ETHNOCENTRISM

Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging another society by the values and standards of one’s own society.

The term Ethnocentrism was coined by William Summer and can be defined as ‘that view of things in which one’s one group is the center of everything, and all other members are scaled and rated with reference to it’.

Ethnocentrism is the term anthropologists use to describe the opinion that one’s own way of life is natural or correct. Some would simply call it cultural ignorance. Ethnocentrism means that one may see his/her own culture as the correct way of living. For those who have not experienced other cultures in depth can be said to be ethnocentric if they feel that their lives are the most natural way of living. Some cultures may be similar or overlap in ideas or concepts, however, some people are in a sense, shocked to experience differences they may encounter with individuals culturally different than themselves. In extreme cases, a group of individuals may see another cultures way of life and consider it wrong, because of this, the group may try to convert the other group to their own ways of living. Fearful war and genocide could be the devastating result if a group is unwilling to change their ways of living.

This type of behavior has existed throughout the past through history. It develops because of the emotional, egoistic character in individuals. It is also the act of domination or power by which a person feels that he or she is superior and vice versa. It is also seen in people with a low self-esteem of themselves and want to prove it by engaging themselves in Ethnocentrism.

An example of ethnocentrism in culture is the Asian cultures across all the countries of Asia. Throughout Asia, the way of eating is to use chopsticks with every meal. In India we eat with our hands and may or may not use chopsticks or forks, spoons and knives. These people may find it unnecessary to find that people in other societies, such as the American / European society, eat using forks, spoons, knives, etc. Since these countries use chopsticks / hands to eat every meal, they find it foolish for other cultures to not use utensils similar to chopsticks or eat with their hands; however, they do accept the fact that they use different utensils for eating. This example is not something extreme that could lead to genocide or war, but it is a large enough gap between these cultures for people to see their way of eating as the natural or best way to typically eat their food.

Another example of ethnocentrism is colonialism. Colonialism can be defined as cultural domination with enforced social change. Colonialism refers to the social system in which the political conquests by one society of another leads to “cultural domination with enforced social change”. A good example to look at when examining colonialism is the British overtake of India. The British had little understanding of the culture in India which created a lot of problems an unrest during their rule.

Ethnocentrism may not, in some circumstances, be avoidable. We all often have instinctual reactions toward another person or culture’s practices or beliefs. But these reactions do not have to result in horrible events such as genocide or war. In order to avoid such awful things like those we must all try to be more culturally relative. Ethnocentrism is one solution to tension between one cultural self and another cultural self. It helps reduce the other way of life to a version of one’s own.