Learning to Interpret Cultural Meaning through an Etic Description of a Familiar Culture

In: Teaching sociology: TS, Band 42, Heft 4, S. 298-302

Abstract

Undergraduate students often have trouble interpreting cultures other than that with which they are familiar in a way that takes into account the symbols and meanings that explain behaviors, objects, and ideologies. Instead, many fall into the trap of making ethnocentric assumptions and coming to conclusions that are informed by their own cultural perspectives. This in-class active learning exercise makes the familiar strange, using Horace Miner's well-known 1956 essay "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" to introduce students to an etic, cultural outsider–like description of American culture. Using short excerpts from Miner's article, students draw pictures of Miner's descriptions, producing a wide variety of interpretations. This activity demonstrates that when students overlook or misunderstand cultural meaning, they can come to myriad inaccurate depictions and conclusions about social life and behavior. It therefore reinforces the importance of developing an emic understanding of cultures, rather than accepting social phenomena at face value.