body ritual among the nasarama by Horace Miner published in the American Anthropologist in 1956. the Anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different peoples behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs in fact if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world he's apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe this point has in fact been expressed with respect to Clan organization by Murdoch in this light the magical beliefs and practices of the nasarama present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go Professor Linton first brought the ritual of the nasarama to the attention of anthropologists 20 years ago but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood they are a North American group living in the Territory between the Canadian Cree the Yaki and terahumari of Mexico and the Caribbean Airwalk of the Antilles little is known of their origin although tradition states that they came from the East according to NASA Rhema mythology their nation was originated by a culture hero naknisha who is otherwise known for two great Feats of Strength throwing a piece of wampum across the river Potomac and The Chopping down of a cherry tree in which the spirit of Truth resided nasarima culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy which has evolved in a rich natural habitat while much of the people's time is devoted to economic Pursuits a large part of the fruits of these labors and a considerable considerable portion of the day are spent in ritual activity the focus of this activity is the human body and the appearance and health of which Loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people while such a concern is certainly not unusual it's ceremonial aspects and Associated philosophy are unique the fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease incarcerated in such a body man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of the powerful influences of ritual and ceremony every household has one or more shrines devoted to this purpose the more powerful individuals in the society have several shrines in their houses and in fact the opulence of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses most houses are of waddle and Dobb construction but the shrine rooms of the more wealthy Are Walled with stone poorer families imitate the rich by applying Pottery plaques to their Shrine walls while each family has at least one such Shrine the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are private and Secret the rights are normally only discussed with children and then only during the period when they are being initiated into these Mysteries I was able however to establish sufficient rapport with the natives to examine these shrines and to have the rituals described to me the focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall in this chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live these preparations are secured from a variety of specialized practitioners the most powerful of these are the medicine men whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts however the medicine men do not provide the Curative potions for their clients but decide what the ingredient should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language this writing is understood only by the medicine men and by The herbalists Who for another gift provide the required charm the charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose but is placed in the charm box of the household shrine as these magical materials are specific for certain ills and the real or imagined maladies of the people are many the charm box is usually fold to overflowing the magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use them again while the natives are very vague on this point we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm box before which the body rituals are conducted will in some way protect the worshiper beneath the charm box is a small font each day every member of the family in succession enters the shrine room Shrine room bows his head before the charm box mingles different sorts of holy water in the font and proceeds with a brief right of ablution the holy waters are secured from the water temple of the community where the priests conduct elaborate ceremonies to make the liquid ritually pure in the hierarchy of magical practitioners and below the medicine men in Prestige are Specialists whose designation is best translated to Holy mouth men the nazarema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships were it not for the rituals of the mouth they believe that their teeth would fall out their gums bleed their jaws shrink their friends desert them and their lovers reject them they also believe that a strong relationship exists between the oral and moral characteristics for example there is a ritual ablution of the mouth for children which is supposed to improve their moral fiber the daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth right despite the fact that these people are so punctalus about care of the mouth this right involves a practice which strikes The uninitiated Stranger as revolting it was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth along with Certain Magical powders and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures in addition to the private mouth right the people seek out a holy mouth man once or twice a year these practitioners have an impressive set of paraphernalia consisting of a variety of augers alls probes and prods the use of these objects in The Exorcism of the evils of the mouth involves almost unbearable ritual torture of the client the holy mouth man opens the client's mouth and using the above mentioned tools enlarges any holes which Decay may have created in the teeth magical materials are put into these holes if there are no naturally occurring holes in the teeth large sections of one or more teeth are gouged out so that the supernatural substance can be applied in the client's view the purpose of these administrations is to arrest Decay and to draw friends the extremely sacred and traditional character of the right is evident in the fact that the natives returned to the holy mouth men year after year despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay it is to be hoped that when a thorough study of the nasarama is made there will be careful inquiry into the personality structure of these people one has but to watch The Gleam in the eye of a holy mouth man as he Jabs an awl into an exposed nerve to suspect that a certain amount of sadism is involved if this can be established a very interesting pattern emerges for most of the population shows definite masochistic tendencies it was to these that Professor Linton referred in discussing a distinctive part of the daily body ritual which is performed only by men this part of the right involves scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument Al women's rights are performed only four times during each lunar month but what they lack in frequency is made up in barbarity as part of the ceremony women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour the theoretically interesting point is that what seems to be a predominantly masochistic people have developed sadistic specialists the medicine men have an imposing temple temple or latipso in every community of any size the more elaborate ceremonies required to treat very sick patients can only be performed at this Temple these ceremonies involved not only the thamaturg but a permanent group of vestral Maidens who move sedately about the temple Chambers in distinctive costume and headdresses the latypso ceremonies are so harsh that it is phenomenal that a fair proportion of the really sick natives who enter the temple ever recover small children whose indoctrination is still incomplete have been known to resist attempts to take them to the temple because quote that is where you go to Die end quote despite this fact sick adults are not only willing but eager to undergo the protracted ritual purification if they can afford to do so no matter how ill the supplicant or how grave the emergency the Guardians of many temples will not admit a client if he cannot give a rich gift to the custodian the even after one has gained admission and survived the ceremonies the Guardians will not permit the neophyte to leave until he makes still another gift the supplicant entering the temple is first stripped of all of his or her clothes in everyday life the nasarama avoids exposure of his body and its natural functions bathing in excretory acts are performed only in the secrecy of the household Shrine where they are ritualized as part of the body rates psychological shock results from the fact that body secrecy is suddenly lost upon entry into the latypso a man whose own wife has never seen him in an excretory act suddenly finds himself naked and assisted by a vestral maiden while he performs his natural functions into a secret vessel this sort of ceremonial treatment is necessitated by the fact that the excreta are used by a definer to ascertain the course and nature of the client sickness female clients on the other hand find their naked bodies are subjected to the scrutiny manipulation and prodding of the medicine men few supplicants in the temple are well enough to do anything but lie on their hard beds the daily ceremonies like the rights of the Holy mouth men involve discomfort and torture with ritual Precision the vessels awaken their miserable charges each Dawn and roll them about on their beds of pain while performing absolutions in the formal movements of which the maidens are highly trained at other times they insert magic wands into the supplicant's mouth or force him to eat substances substances which are supposed to be healing from time to time the medicine men come to their clients and Jab magically treated needles into their flesh the fact that these Temple ceremonies May not cure and may even kill the neophyte in no way decreases the people's faith in the medicine men there remains one other kind of practitioner known as a listener this witch doctor has the power to exercise the Devils that Lodge in the heads of people who have been Bewitched the nasarama believed that parents Bewitched their own children mothers are particularly suspected of putting a curse on children while teaching them The Secret body rituals the counter magic of the witch doctor is unusual in its lack of ritual the patient simply tells the listener all his troubles and fears beginning with the earliest difficulties he can remember the memory displayed by the nasarama in these exorcism sessions is truly remarkable it is not uncommon for the patient to bemoan the rejection he felt upon being weaned as a babe and a few individuals even see their troubles going back to the traumatic effects of their own birth in conclusion mention must be made of certain practices which have their base in Native Aesthetics but which depend upon the pervasive aversion to the Natural Body and its functions there are ritual fasts to make fat people thin and ceremonial feasts to make thin people fat still other rights are used to make women's breasts larger if they are small and smaller if they are large General dissatisfaction with breast shape is symbolized in the fact that the ideal form is virtually outside the range of human variation a few women Afflicted with almost inhuman hyper mammary development are so idolized that they make a handsome living by simply going from Village to Village and permitting the natives to stare at them for a fee reference has already been made to the fact that excretory functions are ritualized routinized and relegated to secrecy natural reproductive functions are similarly distorted intercourses taboo as a topic and scheduled as an act efforts are made to avoid pregnancy by the use of magical materials or by limiting intercourse to certain phases of the moon conception is actually very infrequent when women when pregnant women dress so as to hide their condition perturiation takes place in secret without friends or relatives to assist and the majority of women do not nurse their infants our review of The Natural Life of the nasarama has certainly shown them to be a magic written people it is hard to understand how they have managed to exist so long under the burdens which they have imposed upon themselves but even such exotic Customs as these take on real meaning when they are viewed with the Insight provided by malinowski when he wrote quote looking from far and above from our high places of safety in the developed civilization it is easy to see all the crudity and irrelevance of magic but without its power and guidance early man could not have mastered his practical difficulties as he has done nor could man have advanced to the higher stages of civilization