Question:

Define ethnocentrism and cultural relativism with examples.

Ethnocentrism:
William graham Sumner first used this term. The word ethnic refers to cultural heritage and centrism
refer to central point so ethnocentrism basically refers to judging other groups from our own cultural
point of view (Ken Barger, 2022). Ethnocentrism is a tendency to use your own culture as a standard
by which to judge and evaluate other cultures. This makes an assumption that one’s culture is better
than or superior to other cultures.

For example:
 In Pakistan, most of Pashtun women wear shuttlecock burqa, which covers their body from
head to toe. While majority of other females wear Arabic abaya showing their face. Now
paktun women consider it as a formality because it neither fulfills religious requirements nor
societal expectations according to them.
 Pakistani people living in joint family system criticize western family living styles as the
members of their family start to split up in order to be independent after reaching a certain
age. Westerners are thought to be emotionless.
 Food bloggers reviewing dishes of other cultures according to their own culture.

Cultural relativism:
Father of anthropology Franz boas first used the idea of cultural relativism but Alain Locke was the
one to coin the term. The ability to understand a culture on their own terms and consequently not
making judgements based on standards of one’s own culture. It is the view that all beliefs, customs
and ethnicities are relative to an individual in his own social context. Involves looking at other
cultures by its own perspective instead of one’s own culture.

For example:
 Shia community takes out processions every year on the day of Ashura as a religious activity.
Except for some extremists, people around nation recognize this a part of their beliefs and
respect their sentiments.
 People in Pakistan enjoy a diverse variety of food as many cultures exist in here and each
culture has its unique food symbol. People across different cultures enjoy food of other
cultures even names of restaurants are a symbol of specific food culture e.g. a restaurant
named Karachi Biryani can be seen almost everywhere in Punjab.