Ethnocentrism And Cultural Relativism

Ethnocentrism is defined by our tendency to judge other groups or cultures based upon our own standards establishing

Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority of one’s own group. It’s a universal habit that ethnocentric individuals tend to compare and judge other cultural practices to be inferior. Ethnocentrism encourages the solidarity in groups; it creates the feeling of belonging and drives the individuals to build pride in the group. However, ethnocentrism hinders the understanding of the cooperation with other groups. With the sense of superiority, there is little incentive to interact with the inferior groups. While making generalization about the culture and customs of others, ethnocentric individuals aren’t being aware that they tend to make false assumptions regarding the cultural differences. Furthermore, extreme ethnocentrism is likely to

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

One of the ongoing struggles for the church and Christianity is with culture. Questions have always surfaced about where we should stand on issues or whether it is permissible to isolate ourselves in all areas of life. Shaping A Christian Worldview suggests that hiding is not the preferred option, rather it is our duty to transform our modern culture.

All throughout history African Americans have been discriminated against and always been at a disadvantage, whether it be in the courtroom, with police officers, or just trying to be a normal American citizen. Recently many minority players are taking a stand against the prejudice injustices that they face on an everyday basis. In response to the injustices they face, using their national fame, the athletes are raising awareness by taking a knee during the National Anthem, in an attempt to peacefully protest. This bold form of protest has only occurred a handful amount of times, because of not only the national criticism that is to follow but the repercussions as well. Many American citizens, veterans and government officials are taking

It is so easy to access your own culture to examine aspects; however, this paper will flip the script using an etic view to gain a better understanding of American culture from an outsider’s perspective while taking on an insider’s perspective to examine another culture, Japan using an emic view. Cultural relativism tells us that we must examine beliefs and activities of other cultures with a meaningful understanding of the context of that particular culture, background, history, and practices from an emic perspective without prejudice or superiority (Crapo, 2013).

Would-be culture-neutral standard Rachels suggests: "whether the parctice promotes or hinders the welfare of the people whose lives are affected by it." (p. 28)

Cultural relativism is not Objectivism, which is a moral theory that states that there are certain moral standards that everyone should follow regardless of their opinion and indifference towards them. Cultural relativism is one of the two forms of Ethical Relativism. The latter one belongs to a form of moral skepticism. It states that moral standards are not objective, but relative to the standards of a person or a society. Consequently, cultural relativism is based on the belief that a moral standard is correct only when approved by the system of beliefs of a society, or wrong when such beliefs go against those of the society in general. Cultural relativism is similar to the view of ethical subjectivism, which states that a correct moral standard is the one approved by each individual, which means that morality is based on the beliefs of each person. An example of cultural relativism is a Patriarchal society in which women were undermined. In these societies women were not allowed to direct any political, economic, or cultural activities. Their role was mainly to cook and take care of the children. For many of us this is not morally correct since most of us in western societies consider that women should have the same rights as men have. However, according to cultural relativism the ideals of the Patriarchal society wouldn 't be morally wrong since morality is relative to what each society considers it 's guiding ideals, even if that includes the discrimination of women.

Cultural relativism is the theory where there is no objective truth in morality, and moral truths are determined by different cultures. The primary argument used to justify cultural relativism is the cultural differences argument, which claims different cultures have different moral practices and beliefs, therefore, there is no objective truth in morality (Newton). After reading James Rachels The Challenge of Cultural Relativism, I find his criticisms to be persuasive because the argument made for Cultural Relativism is not sound from a logical point of view. You cannot draw a conclusion about what is factual based on what people believe is factual. Rachels also points out that even though cultures do in fact disagree about moral values,

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 is the belief that in the superiority of one's own race and the preoccupation with race (Spector., 2009., p. 12). Acculturation is similar to assimilation in that the person acculmates to the dominant culture and develops a new cultural identity, however, it is involuntary and is survival within a new culture (Spector., 2009., p. 19). Assimilation is where a person becomes like the dominant culture in all ways and "ceases to conform to any standard of life that differs from the dominant group standards" (Spector., 2009., p.

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.

Are we limited in knowledge, in imagination, and in understanding by the culture we grow up in? In other words, are we ethnocentric, and if so is it a bad thing? To answer that, one must understand what ethnocentrism is. According to Macionis (2004), ethnocentrism is "the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture".

The position “When in Rome do as Romans”, is an ethical viewpoint that is followed by many managers. This viewpoint reflects the position of Cultural Relativism, which suggests “there is no one right way to behave” as “ethical behaviour is determined by its cultural context”(textbook). This in turn, means that one is unable to claim one way of doing things as inferior, or wrong, to those of another culture. For example, as “cultural relativism stresses the idea that notions of childhood are themselves socially constructed and therefore specific to time, place, nation and culture”, it could be argued by an Australian Manager that, if in conjunction with local law and customs in the country of origin, it is okay to use child labour (textbook). Take for example, Bolivia, where child labour is “engrained” into their culture. In 2014, legislation was approved by government that lowered the legal working age of children from fourteen years of age to ten. This allowed children above the age of 10 to become self-employed workers and children over the age of 12 to take on contract work. This legislation which allows children from the age of 10 to work, was introduced by the government to help tackle the high rates of Bolivians living in poverty, with government hoping that a family’s financial burden could help be alleviated by adding another income earner. According to the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales “eliminating work for boys and girls would be like eliminating people’s

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?