Author : Mariko Fujita
Publisher : Cengage Learning
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)
Book Synopsis Life in Riverfront by : Mariko Fujita
Download or read book Life in Riverfront written by Mariko Fujita and published by Cengage Learning. This book was released on 2001 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LIFE IN RIVERFRONT is a unique case study that offers a fresh approach to ethnography because it looks at American culture as seen through the eyes of Japanese anthropologists. Every cultural anthropology student is introduced to papers on the "Nacirema," a very foreign culture with many daily rituals and a fanaticism for cleanliness, especially as they prepare themselves for work in the morning. In truth, the "nacirema" is American (spelled backwards), and the lessons learned from seeing one's own culture through the eyes of a 'stranger' illuminate the notion of ethnocentrism in a powerful way. While a major task of anthropology is to make the strange familiar and the exotic or enigmatic understandable, another task is to make the familiar strange so that one can see one's own culture in a new light. This case study accomplishes this and more.