Ethnocentrism: What Is Ethnocentrism?

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

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.

How might an ethnomusicologist approach the study of Western classical music differently from a musicologist?

One of the largest challenges Americans are facing today is coming to an agreement on the issue of immigration. Based on readings from Ruane and Cerulo and Fadiman, evidence of tensions between Americans and immigrant groups has spanned generations, affecting the way our culture perceives and reacts to “the Other,”1(167) cultures outside of our Western thought that we fail to understand due to continuous preconception and unrecognized self-entitlement as the ‘in-group.’ This segregation only continues the relentless cycle of economic and social barriers between an ‘us’ and a ‘them.’ The grand conflict between the Hmong versus the medical staffs in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down highlight the ethnocentrism that incurs blind

Ethnocentricity is being centred on a specific ethnic group, usually one's own. An example of ethnocentricity in the public services is in training. Every public service member is taught to not let ethnocentric views affect their behaviour towards others. Currently there has been no media reporting’s of ethnocentricity within the UK public services.

Ethnocentrism is the attitude held by the members of a culture that theirs is the only true, right, and best way to view and act in the world.

Ethnocentrism:(late 15th century). Individuals judge other groups relative to their own based on langue behavior customs and religion. When the Spaniards came to the new worlds they saw that the natives were more advanced in agriculture. The natives also had a different customs and languages. Ethnocentrism, or the idea of it, placed natives in forced labor and segregated them based on their customs.

An example of ethnocentrism I experienced was when my cousin made a comment on Muslim women, saying why they just couldn’t take off their hijabs and look like everyone else. I thought that was a pretty inappropriate

An example of ethnocentrism I found in the media is a movie called The Help made from the book by Kathryn Stockett. This movie is about an author during the 1960’s who wants to write a book about the African-American maid’s point of view on the white families they work for. It creates a powerful movement in the town revealing how people really view each other, “The Help is a timeless and Universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.” I think this is an example of ethnocentrism because many of the white families in the movie who hired African American maids thought they were so much better than them. Not only because they are working for them everyday even thought they are raising their children and doing housework but because of their color. It was a sad reality at the time and it was so hard for some people to look outside their way of life and view others the same. Some of the remarks made in the movie were ridiculous and extremely hurtful. For example one of the characters Hilly Holbrook who lived in the town refused to allow her maid to use the bathroom in her own home. It was so hard for Hilly to step out of her culture and view someone of another color and way of life with equality and respect. Below is the quote from the

People who are ethnocentric are judging other on the basis of their own culture, especially for language, behavior, customs, and religion.

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 America, finding yourself in situations where communicating with someone of a different background than yourself is common. We are a melting pot of different cultures, backgrounds, and identities. Throughout the semester we have learned many ways to avoid conflict when engaging in intercultural communication. The most important aspects from the semester is the idea of generalization and ethnocentrism. These two ideas were displayed in the movie Crash and how the effects of it can lead to misunderstandings among everyone involved.

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.

One must also beware of ethnocentrism, or a belief in the superiority of one 's own culture. Individuals who are ethnocentric frequently demonstrate disregard for other cultures.