This is a common exercise used by Purdue University Study Abroad staff during pre-departure orientation sessions.  If strategically administered, the "reveal" that the Nacirema people are Americans, can be quite powerful!  This has especially been the case with students I've worked with who are studying Health Sciences, Nursing, Psychology, etc., since these professions/practices are characterized in the article.  If looking to start developing cultural self-awareness, I  highly recommend having your students read this article.  Follow that with a open group discussion of what they considered interesting about the people described.  Judgmental statements about the Nacirema will likely be  tossed out with vigor.  Words like "weird" or "crazy" may be used.  I simply ask, "What does Nacirema spell backwards to reveal what the exercise is all about; minds blown.  

I find this is a successful way to convince skeptical students that they don't know as much think they do about "culture" and that their previous travel experiences might not have taught them as much as they had thought.  It's a good first exercise. 

"Nacirema" is enough of a classic to now have its own Wikipedia entry and to have become a standard of many anthropologist's courses.  Intended originally as satire and a critique of western anthropology perspectives, it has also caused social media polarization and generated critiques for failing to adequately create the critical perspective for which it was ostensibly intended.  Some of this controversy is described in this 2013/2019 Blog post on "Nacirema Thinking."  The fact that something is provocative and generative of discussion, does not, in this reviewer's opinion, mean it's necessarily a bad teaching tool; but some instructors may wish not to use it with groups in either denial or polarization.