Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism
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The presentation discusses ethnocentrism, defined as judging other cultures based on one's own cultural values, leading to bias and misunderstandings. It contrasts this with cultural relativism, which promotes understanding and appreciating other cultures in their own contexts without imposing one's own standards. Both concepts demonstrate extreme viewpoints, with ethnocentrism fostering intolerance and cultural relativism potentially enabling harmful practices under the guise of tolerance.
Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism
- 1. Presentation On Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism Amity University, NOIDA Amity Institute of Pharmacy By: Unnati Garg
- 2. ETHNOCENTRISM Ethnocentrism is judging another culture based upon the values and standards set in one's own culture. It is a form of bias, where we tend to immediately judge another culture as 'bad' or 'wrong' based upon their actions, if their values are not aligned with our own beliefs. We all do it, some time or the other, mostly not even realizing that we're being ethnocentric at that moment.
- 3. Example 1: Terrorism and Hate Crimes Terrorism and hate crimes take place when one religion or community believes that it is superior, and better than any other religion or community. Ethnocentrism tends to blind people from seeing things from another perspective― just because another community does something that yours doesn't― like a particular style of worship, for instance, doesn't make it inferior to yours, and nor does it make the other community's style of worshiping incorrect.
- 4. Example 2: In Business Though it is easy to assume that ethnocentrism affects only the lesser- educated, less aware people in the world, it is not really true. Ethnocentrism can be seen on a large scale in business, and at the workplace. For instance, an employee may refer to his client as a 'moron' if the client needed some time to understand whatever the employee was trying to tell him. A business owner might yell at his foreign employees and call them stupid because of their different races, cultures, or values that are different from the boss'.
- 5. Example 3: In American Society The popular belief among American ethnocentric people is that their country, culture, values, development, and everything else is superior to every other nation in the world, and that every other nation is inferior to the United States. This belief has led to political meddling among the matters of other countries, leading to misunderstandings and miscommunication between different countries in the world.
- 6. Example 4: Ethnocentrism and Culture Every culture on earth tends to impart ethnocentrism, albeit unintentionally. Various aspects of culture such as mythological tales, folktales, legends, religion, songs, proverbs, language, rituals, etc. promote the superiority of that one culture over others. Though this is an unintentional kind of promotion of ethnocentrism, it instills the belief that 'my race/my culture' is really better than the rest, in so many ways in most of us, especially during childhood or teenage.
- 7. CULTURAL RELATIVISM Cultural relativism refers to not judging a culture to our own standards of what is right or wrong, strange or normal. Instead, we should try to understand cultural practices of other groups in its own cultural context. For example, instead of thinking, “Fried crickets are disgusting! ” one should instead ask, “Why do some cultures eat fried insects?”.
- 8. Categories ABSOLUTE: Everything that happens within a culture must and should not be questioned by outsiders. Example: Nazi party’s point of view justifying the Holocaust. CRITICAL: Creates questions about cultural practices in terms of who is accepting them and why. It also recognizes power relationships.
- 9. Examples In some homes, women are confined to the kitchen and are proud to play their roles in such a setting while in some set-ups, women are encouraged to leadership and engage in what would be considered “men’s fields.”
- 10. Examples Many cultures where Islam is the predominant faith, a more thorough covering of the body is expected than in other cultures. What constitutes breakfast varies widely from place to place. What is considered a typical breakfast in Turkey, as illustrated in the above image, is quite different from what is considered a typical breakfast in the U.S. or Japan. While it might seem strange to eat fish soup or stewed vegetables for breakfast in the U.S., in other places, this is perfectly normal. Conversely, our tendency toward sugary cereals and milk or preference for egg sandwiches loaded with bacon and cheese would seem quite bizarre to other cultures.
- 11. SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ETHNOCENTRISM AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM Both these viewpoints or concepts present extremist views, i.e. while ethnocentrism leans towards intolerance, cultural relativism leans towards incredibly high tolerance of cultural features. Both views present negative connotations. Ethnocentrism in its extreme form gives rise to and supremacist, while cultural relativism allows the propagation of certain practices that basic human rights In terms of sensitivity, ethnocentrism is insensitive to other cultures, while cultural relativism shows high cultural sensitivity. These views involve examining a culture and all its aspects and evaluating them. The basis for evaluation differs according to the view employed.