ETHNOCENTRISM

AND
CULTURAL
RELATIVISM
Each culture differs from another as each
defines reality differently. As a result , some
people’s find it difficult to get along with or
understand people way of thinking and doing.
More over, each group tends to believe that its
view of reality is right and proper and anything
outside its context is absolutely the opposite
Members of particular society have the
tendency to regard its culture as the best and
more superior compared to another society. A
good example is the Chinese people’s facing pf
superiority anchored on the so called “middle
kingdom complex”
Even the primordial societies have strong
feeling that their customs are the proper decent
compared to other society. In fact, each group
takes pride of its own culture and develops a
strong foundation of ethnicity and culture
identity. Collectively people may assert their
folkways as the only right and proper custom
and regard others as improper or uncivilized
In the same way, some groups claim that their faith is
the only true religion, downplaying other religions as
false.
Take the case of India. The earliest explanation for
Indians devotion to the cow or to the cow worship is
being an integral part of Hinduism. Religion through
sometimes fails the body but considers good for the
soul, orders the cosmos and explains the place of
Hindu believers in the universe.
In the fact, many anthropologists uphold
religion as a ponent element of human
civilization it has existed for thousands of years
and have life its own. A religious belief in its
metaphysical but organic nature provides
answers to human questions and solutions to
day-to-day problems.
The view that one’s group is superior compared to
another called ethnocentrism. In an ethnocentric
viewpoint, a group is considered as the center of
core of everything all other group are scaled and
rated in relation to it or called peripheral. In many
cases, a group or society uses their own values and
norms as yardskicks in measuring other folkways and
values.
The ways of other groups are oftentimes labelled as
different strange or queer, and to be viewed with
hostility and suspicion. In short, cultures that are
viewed as different and strange are compounded by
ethnocentrism the tendency to evaluate other
cultures in terms of one’s own and to conclude that
other cultures are inferior or immoral.
Collectivism promotes cultural pride. Identity which
is needed in building a nation while ethnocentrism
helps in developing unity and loyalty which in a
group or society. This is practiced in moderation
because this often leads to inequality and to
genocidal.