When I was in maybe middle school, I was introduced to the story of the
Nacirema. It was narrated by future archaeologists or anthropologists trying to determine the function of 20th-century objects found in North America.
"The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a year."
--From Horace Mitchell Miner, "
Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,"
American Anthropologist 58 (June 1956): 503-50.
This, of course, is a dentist.
As a famous archaeologist once wrote:
"It is a sobering reflection that...the Crucifixion would be merely three large post-holes."
--Philip Barker,
Techniques of Archaeological Excavation (Routledge, 2003): 172.
As a bonus, here is a review of
Alien Phenomenology or What It's Like to Be a Thing.
