The centre of the universe (SOLD)

48″ x 48″ x 1.5″ acrylic paint on canvas.

In my cross-cultural perspectives course, I have students read a 1956 anthropology article titled “Body Ritual Among Nacirema.” The author details the strange and exotic ritual behaviours of the Nacirema people.
 
Plot twist: spell NACIREMA backward.

The article parodies the ethnocentric way anthropologists wrote about the Other – as a strange and exotic people. It also critiques American exceptionalism… a sadly fitting commentary given recent events.
 
In a way, the Nacirema article is a bit like how Copernicus proclaimed that the Earth is not actually the centre of the universe. But really, aren’t each of us the centre of the universe?

Everybody’s world is different because we all perceive life differently. And how we perceive life is therefore dependent on how we choose to define it. I find a lot of comfort in that thought, don’t you?