Module 3: Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

ETHNOCENTRISM

Coined term by William Graham Sumner

-the tendency of each society to place its own culture patterns at the center of things.

-the belief that your native culture is the most natural or superior way of understanding the world.

Greek) people, nation, or cultural grouping

Ethno means?

(Latin) center

Centric in latin?

ethnocentric

Being ______ means using 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.

FUNCTIONS OF ETHNOCENTRISM

1.

• encourages the solidarity of a group.

• promotes continuance of the status quo.

• discourages change.

2.

•Hinders the understanding or the cooperation between groups.

•promote conflict, as the records of past wars and religious and racial conflicts reveal.

3.

•conflict of course often leads to social change.

•vehicle for the promotion of social change.

Margaret Mead

“Culture is not the enemy of human progress but rather its greatest facilitator” who said that?

XENOCENTRISM

-refers to a preference for the foreign.

-characterized by a strong belief that one's own products, styles, or ideas are inferior to those which originate elsewhere.

-One clear indication of the existence of xenocentrism is preference for imported goods.

XENOPHOBIA

-the fear of what is perceived as of strange.

-can be seen in the relations and perceptions of an in-group toward an out-group.

Islamophobia

fear of losing identity, suspicion of the other group's activities, aggression, and the desire to eliminate the presence of the other group to secure a presumed purity

Cultural Relativism

-the idea that all norms, beliefs, and values are dependent on their cultural context and should be treated as such.

-"No superior and inferior culture."

-Recognize and acknowledge other cultures and use these for awareness.

-As an attitude, cultural relativism promotes greater appreciation of the cultures one encountered along the way.

-As a behavior, cultural relativism is a good way to rehearse the norms and values of society a requirement that one must subscribe to regardless of his or her cultural origin.

-Cultural relativism means that the function and meaning of a trait are relative to its cultural setting.

Uncle Iroh, Book 2: Earth, ATLA