Assignment 1 due Tuesdays 9/26/2017
1. Cultural bias is the phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one. Personal preference is liking one thing or one person better than others. Ethnocentricity is evaluating other peoples and cultures according to the standards of one's own culture. Cultural relativism is the principle that people should not judge the behavior of others using the standards of their own culture, and that each culture must be analyzed on its own terms.
2.
a. Cultural bias: in the film Malinowski stated “why are this villages ricking there lives for Kula something that is completely worth less”.
b. Personal Preference: Malinowski was obsessed with his looks and health he was always taking pills
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Ethnocentricity: Malinowski believed that his culture was superior to the culture of the Trobriand island society and that’s why the armchair anthropologies called them “savages”
d. Cultural relativism: six months after arriving Malinowski began to study an ancient tradition that really fascinated, he noticed that every few months the islanders would build fleets of elaborately decorated canoes as part of a tradition know as Kula.
3. When I saw the two Arab men walking in the streets, holding hands. I immediately thought they were a gay couple. Because in America male companions don’t typically hold hands walking down the street. Then I realized that that was one of my culture bias because in their culture, this is a common and acceptable physical contact between two males who are close but not in a romantic relationship with each other.
4. Observations made that are not ethnocentric can be there access to the basic needs, including shelter, food, and clothing are necessary to the development of a strong community. Cultural relativism in anthropology means, he or she suspends their own time and or resources to obtain a certain degree of understanding or with the foreign culture. Cultural relativism means that the respect of other cultures and treat them as their
Cultural Relativism is a moral theory which states that due to the vastly differing cultural norms held by people across the globe, morality cannot be judged objectively, and must instead be judged subjectively through the lense of an individuals own cultural norms. Because it is obvious that there are many different beliefs that are held by people around the world, cultural relativism can easily be seen as answer to the question of how to accurately and fairly judge the cultural morality of others, by not doing so at all. However Cultural Relativism is a lazy way to avoid the difficult task of evaluating one’s own values and weighing them against the values of other cultures. Many Cultural Relativist might abstain from making moral judgments about other cultures based on an assumed lack of understanding of other cultures, but I would argue that they do no favors to the cultures of others by assuming them to be so firmly ‘other’ that they would be unable to comprehend their moral decisions. Cultural Relativism as a moral theory fails to allow for critical thoughts on the nature of morality and encourages the stagnation
Giger (2013) defines culture as a response in behavior that is shaped over time by values, beliefs, norms and practices shared by members of one's cultural group. A person's culture influences most aspects of his or her life including beliefs, conduct, perceptions, emotions, language, diet, body image, and attitudes about illness and pain (He...
Cultural relativism is a theory, which entails what a culture, believes is what is correct for that particular culture, each culture has different views on moral issues. For example, abortion is permissible by American culture and is tolerated by the majority of the culture. While, Catholic culture is against abortion, and is not tolerated by those who belong to the culture. Cultural relativism is a theory a lot of individuals obey when it comes to making moral decisions. What their culture believes is instilled over generations, and frequently has an enormous influence since their families with those cultural beliefs have raised them. With these beliefs, certain cultures have different answers for different moral dilemmas and at times, it is difficult to decide on a specific moral issue because the individual may belong to multiple
Cultural relativism is powerful and unique, ascertaining and appreciating people cultural. Cultural relativism is unique but can be hard to understand, upsetting the views, morals, and outlines of culture from the standpoint of that civilization. When analyzing the hominid culture, it provides the luxury of understanding their philosophy from their viewpoint. Taking in another culture without being basis can be daunting. Anthropologist deliberated cultures by exploiting two methods, the emic perspective, and etic perspective. Crapo, R. H. 2013, Section 1.1 defines, the Etic perspective that is, an outsider's or observer's alleged "objective" account—creates a model of a culture by using cross-culturally valid categories, which anthropologists
Having an ethnocentric attitude changes how we view other cultures and limits our capability to be culturally relative to others not a part of our own. Ethnocentrism by definition is the “evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of
Culture by definition is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices, as well as customary beliefs, social forms and material traits that characterize a racial, religious or ...
Culture has many strong, distinct effects on the viewpoints of people. There are those that discriminate other races because of their culture. Culture influences the appearance of a person and in this period of time, appearance is essentially everything. Culture makes people heavily judge others in the world because of their appearance, their race, and the languages they speak, which is part of their culture.
Ethnocentrism is when one culture judge’s another culture by the standard of their own (Health, 2001). Stereotypes, biases, and prejudices against other people are all in a sense a form of ethnocentrism (Astle, Barton, Johnson, & Mill, 2014). It is okay to be proud of your own culture, but you need to remember to do so in such a way, that you are not putting down any other culture (Arnold, 2016).
James P. Spradley (1979) described the insider approach to understanding culture as "a quiet revolution" among the social sciences (p. iii). Cultural anthropologists, however, have long emphasized the importance of the ethnographic method, an approach to understanding a different culture through participation, observation, the use of key informants, and interviews. Cultural anthropologists have employed the ethnographic method in an attempt to surmount several formidable cultural questions: How can one understand another's culture? How can culture be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed? What aspects of a culture make it unique and which connect it to other cultures? If ethnographies can provide answers to these difficult questions, then Spradley has correctly identified this method as revolutionary.
We create bias toward our culture and form an idea that one's own culture is the main standard to evaluate another group leading to view. They make the measuring stick. This means that people believe and feel in the superiority of one's own ethnic culture over other cultures. This behavior is known as ethnocentrism. This concept was created amongst different nations earlier than cultural relativism, which has to be devised to counter ethnocentrism.
The practices of many cultures are varied from one another, considering we live in a diverse environment. For example, some cultures may be viewed as similar in comparison while others may have significant differences. The concept of Cultural Relativism can be best viewed as our ideas, morals, and decisions being dependent on the individual itself and how we have been culturally influenced. This leads to many conflict in where it prompts us to believe there is no objectivity when it comes to morality. Some questions pertaining to Cultural Relativism may consists of, “Are there universal truths of morality?” “Can we judge
Culture is a concept that classifies shared values, beliefs, traditions, and principles among members of a specific group. It is important to understand one’s own culture as well as other cultures in order to become culturally aware. A way to become more culturally aware is to research one’s own cultural background. Through researching my origins, identifying my past encounters with other’s beliefs, biases, and behaviors, and placing myself into the shoes of another culture, I am more aware of the influence my culture and other cultures have had on me.
In explaining Cultural Relativism, it is useful to compare and contrast it with Ethical Relativism. Cultural Relativism is a theory about morality focused on the concept that matters of custom and ethics are not universal in nature but rather are culture specific. Each culture evolves its own unique moral code, separate and apart from any other. Ethical Relativism is also a theory of morality with a view of ethics similarly engaged in understanding how morality comes to be culturally defined. However, the formulation is quite different in that from a wide range of human habits, individual opinions drive the culture toward distinguishing normal “good” habits from abnormal “bad” habits.
... its proper expressions, structure and grammar. Moreover, each language is linked to a specific dialect which is associated with educational, economic, social and historical conditions. Moreover, cultural variations also exist in the rules for general discourse in oral communication. Similar to verbal communication, there are also variations in non-verbal communication between cultures. Gestures, facial expressions, sense of time and personal distance take different forms in different cultures. Furthermore, there is an infinite number of cultural diversities which are at the root of intercultural miscommunication. Variations in values , social relationships, religion, economy and politics consist of only a few of these diversities. These differences can be the source of ethnocentrism, if one becomes over patriotic in regards to one’s own culture. Ethnocentrism, is the concept which states that we tend to judge other cultures through our own. Ethnocentric behavior, can cause racism and chauvinism, as in the case of the Second World War. However, intercultural problems can be avoided if we all develop mindfulness, a sense of flexibility and seek information about the other culture.
Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are two contrasting terms that are displayed by different people all over the world. Simply put, ethnocentrism is defined as “judging other groups from the perspective of one’s own cultural point of view.” Cultural relativism, on the other hand, is defined as “the view that all beliefs are equally valid and that truth itself is relative, depending on the situation, environment, and individual.” Each of these ideas has found its way into the minds of people worldwide. The difficult part is attempting to understand why an individual portrays one or the other. It is a question that anthropologists have been asking themselves for years.