Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism
• The word ethno comes from the Greeks and it refers to a
people, nation or cultural grouping.
• Centric, on the other hand, comes from Latin and refers
to the “center”.
• The term ethnocentrism then refers to the tendency of
each society to place it’s own culture patterns at the
center of things.
• Ethnocentrism is the practice of comparing other cultural
practices with those of one’s own and automatically
finding those other cultural practices to be inferior.
 Ethnocentrism
• Ethnocentrism a term coined by William Graham
Summer. It is the belief that your native culture is the
most natural or superior way of understanding the world.
• This leads to making incorrect assumptions about
other’s behavior based on your own norms, values, and
beliefs. For instance, anytime you think of another
culture’s traditional food as weird or gross, that’s a
product of ethnocentrism.
• This description of ethnocentrism suggest that the very
process of what makes culture enduring and durable to
 Ethnocentrism
• Intriguingly, most of us are ethnocentric in ways we
rarely notice
• Ethnocentrism is a universal human reaction
found in all known societies, in all groups, and in
practically all individuals.
 Functions of Ethnocentrism
• Encourages the solidarity of a group.
Positively, it promotes continuance of the status quo.
Negatively, it discourages change
• Hinders the understanding or the cooperation
between groups.
Extreme enthnocentrism
• Conflict of course often leads to social change.
 Functions of Ethnocentrism
• When do we become ethnocentric and what is our way out?
When you judge the behavior and belief of people who are different
from you.
 Way out: you must stop judging others different from you.
 When you believe that there are primitive culture, especially if their
way of life is different from yours.
Way out: Ethnocentrism is taught. You have to unlearn.
 When you believe that some cultures are backward if they lack
technology and consumerism of your own culture.
All cultures provide their members with the means for meeting all human
needs.
 Cultural Relativism
• Cultural Relativism is the idea that all norms, beliefs, and
values are dependent on their cultural context and should
be treated as such.
• A key component of cultural relativism is the concept that
nobody, not even researchers, comes from a neutral
position. The way to deal with our own assumptions is not
to pretend that they do not exist, but rather to
acknowledged them and then use the awareness that we
are not neutral to inform our conclusions.
 Cultural Relativism
• In a way, cultural relativity is a belief that maintains it does
not matter whether cultures are either equal or different
because equality and similarity do not necessarily
translate to real or imagined inferiority/superiority of
cultures out there.
• As an attitude, cultural relativism promotes greater
appreciation of the cultures one encountered along the
way.
 Cultural Relativism
• Appreciation of other cultures may come about for two
complementary reasons:
• 1. Acquisition of sufficient knowledge about the culture in
question
• 2. Different exposure to cultures.
 Xenocentrism and Xenophobia
• Xenocentrism refers to a preference for the foreign. In the
sense it is the exact opposite of ethnocentrism.
• Xenophobia, on the other hand, is the fear of what is
perceived as foreign or strange.