Another Ritual

In the article "Body Rituals among the Nacirema", the author makes fun of Americans' use of medicine and bathrooms by describing it as a "body rituals" of a native tribe. It also shows how some of the things that people do don't really make sense when looked at from out of context. The article really made me wonder what other "normal" things are actually useless and weird when out of context. After thinking about it, I was able to come up with a familiar example, and I think it should be described in the same way Miner did.

A long time ago, an interesting tribe was created on Earth, they were spread out into every corner of the world but no one knows about them. They have many unusual traditions that they don't notice themselves. Most of the times, these traditions are harmless or insignificant, but one of those traditions have changed the way they think about appearance since they were kids. This ritual usually starts on the third birthday of a child. His or her relatives will visit his house and bring him or her the tools required for this ritual. The tool varies between genders. If the child is a boy, then the tool will usually be a small plastic figure of someone he worships like namrepus or namredips. If the child is a girl, then the tool is usually a cute plastic doll with ridiculous body dimensions. After receiving the tools needed, the child is usually let alone with the tools so they can let it alter the way he or she thinks about gender and appearance. After one of two years of receiving more and more tools and playing with them, the ritual is finally complete and a new member of the tribe arrives in the world with a refreshed view of him or herself and people with opposite genders. This ritual is widespread in this tribe and has been conducted on almost every child. However, no one has ever reported this to us, not even the anthropologists who do this as their living. 

Man, we really do need better anthropologists.