David,

You had Suzy McKee Charnas as a high school teacher?  Wowie-zowie!  It's not
surprising that your class had a science-fiction bent. <g>

I also used the Nacirema when teaching a Pop Culture class at Bowling Green
State University, trying to get the undergrads to look at their own culture
critically.  Did it work?  Nah, not too well.  At that age, they're still
very much invested in conformity, just trying to figure out how to survive.
But it was fun to find those few who could run with the ideas.  In any case,
it's available in the Pop Culture Reader, ed. by Brown.

Annie

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of David Formanek
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 1999 10:05 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: nacirema


In a message dated 10/15/99 11:12:22 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:

>Miner, Horace (1956). "Body Ritual among the Nacirema." The American
>
>Anthropologist, 58:503-507
>
>
>Annie

We used it in ninth grade (we were 14 years old) history/literature "core"
curriculum with science-fiction slant--now that I think about it, our
teacher, Suzy McKee Charnas, must have been a very brilliant woman. I bought
a copy in used-book hardcover some years ago, which suppresses the report on
the excavations at Grand Central Station.

David Formanek

USS Constitution Museum
Cyrus E. Dallin Art Museum
www.Dallin.org

Affiliations listed for identification purposes only. Opinions contained in
this e-mail are the writer's own.

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