Ethnocentrism As Defined By The Osu Department Of 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

Have you ever wondered why someone act or feels the way they do? Many combined variables develops the way a person acts and feels. These variables come from learning, watching and experiencing different aspects of life. Ultimately, these experiences shape your behaviors and beliefs creating your culture. What happens when you go to another country, state, city or neighborhood? Do you act and behave like the people in these places? In the broad sense everyone acts the same in the regards to surviving; however, the details of how they live can be very different. When you go to a place outside you own culture, you will experience a change in culture. In this anthropology research, I will take an ethnologist approach to how my husband and step mother’s culture has changed within the American society. I will give examples of how these cultures are similar and different in regards to standard of living, education and employment opportunities. I will even discuss realities and problems that exit. All together I will give you a look at what it is like to experience a culture change from Mexico to America and the Philippines to America.

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to assume that ones own culture and way of life represents the norm or is superior to others. Americans in particular tend to be very ethnocentric in part because the United States has been perceived as a superpower for most of its existence, and in part because of the global influence of American media. Patriotism and love for ones country is also instilled in Americans from an early age to a greater extent then in other countries. For example, American children recite to the pledge of allegiance to begin each new school day and the national anthem is played at most sporting events.

Ethnography tells about a culture and the members that comprise this culture. A definition is the scientific description of the customs and individual people of a culture. The process of doing this assignment allowed me to explore another aspect of a cultural group. I was able to learn extensively about interactions between individuals and how see them as a culture. The group that comprises my ethnography is a cultural group very common to Utah. The culture I focused on was the LDS culture, to be more specific I studied a sub-culture of this group. My subculture was a group of 12 year old adolescents that are a Sunday school class in this culture.

In the short amount of time that humanity has inhabited this planet, we have managed to leave a bigger imprint than any other species. The human population is well over 7 billion individuals and the presence of humanity is extended to all four corners of the globe. As a result of the large population, intellectual superiority, and the wide range of human existence, humanity has naturally transformed into a diverse populace. Consequently, cultural narratives are prominent in our daily lives and play a role in shaping our social interactions, opinions, and lifestyles. The influence of cultural narratives have only expanded with the growth in technology. Technology provides a platform for individuals to be connected with regions on the opposite side of the globe within seconds. This advancement has led to the widespread dispersion of cultural traditions and tendencies. This is evident in the news, social media, and other media platforms. Different cultures have developed different beliefs about what “norms” are and abide by those beliefs. If someone falls out of the lines of normality, most people immediately formulate an ethnocentric mindset and begin to create opinions that that person’s culture is inferior to their own.

Ethnocentrism “are the principle of using one’s own culture as a means or standard by which to evaluate another group or individual, leading to the view that cultures other than one’s own are abnormal or inferior” (Ferris, Jill Stein)(78) . The attitude is that because we believe the same way then our cultures are the same as your friends culture if you go to different churches. The reality is that cultures are all different and worship in different ways. The culture I grew up in is going to a Baptist church, and going to church every Sunday. Then I have a friend of mine that believes in what I believe in, but we worship in different ways he is goes to a non-domination church. He believes we need to stand up, dance, and raise hands to worship, but I believe going to church to singing is my worshiping. The first time I went to my friend’s church I thought it was odd the way they did the service. This is because I had grown up only going to Baptist church services. I still disagree with the way they handle their services compared to what I am used to going to, but I respect it and will still go if I am invited to respect my friend. My understanding of ethnocentrism is that we need to get out of our own comfort zones and experience life and what it has to offer. Learn other cultures, respect them, and you might learn

“Culture is sometimes described as a lens through which we view the world, meaning that one’s culture influences their perceptions and interactions in everyday life” (Davis, 2006). Every culture has different beliefs and customs

Cultural relativism is the process of how we understand different cultures through their own meaning, and not how we understand these cultures through our culture. Ethnocentrism is when you look at another culture and judge it solely based on attitudes and judgments based solely on how we understand the different culture through our own cultural views. Before being socialized into the Hmong culture, Walt had a very stereotypical view of him Hmong neighbour’s. He viewed them as stereotypical Asians that were taking over his neighbourhood and country, and often referred to them as gooks. Walt only understood Asian people based on his own opinions of them and through what his culture perceived them as and not by direct exposure to their culture.

Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's culture is the best compared to others, from the view of that cultures standards and beliefs. Culture shock is the feeling of when we experience a culture different then our own. Ethnocentrism and culture shock can be related because some of our ethnocentric beliefs cause us to have culture shock. If one is being exposed to a culture different than their own they could be ethnocentric in thinking this culture isn’t as good or is less than my own culture. One example of culture shock could be found in the video “Primates Like Us” where a group of student anthropologists went to study Balinese culture and primates.

In our culture today there is an abundance of social rules of do’s and don’ts in public which can be said about every culture. I like to believe this is list is what defines a culture as well as what makes all cultures different and unique from each other. What I would like to know is if ethnocentrism has shaped or is visible. I want to know if the beauty industry in the west is influenced by the ways in which we view cultures differently from out history, I want to know how members of society are treated differently based on their ethnicity, and how people are treated in the professional world based on their world views.

The film, Avatar, depicts humans colonizing Pandora, a lavish livable moon in the Alpha Centauri star framework, so as to mine the mineral “unobtanium” controlled by the Na’vi, the native of Pandora (Cameron & Landau, 2009). Jake Sully, a handicap ex-marine, tasked to infiltrate the place, known as Pandora, in his given avatar suit to assist the military in blending into Pandora. In this essay, the Avatar film shows ethnocentrism and romanticism being displayed. According to Lundberg(2015), ethnocentrism is the belief of one’s culture is prevalent than the other.

A concept that has helped me to understand the social world is ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is defined as the attitude that one 's own culture is the best and others are inferior. On the micro level, it is now clear to me that I have demonstrated ethnocentrism in my dealings with individuals and this might account for some of the problems that have come about in individual friendships. On the macro level, ethnocentrism has helped me to understand why world peace is so elusive.

In today’s world people are constantly being judged for their looks, style, interests, and the group of people they hang out with. The biggest thing that society judges today is other people’s culture and traditions. Ethnocentrism, is defined as judging other cultures in terms of standards of one’s own. Sociologists try to avoid ethnocentrism because to truly understand a culture, it should not be compared to another cultures traditions. For example, two nights before an Islamic wedding, the bride and her friends paint designs on each other’s hands and feet using henna(mehndi). If you compare that to the traditional wedding here in America, that kind of practice might seem “weird”. In Islamic countries “henna night” is common, which is why

Anthropology, especially cultural anthropology, seeks to understand how and why peoples of the world differ in various ways as well as how and why peoples of the world share certain similarities. It is not at all unusual for people to assume that their own ways of thinking and acting are unquestionably rational normal or human. Cultural anthropological study provides us a look at the enormous variations in thinking and acting found in the world today due to the cultural differences and at same time anthropological literature has documented many different solutions generated for solving the same problems cross-culturally. Therefore, anthropologists do more than simply document the enormous variations in human cultures by identifying and describing the commonalities of humans amid the great diversity, which are the regularities found in all cultural contexts regardless of how different those contexts might appear at first glance (Ferraro, 2005). Anthropologists have traditionally used a qualitative research approach to study human behaviors in different cultures. Such an approach is well suited to many of the complex questions confronting researchers interested in quality and culture. Qualitative research, more than just a set of data collection methods, is an approach that seeks to understand events, activities, norms and values from the perspective of the people who are being studied, anthropologists refer this way of research as the Emic approach. Qualitative

The world ethno comes from Greek and refers to a people, nation, or cultural grouping, while centric comes from Latin and refers, of course to the centre. The term ethnocentrism then refers to the tendency for each society to place its own culture patterns at the centre of things. Ethnocentrism is the practice of comparing other cultural practices with those of one's own and automatically finding those other cultural practices to be inferior. It is the habit of each group taking for granted the superiority of its culture. It makes our culture into a yardstick with which to measure all other cultures as good or bad, high or low, right or queer in proportion as they resemble ours.