<Dl> <Dd> The high esteem of the cult is demonstrated by the fact that near every population center, when not disturbed by the accumulation of debris, archaeologists have found large and orderly collections of the Elibomotua cult symbol . The vast number of these collections has given us the opportunity to reconstruct with considerable confidence the principal ideas of the cult . The newest symbols seem to have nearly approached the ultimate of the Nacirema's cultural ideal . Their colors, material, and size suggest an enclosed mobile device that corresponds to no color or shape found in nature, although some authorities suggest that, at some early time in the development, the egg may have been the model . The device was provided with its own climate control system as well as a system that screened out many of the shorter rays of the light spectrum . </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> The high esteem of the cult is demonstrated by the fact that near every population center, when not disturbed by the accumulation of debris, archaeologists have found large and orderly collections of the Elibomotua cult symbol . The vast number of these collections has given us the opportunity to reconstruct with considerable confidence the principal ideas of the cult . The newest symbols seem to have nearly approached the ultimate of the Nacirema's cultural ideal . Their colors, material, and size suggest an enclosed mobile device that corresponds to no color or shape found in nature, although some authorities suggest that, at some early time in the development, the egg may have been the model . The device was provided with its own climate control system as well as a system that screened out many of the shorter rays of the light spectrum . </Dd> <P> This article is reprinted and appears as the final chapter in an anthology called Nacirema: Readings on American Culture . The volume contains an array of scholarly investigations into American social anthropology as well as one more article in the "Nacirema" series, by Willard Walker of Wesleyan University: (American Anthropologist, Volume 72, Issue 1, pages 102--105, February 1970) "The Retention of Folk Linguistic Concepts and the TI'YCIR Caste in Contemporary Nacireman Culture ." This article laments the corrosive and subjugating ritual of attending sguwlz . On phonology, the anthropologist notes: </P> <Dl> <Dd> The vowel system of Secular Nacireman consists of nine phonemically distinct vowels distinguished on the basis of three degrees of tongue height and three degrees of tongue advancement...There can be no question as to the validity of these nine vocalic phonemes, for each is attested by a number of minimal pairs elicited independently from several informants . Curiously enough, however, most informants insist that only five vowels exist in the language: these are called? ey,? iy,? ay,? ow, and yuw, and are invariably cited in precisely that order...The discovery of the widespread myth of the five - vowel system prompted the present writer to conduct a series of intensive interviews and administer questionnaires to a sample of Nacireman informants with a view to mapping the general outlines of Nacireman folk linguistics . This research strategy ultimately provided compelling evidence that it is the ti'yˆcir caste that has disseminated the notion of the five - vowel system . </Dd> </Dl>

Body ritual among the nacirema by horace minor