Ethnocentrism In Anthropology

Ethnocentrism is defined as the tendency to judge other people and cultures by the standards of one’s own culture and to believe that the behavior, customs, norms, values and other characteristics of one’s own group are natural, valid, and correct while those of other’s are unnatural, invalid and incorrect. For example, in Funny in Farsi Firoozeh experiences ethnocentrism from citizens here

43). For example, in high school I hung out with the so called “popular” kids and they would always act stuck up like they were too good for everyone else. However,being in a PLUR culture I see being “popular” as being everyone's friend. This was ethnocentric to me because to me I thought you were popular by how many friends you had not by how much money you had. On the other hand, cultural relativism, means putting yourself in another person’s shoes and trying to “understand a culture on its own terms” (p.44). I would say I practice cultural relativism all the time because to me it’s something that interests me. I like the whole study of the brain and society. Before arguing I do take in consideration of what the other person have to say before explaining my point of

In “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”, James Rachels presents six claims that have been made by cultural relativists. One of the six claims that Rachels presents in section 2.2 of the article is that different societies have different moral codes. I believe that Rachels thinks this claim is true. Section 2.1 of the article does a good job at explaining this idea. In this section, Rachels gives several examples of the differences that can be found in moral codes of different people groups throughout time. One of the specific examples he mentions is the different burial rituals of the Greeks and the Callatians. The Greeks perform a ritual that includes burning the dead. The Callatian ritual consists of eating the dead. The Greeks and Callatians, while encountering each other, both stated that the other’s ritual was inhumane. This disagreement, according to Cultural Relativism, is okay and to be expected because the two moral codes come from two drastically different societies. A modern example of this claim is that up until recently in China, small feet were praised and larger feet were frowned upon for women. Radical efforts to prevent women’s feet from growing included foot-binding. This method of prevention caused women to constantly be in pain. Women’s foot size in the United States isn’t emphasized like the way it used to be in China. Therefore, citizens of the United States believe that Chinese foot-binding was a barbaric method, while people in China would think

Ethnocentrism is a tendency to use our own group’s ways of doing things as a yardstick for judging others (Pg. 40, Ch. 2). Cultural Relativism is understanding a culture on its own terms (Pg. 41, Ch.2). The concept I favor is Cultural Relativism because people should be able to understand and recognize a different culture’s background. It is evident that everyone has different ways to go about life/culture. Coming from another country and knowing two different cultures, helps me understand two different perspectives. I am not a type of person who will judge or believe my way of life/culture is the correct one. Everyone is different, live differently, and think differently. Therefore, Cultural Relativism makes sense to appreciate more because it allows a person to understand where different cultures are coming from. When you think about it, cultural relativism is quite hard to

Cultural Relativism on the other hand is the understanding and acceptability that there are other cultures besides one's own and that what is normal to them might not be normal to the other and vice versa. They're similar in the sense that they both center around perceptions of another culture, but there are stark differences. I went to Tijuana Mexico a couple years ago and felt like I was in a totally different world once I crossed the border. I viewed the city and culture with a Ethnocentrism view because it was so foreign to me. It wasn't until a year or so later that I started to view the culture in a cultural relativistic view by understanding that the way of life over there is their

Cultural relativism is the way society separates right from wrong within a culture. What we describe as “good” and “bad” is based off of our cultural beliefs. Cultural relativism argues that no culture is better than any other and all their beliefs are equally valid. The way that modern society is has made it possible for almost everything to be justified.

Ethnocentrism emphasizes the assumption that ones culture is above anyone else's (Engberg,77). The text outlines that an ethnocentric may believe that others should follow their culture, thus those people would live a happier life, and others culture are less developed than their own. A real world example of ethnocentrism may be found when a Bay Area born teenager visits an amish town on the East Coast. The teen would be initially shocked of the orthodox way of living compared to the innovative and modern culture he lives in the Bay Area.

Cultural relativism is the way in which our individual beliefs and opinions should be understood by others of the same or of different cultures. The Charlie Hebdo media murders in France January 2015 is a fine example of the way in which the views of the world are diverse depending on different cultural perspectives. Charlie Hebdo is a satirical weekly newspaper, it takes contentious world issues such as religion and politics and holds them up to the world with the intent to disgrace individuals, cooperation’s and society in order to get them to improve. Due to its almost antagonistic manner it was a successful target of a ‘terrorist attack’. Two armed gunmen stormed the office and killed eleven members of staff claiming they were defending the Prophet Muhammad.

Cultural relativism is the way society separates right from wrong within a culture. What we describe as “good” and “bad” is based off of our cultural beliefs. No culture is better than any other and all their beliefs are equally valid. The way that modern society is has made it possible for almost everything to be justified.

The term culture relativism helps the viewer understand what the situation of the characters are. The use of Culture Relativism is to not judge a culture or group of people but trying to understand their situation. This topic of not judging illegal immigrants is important to note in this film, especially because the whole movie is about an immigrant trying to find a better life in the land of opportunities. In order to not judge the crime that Carlos made when coming to the united states, the viewer has to put themselves in his point of view. When Carlos waits for a truck to pick him to work, the viewer has to understand that being a gardener is one of the few jobs that does not require background checks making this option the best for his

Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are two contrasting terms that are displayed by different people all over the world. Simply put, ethnocentrism is defined as “judging other groups from the perspective of one’s own cultural point of view.” Cultural relativism, on the other hand, is defined as “the view that all beliefs are equally valid and that truth itself is relative, depending on the situation, environment, and individual.” Each of these ideas has found its way into the minds of people worldwide. The difficult part is attempting to understand why an individual portrays one or the other. It is a question that anthropologists have been asking themselves for years.

Ethnocentrism is a basic attitude expressing the belief that one?s own ethnic group or one?s own culture is superior to other ethnic groups or cultures, and that one?s cultural standards can be applied in a universal manner. The term was first used by the American sociologist William Graham Sumner (1840?1910) to describe the view that one?s own culture can be considered central, while other cultures or religious traditions are reduced to a less prominent role. Ethnocentrism is closely related to other attitudinal indicators for racism, xenophobia, prejudice, mental closure, and, more generally, an authoritarian personality structure. Ethnocentrism is widely used in research on social and political attitudes because it proves to be a very powerful and easily identifiable attitude that can be measured in a valid manner with a limited number of variables. Although ethnocentric prejudice can be directed toward one specific outsider group, empirical research reveals that usually ethnocentrism is generalized toward all outsider groups.

September of 1939 began the second World War which drastically changed the world and how we view it. Hitler was a huge impact on many of lives, creating an army of Nazi soldiers with a goal of wiping out the entire Jewish population. This ethnic cleansing, known as the Holocaust, resulted in over six million Jewish deaths and is now known as the deadliest and most destructive time in history. The concept that many people can not grasp is how Hitler was able to succeed all of these murders. The war around them was an enormous impact on Hitler’s ability to eliminate the Jews. During the time period of World War II, the surrounding war was most conducive to allowing Hitler conduct the attempted ethnic cleansing because of ethnocentrism, powerful countries were distracted by war, and the economy was poor.

Dr. Wayne Dyer once stated that “the ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about.” This ignorance has been found in humanity time and time again, and has been the root of unparalleled devastation. The rejection of other cultures is a troubling trait that has persisted throughout the ages, and must be put to a stop. Mankind’s biggest flaw is its belief that one culture is superior to another, thus practicing ethnocentrism, which leads to conflict.

Cultural relativism is one of the core concepts of anthropology. Are there any limits to this concept? If so, what are they? Is there a place in anthropology for the idea of universal human rights?