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Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic Ethnocentrism often entails the belief that one's own race or ethnic group is the most important and/or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups. Within this ideology, individuals will judge other groups in relation to their own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behaviour, customs, and religion. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos These ethnic distinctions and sub-divisions serve to define each ethnicity's unique cultural identity. Cultural identity is the (feeling of identity of a group or Culture, or of an Individual as far as he or she is influenced by her belonging to a group

Anthropologists such as Franz Boas and Bronisław Malinowski argued that any human science had to transcend the ethnocentrism of the scientist. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Franz Boas ( July 9, 1858 &ndash December 21, 1942) was a German - American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern For the Olympic champion athlete see Bronisław Malinowski (athlete. Both urged anthropologists to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in order to overcome their ethnocentrism. Ethnography ( Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing is a genre of writing that uses Fieldwork to provide a descriptive This article is about the scientific method For the military term see Field fortifications under Fortification. Boas developed the principle of cultural relativism and Malinowski developed the theory of functionalism as guides for producing non-ethnocentric studies of different cultures. Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual Human 's Beliefs and activities should be understood in terms of his or her own Culture. The books The Sexual Life of Savages, by Malinowski, Patterns of Culture by Ruth Benedict and Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead (two of Boas's students) are classic examples of anti-ethnocentric anthropology. Ruth Benedict (born Ruth Fulton, June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American Anthropologist. Ruth Benedict (born Ruth Fulton, June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American Anthropologist. Coming of Age in Samoa is a book by Margaret Mead based upon youth in Samoa and lightly relating to youth in America, first published in 1928 Margaret Mead ( December 16, 1901, Philadelphia &ndash November 15, 1978, New York City) was an American

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Usage

In political relations, not only have academics used the concept to explain nationalism, but activists and politicians have used labels like ethnocentric and ethnocentrism to criticize national and ethnic groups as being unbearably selfish — or at best, culturally biased (see cultural bias). The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation Cultural bias is when someone is biased due to his or her culture

Nearly every religion, "race," or nation feels it has aspects which are uniquely valuable.

Other examples abound: Toynbee notes that Ancient Persia regarded itself the center of the world and viewed other nations as increasingly barbaric according to their degree of distance. This page is about the universal historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee for the economic historian Arnold Toynbee see this article.

China's very name is composed of ideographs meaning "center" and "country" respectively, and traditional Chinese world maps show China in the center. It's also important to note that it wasn't just China that bought into this idea. At the height of the Chinese empire, the Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Thai also believed China to be the center of the universe and referred to China as the middle kingdom. To this day, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam still refer to China as the middle country.

It is often claimed that England defined the world's meridians with itself on the center line, so that to this day, longitude is measured in degrees east or west of Greenwich, thus establishing as fact an Anglo-centrist's worldview.

Native American tribal names often translate as some variant on "the people". Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States

The United States has traditionally conceived of itself as having a unique role in world history; an outlook known as American exceptionalism. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the American exceptionalism (cf " Exceptionalism " refers to the belief that the United States differs qualitatively from other Developed nations

Psychological underpinnings of ethnocentrism

The psychological underpinning of having ethnocentrism appears to be assigning to various cultures higher or lower status or value by the ethnocentric person who then assumes that the culture of higher status or value is intrinsically better than other cultures. The ethnocentric person, when assigning the status or value to various cultures, will automatically assign to their own culture the highest status or value. Ethnocentrism is a natural result of the observation that most people are more comfortable with and prefer the company of people who are like themselves, sharing similar values and behaving in similar ways. It is not unusual for a person to consider that what ever they believe is the most appropriate system of belief or that how ever they behave is the most appropriate and natural behavior. To be fair, a system of belief in which someone doesn't consider his own as the right one, is inherently inconsistent, for it is admitting its own falseness.

A person who is born into a particular culture and grows up absorbing the values and behaviors of the culture will develop patterns of thought reflecting the culture as normal. If the person then experiences other cultures that have different values and normal behaviors, the person finds that the thought patterns appropriate to their birth culture and the meanings their birth culture attaches to behaviors are not appropriate for the new cultures. However, since a person is accustomed to their birth culture it can be difficult for the person to see the behaviors of people from a different culture from the viewpoint of that culture rather than from their own.

The ethnocentric person will see those cultures other than their birth culture as being not only different but also wrong to some degree. The ethnocentric person will resist or refuse the new meanings and new thought patterns since they are seen as being less desirable than those of the birth culture.

The ethnocentric person may also adopt a new culture, repudiating their birth culture, considering that the adopted culture is somehow superior to the birth culture. Throughout history, warring factions have been composed of fairly homogeneous ethnic groups. Ethnic strife is seen dominating the landscape in many parts of the world even to this day. Evolutionary psychology posits that the reason for these groupings stems from the alignment of interests among members of these groups due to their genetic similarity. In this vein, van den Berghe (1981) sees ethnocentrism as a natural outgrowth of nepotism. Nepotism is the showing of favoritism toward relatives and friends based upon that relationship rather than on an objective evaluation of ability Meritocracy or suitability A comprehensive look at ethnocentrism from the perspective of evolutionary psychology may be found in the volume edited by Reynolds et al. (1987).

Independent of evolutionary psychology, observers such as Shelby Steele have suggested that ethnocentrism is a mainstay of any modern society, and in cases such as the white and black population in the USA, programs such as affirmative action serve only to relieve the moral consciences of the white population. Shelby Steele (born 1946, Chicago) is an American Author, Columnist, Documentary film maker and a research fellow at the

References

Journals

Types of ethnocentrism

See also

Afrocentrism or Afrocentricity is a World view that emphasizes the importance of African people in culture philosophy and history Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective with an implied belief either consciously or subconsciously in the preeminence of European (and Sinocentrism is any Ethnocentric perspective that regards China to be central or unique relative to other countries American exceptionalism (cf " Exceptionalism " refers to the belief that the United States differs qualitatively from other Developed nations The Far East is a term often used by people in the Western world to refer to the countries of East Asia. Ethnic nationalism is a form of Nationalism wherein the " Nation " is defined in terms of Ethnicity. Cultural bias is when someone is biased due to his or her culture Cultural competence refers to an ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures Intercultural competence is the ability of successful Communication with people of other Cultures This ability can exist in someone at a young age or may be developed Intercultural communication principles guide the process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries in a way that preserves mutual respect and minimises Cross-cultural communication (also frequently referred to as intercultural communication) is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds Cultural diversity encompasses the cultural differences that exist between people such as language dress and traditions and the way societies organize themselves their conception of Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual Human 's Beliefs and activities should be understood in terms of his or her own Culture. Ethnic nepotism describes a human tendency for In-group bias or in-group favouritism applied on the Ethnic level List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that Compare Moral relativism, Aesthetic relativism, Social constructionism, Cultural relativism, and Cognitive relativism. Supremacism is the belief that a particular race, Religion, Gender, belief system or Culture is superior to others and entitles Polycentrism is the principle of organisation of a region around several political social or financial centres Pseudospeciation begins with the fact that cultural differences cause humans to separate into different social groups with different language dress customs etc

Dictionary

ethnocentrism

-noun

  1. The tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture.
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