Introduction
Cultural relativism helps in examining multiple aspects or practices within different cultural contexts as a way of gaining a better understanding of social functioning. Every culture tends to have its own set of cultural elements that signify a cultural identity for the persons associated with the culture. In most cases, these elements tend to differ from one culture to another, which acts as one of the critical aspects that helps towards building the uniqueness of culture. However, it is essential to take note of the fact that people tend to view their own cultures as being superior when compared to others. Having an emic and etic perspective of cultural relativism is essential towards understanding different perspectives of given cultural elements. In that view, I seek to examine two cultures from an emic and etic perspective with the aim of understanding the existing differentiation in the views presented.
Part I
In this section, the focus will be on examining the cultural aspect associated with body ritual among the Nacirema from an ethic perspective. Miner (1956) argues that the body ritual related to the Nacirema, which has been examined multiple times, remains notably misunderstood taking into account its cultural significance. The Nacirema, which spells ‘American’ in reverse, refers to a cultural group associated with the people of the United States of America. Little is known concerning the origin of the Nacirema people, due to a lack of adequate documentation of their migration to the current United States of America. The understanding of the body ritual has created essential debates among anthropologists attributed to the significant misunderstanding focusing on the significance of this culture.
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The Nacirema culture remains unique considering that it is characterized by development and modernization in which much of the people in the society are viewed as engaging in activities that would help build economic growth. However, it is essential to take note of the fact that majority of the people tend to focus much of their attention on their bodies. Miner (1956) indicates that the Nacirema people tend to become emasculated by the idea of having to focus on their appearance and health. The body remains as one of the essential concerns that can be connected to the Nacirema people, which has not only build a better understanding of their engagement in the body ritual but has also helped in highlighting the uniqueness of this culture. The ritualistic element of the body can be seen from the fact that majority of the people spend considerable amounts of time in trying to improve on their appearance.
The Nacirema people tend to hold the belief that their engagement in body rituals acts as one of the critical elements that would help them avert the possibility of having an ugly body. The issue of the body ritual has become common among the Nacirema people resulting in a situation where people tend to create specific shrines within their homes for purposes of these rituals. However, it is important to note that most of the shrines associated with body rituals can be related to the wealthy persons in the society. That means that some of the poor people tend to find it much harder in their bid to create shrines within the households for purposes of their engagement in body rituals.
The body rituals associated with Nacirema people are not considered as being family-oriented. Instead, these rituals tend to focus on the element of privacy and secrecy with the aim of ensuring that indeed the persons can match their set out body ritual expectations. Gilbert (2018) points out that although families tend to engage in discussions touching on body rituals, the actual engagement in such rituals is considered as being private. One of the focal points of the body ritual is that it focuses on a chest or box that is built into the wall in a bid to creating a shrine that the people would be able to use. The body ritual also extends to the rituals of the mouth to avoid unwarranted consequences including teeth falling out and bleeding gums among others. The Nacirema people believe that their engagement in the ritual of the mouth would help improve their moral fiber.
On the other hand, the Nacirema people believe in the need for having to seek out a holy-mouth-man at least once every year during which the medicine man inserts a wide array of paraphernalia as part of creating a positive body ritual. If decay occurs within some of the teeth, the holy-mouth-man can use the tools that he has towards creating a more massive hole. Additionally, the holy-mouth-man is then able to use magical material that would be put into the holes in the teeth to avoid any form of further decay of the teeth. The body rituals associated with the Nacirema people act as crucial ways through which to highlight the personalities of these people. The rituals also seek to build on the understanding that the Nacirema must avoid exposure of the body to its natural functions.
Part II
In this section, the focus is on discussing class, status, and identity in a Chinese Context. Duthie (2005) describes the Chinese economic reforms as having created a front from which more companies were able to invest in the country leading to a spike in white-collar business professionals. However, it is essential to take note of the fact that the majority of the white-collar workers within the Chinese economy are within the popular category. Duthie (2005) argues that the view of the white-collar professionals creates a stark contrast considering that some yield significant economic power in their employment but no power within the economy. That is because these professionals rely solely on the salaries that they can derive from the large corporations in which they work as employees. That limits their economic or political influence taking into account that it becomes difficult for them to achieve any form of power within the society.
White collar professionals tend to focus much of their attention on building their careers based on their education and experiences. That occurs in cases where they tend to move from one position in a corporation to another depending on the overall expectations in trying to build or develop one's career. However, this becomes a challenge considering that it only seeks to confine them towards one specific social status within the society, as they are limited concerning the amounts of money that they earn. Additionally, this also limits their abilities to maintain some form of overall control of their social positioning due to the significant reduction in their power and influence. Ultimately, this acts as a clear reflection of the fact that indeed the white collar position remains as being a non-effective position within the Chinese context especially in trying to build on the understanding of its influence.
The white-collar professionals can only be considered as being viable within the Chinese economy attributed to their educational attainment, occupation, and earning power. One key aspect to note is that the middle-class people tend to pose a significant taxonomical challenge associated with the positions that they hold within the business environment. The challenge reflects on the fact that each of these professionals tends to hold a different class interest meaning that they tend to create that general environment in which the social context of the Chinese business environment shifts significantly. The outcome of this is that it only seeks to create a dramatic situation touching on the social status of these professionals from a business perspective.
Duthie (2005) takes note of the fact that class was one of the fundamental principles associated with Mao Zedong's China in which people found themselves in a situation where they were assigned differentiated political class labels. The labels that were given to the people did not only affect the persons assigned these labels but also impacted members of their families. During this period, one of the uncommon occurrences reflected on the idea of having to from the job category to another. Additionally, it also created a challenge for persons intending to socialize within different social groups considering that it becomes a significant challenge to build on a connection due to the difference in social grouping.
From that perspective, it is clear that the issue of class touching on the people of China has objectively been categorized in a bid to building on useful definitions on what would be considered as being the social status. People tend to believe in the fact that indeed this acts as a clear reflection of their positions within the society thinking that this serves as a clear indication of the fact that indeed people are moving towards a positive shift. Additionally, it also clear that the issue of class acts as a critical determinant of how the people in the Chinese society operate. That arises from the fact that persons from different class tend to experience different significant difficulties in their interactions. It is uncommon for persons to interact outside their social class considering that this reflects on what they would consider as their identity.
Conclusion
In summary, cultural relativism helps in evaluating different aspects of culture from multiple perspectives in a bid to building a better understanding. Two key perspectives that may contribute toward building on such levels of understanding is emic and etic, which reflect on differentiated approaches of viewing culture and its elements. In the first section, the focus is on an evaluation of body rituals among Nacirema from an etic perspective, which is a perspective projected from an outsider. An analysis of the rituals suggests that indeed people tend to have multiple ways of which to describe some of these rituals, which have remained misunderstood for a long time. In the second section, the focus is on analyzing class, status, and identity in a Chinese Context from an emic perspective, which reflects more on an insider's view of the culture.
References
Duthie, L. (2005). White Collars with Chinese Characteristics: Global Capitalism and the Formation of a Social Identity. Anthropology of Work Review, 26 (3), 1-12.
Gilbert, S. F. (2018). Health Fetishism among the Nacirema: A fugue on Jenny Reardon’s The Postgenomic Condition: Ethics, Justice, and Knowledge after the Genome (Chicago University Press, 2017) and Isabelle Stengers’ Another Science is Possible: A Manifesto for Slow Science (Polity Press, 2018). Organisms. Journal of Biological Sciences , 2 (1), 43-54.
Miner, H. (1956). Body Ritual among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist , 58 (3), 503-507.
