“Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism”
“Niwas Katel”
“03/02/2015”
“Introduction to Sociology”
“Professor Bob Young”
Ethnocentrism stands in contrast to Cultural Relativism in a manner that in ethnocentrism, an individual finds his ethnicity at the center of comparison and views the world from the angle of his own culture and ethnicity. In Ethnocentrism, a person believes that his ethnic group, race or culture are the most important one and most or at least some of the aspects of his cultural belief are superior to the cultural beliefs of people from different races or religions. In this ideology, individuals are bound to judge others with respect to their own culture. The judgment is basically made on the lines of custom, religion, behavior, …show more content…
Extreme negative ethnocentrism once led to the genocide of American Indians, thus making the native population of the continent shrink to a few numbers and few colonies on the outskirts of United States of America. America has started moving on the continuum from extreme negative ethnocentrism towards cultural relativism. However, the society is still very ethnocentric, as Americans openly express disgust for the cuisines and practices of other cultures. For example, while Americans never question their habit of eating cows, they express criticism for eating dog meat in different cultures. The ethnocentrism of Americans can be illustrated from another example, where they say that people in England and India drive on the “wrong” side of the road and not on the “other” side. People in American schools and colleges can be seen behaving abnormally with Asians or Africans. Although, due to the law of the country, this superiority complex cannot be shown off prominently by the White Americans, but they still exist in the American society as can be evident from the different incidents of misbehaviors with African Americans by the state officials or the Police departments. Historically the country has moved past the time when African Americans were treated like slaves or inferior to human race. But the American society still faces the challenge of ethnocentrism where the white Americans tend to polarize the society based on cultural
“Niwas Katel”
“03/02/2015”
“Introduction to Sociology”
“Professor Bob Young”
Ethnocentrism stands in contrast to Cultural Relativism in a manner that in ethnocentrism, an individual finds his ethnicity at the center of comparison and views the world from the angle of his own culture and ethnicity. In Ethnocentrism, a person believes that his ethnic group, race or culture are the most important one and most or at least some of the aspects of his cultural belief are superior to the cultural beliefs of people from different races or religions. In this ideology, individuals are bound to judge others with respect to their own culture. The judgment is basically made on the lines of custom, religion, behavior, …show more content…
Extreme negative ethnocentrism once led to the genocide of American Indians, thus making the native population of the continent shrink to a few numbers and few colonies on the outskirts of United States of America. America has started moving on the continuum from extreme negative ethnocentrism towards cultural relativism. However, the society is still very ethnocentric, as Americans openly express disgust for the cuisines and practices of other cultures. For example, while Americans never question their habit of eating cows, they express criticism for eating dog meat in different cultures. The ethnocentrism of Americans can be illustrated from another example, where they say that people in England and India drive on the “wrong” side of the road and not on the “other” side. People in American schools and colleges can be seen behaving abnormally with Asians or Africans. Although, due to the law of the country, this superiority complex cannot be shown off prominently by the White Americans, but they still exist in the American society as can be evident from the different incidents of misbehaviors with African Americans by the state officials or the Police departments. Historically the country has moved past the time when African Americans were treated like slaves or inferior to human race. But the American society still faces the challenge of ethnocentrism where the white Americans tend to polarize the society based on cultural