Horace Mitchell Miner (May 26, 1912 – November 26, 1993) was an American anthropologist, particularly interested in those languages of his time that were still closely tied to the earth and agricultural practices.
During World War II, he served as a Counterintelligence Corps agent, where he earned the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
He received a Fulbright Award in 1950 for his research in Algeria, which involved giving Rorschach tests to the locals.
[1] He published several books, including Culture and Agriculture (1949) and City in Modern Africa (1967).
However, he is equally famous for a satirical essay entitled "Body Ritual among the Nacirema", which not only satirizes American culture from an anthropological perspective and, as the Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology states, "...offered incipient cultural critiques of Euro-American arrogance, by showing that magic is not the prerogative of non-Western societies,"[3] but also provides "a classic and apt example of how ethnocentrism can color one's thinking.