Nacirema

What happened yesterday?
We were given a packet on "Nacirema", in which thier culture was described, which to us seemed very different, but the description turned out to be a description of our own culture.

Why couldn't we recognize our own culture?
We could not recognize our own culture, because we do not see our culture the way the culture in the packet was described. It was filled with refrences to magic and rituals and the use of the word strange, and barbaric, which we automatically think to mean that it is another culture, due to the fact that we don't think we're like that. It mentioned that the culture was primitive.