to be of familial bonds and strengthening friendships but also to play and have fun and offer their God their devotion. I wonder how they have managed to survive this song the celebration oftentimes takes one to two months to be fully prepared and ready and comes at great expense to each family I also wonder why haven't they scaled it back and downsized it. 

~ Connor M.

The Nacirema have been occupying an unheard-of territory south of Ottawa, Canada for over two centuries.  Sometimes it is rather hard to wrap your mind around the fact that such a small tribe still exists after being faced by the challenges that two centuries of life-changing history gives you.  The Nacirema believe that they suffered hardships to achieve the peace and respect they deserve from other tribes, and they honor their ancestors’ resilience to survive by holding special ceremonies yearly.

During these exceptional, annual ceremonies, the Nacirema congregate at one of the Nacirema’s huts to commemorate their ancestors’ perseverance through times of struggle.  It is customary and expected for the host of the ceremony to prepare a feast for the sole purpose of communal dining at the table.  While the list of meals that the Nacirema cook for this ceremony are endless, there are three meals that are the most prevalent at the dinner table that I was lucky enough to try out myself.  Before we approach the meals and their recipes, we need to tackle the farming and harvesting season first.  After every ceremony, the Nacirema plant the crops necessary for the upcoming feast, and harvest them before the next ceremony, and so on and so forth.  The Naciremas plant wheat, and tomato, mustard, cucumber, sesame, lettuce, and onion seeds into the earth.  They also raise pigs and cattle for the feast.  One of the most consumed foods during the ceremony is a sausage wrapped in bread topped with several dipping sauces.  The Naciremas are not very excellent decision makers, so they create three sauces for this occasion.  The first sauce’s ingredients consist of tomatoes that are mashed with a mortar and pestle.  The second sauce involves using a mortar and pestle to grind mustard seeds into a paste, adding water to the paste, and letting the mixture sit in a bowl for a couple of hours.  Lastly, the third sauce’s recipe requires boiling chopped cucumbers, green peppers, onions, and vinegar, and leaving out the finished concoction to cool down to room temperature before consuming.  The other two essential components of this recipe are the sausage and the bread.  The Nacirema love eating meat, so they dedicate their time to raising livestock only to slaughter their animals for the annual feast.  They combine pork and beef into a paste, and cover the paste in the intestines of numerous animals.  This dish is not complete without the bread, so the Nacirema use their harvested flour to make dough for the bread.  Next, the Nacirema have a fondness for a dish that is best described as a meat cake with melted cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onions topped with two sesame seed-covered pieces of bread.  The Nacirema use their hand-crafted baskets to gather tomatoes, onions, and lettuce for this dish.  The preparation for these vegetables is insanely simple–all you have to do is thinly slice each of the vegetables and you’re done! The Nacirema hunt their cattle, and incorporate the meat in their meat cakes (cheese is also obtained from the cattle).  They also look after chickens since eggs are crucial for this dish.  After the eggs and the meat are acquired, the Nacirema mix the two together by hand, form the mixture into a ball, and flatten the ball.  The harvested wheat turns into bread and sesame seeds are added on top of the bread for decoration and–according to some Naciremas– improved taste.  Cheese, tomatoes, onions, and lettuce go on top of the meat cake, and both sides of the vegetables and meat cake are surrounded by the two pieces of bread.  The final dish that I discuss is the easiest to make at home.  You may have noticed that the Nacirema feature wheat heavily in their food, so you won’t be surprised when I say that this dish also has wheat in it.  The wheat goes into a dough that is topped with a tomato sauce made by utilizing a handy mortar and pestle to mash tomatoes.  Cheese comes from the cattle, which is sprinkled on top of the tomato sauce.  

The cooking process for the feast is equally as important as the preparation of the food.  Unfortunately, I am hindered in providing the same detailed explanation that I did for the food recipes, because unlike the food recipes, I am not as familiar with the Nacirema’s cooking technology as I am with the crops harvested for the feast.  I observed the Nacirema using a strange machine to cook their meat sandwiches (second recipe).  The machine looks like a big black monster and the Nacirema must have infuriated the monster because it roars and smoke pours out of its head every time the Nacirema place food inside the machine.  If you dare to come close to inspect this machine, there are silver lines positioned across the interior of the machine that can be used to put food on.  The Nacirema use this line structure to cook the meat cake for their sandwich.  The Nacirema are too lazy and fearful to use their own hands to cook the meat cake so they use shiny, steel-like hands to flip the meat cake to avoid burning or overcooking it.  Apparently, the Nacirema prefer to have several cooking options on hand so they use a different machine to cook the dough creation (third recipe) than the meat cake.  I have entered one of the Nacirema’s huts before and I witnessed with my own eyes a metallic box that makes beeping sounds.  Perhaps the soul of a formerly-living Nacirema is trapped into this box, a Nacirema who committed a misdeed.  Maybe that is the reason behind all of those beeping noises.  The Nacirema keep their offspring away from the dangerous metallic box.  They say that if you reach your hand inside of the box, you will get burned.  Despite the fact that this metallic box can harm many people, the Nacirema believe that this is the ideal setting to cook their dough creation.  There is also a line structure inside the mouth of the metallic box for food to be placed on top of.  But first, the Nacirema cover their dough creation in crinkly silver paper before torturing it inside the scorching metallic box.  They serve their food on flat, white discs and put the discs on a table.  On top of the table is a black pole with a tent-like covering attached to it.  The feast culminates in tribal singing.  Several Naciremas chant while listening to a person’s voice trapped inside a black rectangular box adorned with two circles.  One cultural aspect of the Naciremas’ annual ceremonies that I admire is that many Naciremas come to celebrate with each other because they believe that their food tastes better when everyone is together.

The Nacirema have a unique ritual they perform after their feast.  The Nacirema believe that the sky is boring, and feel like they are the people responsible for decorating it with vibrant, colorful designs.  Their strategy to fulfill this end is to construct a tube covered with wood shavings filled with magical explosive black powder.  The place where this intriguing ritual takes place is a clearing next to a river with many of the Naciremas’ huts lined next to each other across the river.  The Nacirema bring their offspring with them because everyone is encouraged to attend this ritual.  The annual ceremony really is incomplete without the ritual.  Only the bravest of the Naciremas receive the honor to take a torch and light the ends of the explosive tubes.  Pop! Crack! The first powder tubes explode, and the Naciremas collectively exclaim, scream, and cheer as they watch the sky light up.  Spirals and patterns of any shape and color imaginable soar into the sky.  As the Naciremas light these tubes, they offer the vibrant patterns to their ancestors in the heavens above as a sign that they are doing well and are happy with their lives.  The Nacirema hold black rectangles to the sky, and if you are attending the ceremony, a wave of clicking noises can be heard.  They also pose in front of the fireworks, and the black rectangle captures the moment.  Eventually, the tube-lighting stops, the sky ceases to be colorful, the world is filled with a melancholy silence, and the Nacirema part on their own separate ways to their huts for the night.

The whole purpose behind the Naciremas’ annual ceremony is to think back upon the time when they were not respected and could not live in peace with other tribes, and to honor their ancestors for surviving through difficult times.  Not many other cultures in the world have ceremonies like the Naciremas do, nor do they have days of the year which they devote entirely to practicing gratitude to their ancestors.  It truly is incredible to be aware of the fact that the Nacirema have lived for so long while they have simultaneously been subjecting themselves to months of effort and planning for their annual ceremony for over two centuries now.

~ Carmen V.