Ethnocentrism

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Recommended: Personal experience of cultural identity

Are we limited in knowledge, in imagination, and in understanding by the culture we grow up in? In other words, are we ethnocentric, and if so is it a bad thing? To answer that, one must understand what ethnocentrism is. According to Macionis (2004), ethnocentrism is “the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture”.

We are not born with culture; culture is a socially learned behavior, or set of values that a given groups holds as a norm and are considered to be true and right. It is these cultural norms that connect the individuals of the group, which make up a society. No society can exist without culture and no culture can exist without a society (Giddens, Duneier, & Applebaum, 2002). The two are intrinsically intertwined. It is hard to see past one’s own culture and reach into another for understanding; we find it hard to comprehend the fact that our truths and values, that are so innate to us, do not represent universal truth. So what is universal truth; who is right and who is wrong culturally? Here in lays the importance of understanding ‘cultural relativism’, or “the practice of evaluating a culture by its own standards” (Macionis, 2004), making the previous question irrelevant since culture itself is present in every society, it is therefore, universal; having no right or wrong.

Like culture, ethnocentrism is unavoidable and like culture, ethnocentrism is universal to all cultures to some degree. To claim no ethnocentricity would be to separate oneself from one’s own culture. It is only human nature to be grounded in and reflective of the culture that you have been immersed in since birth, as it is your connection to your heritage. In this sense, ethnocentrism is not all bad, and can be beneficial in promoting cultural diversity (Rosaldo, 2000). It becomes bad when we do not acknowledge other cultures or we expect others to adopt our cultural norms because we believe their cultural norms are wrong. This behavior stems mainly from the troublesome nature of not understanding the basis for their beliefs and values, and from intimidation due to the mere existence of a different view of norms within a culture, leading to a threatening atmosphere when our cultural validity is challenged.

Crossing the lines between cultures has become more common with technological advances. What was once a world where cultures rarely c...

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...ion cooking show relative to the cultural values present in the show itself and in the chefs, it is very apparent that these differences are what defines a culture and makes one so very different than the other. Learning to accept these differences and appreciating them for the ways they are engrained in society can lead to an appreciation for that culture.

Works Cited

Giddens, A., Duneier, M., & Appelbaum, R.P. (n.d.) Welcome to Sociology. Chapter 3: Culture & Society. http://www.wwnorton.com/giddens4/chapters/chapter3/welcome.htm

Iron Chef. (n.d.) The World News. http://www.sbs.com.au/ironchef/

Macionis, J. J. (2004). Sociology, Tenth Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458.

Manon, Louis R. III (1999, November). Multiculturalism: Walking the Walk. http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~wgreason/sampaadana8.html

Rosaldo, R. (2000, Winter). Issues in Ethics. Of headhunters and Soldiers: Separating Cultural and Ethical Relativism. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v11n1/relativism.html

Shotokai. (n.d.) http://www.shotokai.cl/filosofia/06_ee_.html

Wikipedia. (2004, March). Iron Chef. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Chef

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