Horace Mitchell Miner was born on May 26, 1912 in Minnesota, the son of James Burt and Jessie Leightner. Miner received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kentucky in 1933, his Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago in 1935, his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago in 1937, and his post-graduate degree from Colombia in 1942. Miner is the author of Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (1993), St. Denis, a French-Canadian Parish (1963), Oasis and Casbah (1960), and Cave Hollow: An Ozark Bluff-Dweller Site (1950). He had a wide variety of careers, including being a curator at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky, an instructor of anthropology and sociology at Wayne University
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Throughout his life, Horace Miner received many awards for his work. Some of these awards include the Decorated Legion of Merit bronze star, the Social Science Research Council Demobilization Award in 1945, the Fullbright research award in 1950, and the NSF grant for research in Nigeria from 1970-1971. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema was published in 1993. In the story, the reader is introduced to a North American group called the Nacirema. This culture is described as a culture obsessed with rituals involving vanity. The author states that everyone in this society has shrines in their houses devoted to “the purpose of ritual and ceremony.” This shrine holds magical materials and medicines to be kept safe and to utilize again for future days. A ritual repeated by men is illustrated as “scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument.” Beneath the shrine is a font where everyone performs the “brief rite of ablution”3 which is washing the hands with holy water that comes from a “water temple.” Furthermore, these people make visits to the “Hierarchy of Magical Practitioners,” including Holy Mouth-Men. The Nacirema believe that, by visiting Holy Mouth-Men, people will be
Throughout his life, Horace Miner received many awards for his work. Some of these awards include the Decorated Legion of Merit bronze star, the Social Science Research Council Demobilization Award in 1945, the Fullbright research award in 1950, and the NSF grant for research in Nigeria from 1970-1971. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema was published in 1993. In the story, the reader is introduced to a North American group called the Nacirema. This culture is described as a culture obsessed with rituals involving vanity. The author states that everyone in this society has shrines in their houses devoted to “the purpose of ritual and ceremony.” This shrine holds magical materials and medicines to be kept safe and to utilize again for future days. A ritual repeated by men is illustrated as “scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument.” Beneath the shrine is a font where everyone performs the “brief rite of ablution”3 which is washing the hands with holy water that comes from a “water temple.” Furthermore, these people make visits to the “Hierarchy of Magical Practitioners,” including Holy Mouth-Men. The Nacirema believe that, by visiting Holy Mouth-Men, people will be