Please write a 500-word short paper inspired by Horace Miner’s article about the mundane, everyday things we do that may look strange to outsiders. Please describe at least THREE activities your culture engages in and describe them in a manner an alien would. This is an exercise in creative writing. You may keep Miner’s style but also feel free to write in your own style. Make sure you’re describing the action in a way that the reader can tell what it is. Please select actions that may seem nonsensical to the outside observer but mostly have their own function and logic. This may also be something that a subculture does of which you are a member. My favorite examples are treadmills, bars and credit cards. Please think of your own three! “
To help, read a quck couple pages of Body Ritual among the Nacirema. Miner writes the piece as if he is an anthropologist observing some distant, primitive culture. He does this to alienate us from our own culture, in a sense, to give us culture shock, a “fish out of water” experience.
