ETHNOCENTRISM

AND
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Week 8
 ETHNOCENTRISM AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to use one’s

own cultural standards and values to
judge the behavior and beliefs of people
with different cultures.
It is a cultural universal.
That is, people everywhere think that
familiar explanations, opinions and
customs are true, right, proper, and moral.
The term ethnocentrism was
coined by William Graham
Sumner.
He defined it as the view of things in
which one’s own group is the center of
everything, and all
others are scaled and rated with
reference to it.
Each group nourishes its own pride and vanity,
boasts itself superior, exalts its own divinities,
and looks with contempt on outsiders.
Each group thinks its own folkways the only right
ones, and if it observes that other groups have
other folkways, these excite its scorn.
People who are ethnocentric believe their cultural
beliefs are morally correct and others are morally
questionable.
Thus, if the beliefs, customs and values of other
culture differ from theirs, they find that culture
bizarre, barbaric and even savage
 EXAMPLE:
For example, a westerner who uses
spoons, fork and knife when eating
will find other people who eat with
their hands weird and silly.
Ethnocentrism is a
universal attitude.
Every society views itself as a
center surrounded by a
boundary beyond which
mankind is less accomplished
than inside.
Therefore, it is a natural tendency
for each of us to believe that our
cultural beliefs are the best.
However, this prevents us from
becoming culturally competent and
responsive to others who share
differing cultural beliefs, traditions,
practices, and affiliations.
 ETHNOCENTRISM HAS BOTH POSITIVE
AND NEGATIVE IMPLICATIONS
POSITIVE SIDE
On the positive,ethnocentrism is a mechanism
to preserve culture.
It promotes people’s pride and encourages
solidarity among individuals in order to defend
their group against external aggression.
t is ethnocentrism that gives people their
sense of peoplehood, group identity, and place
in history.
 ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE
too much emphasis on its
superiority over other culture
may result to violence,
oppression,
prejudice,discrimination and
stagnation.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
The opposite of
ethnocentrism is cultural
relativism, the view that
the behavior in one culture
should not be judged by
 CULTURAL RELATIVISM
For cultural relativist, the values,
knowledge, and behavior of people must be
understood within their own cultural context.
Cultural relativism is the idea that a
person's beliefs, values, and practices
should be understood based on that
person's own culture, rather than be
judged against the criteria of another.
It was established as axiomatic in
anthropological research by Franz
Boas in the first few decades of the
20th century and later popularized
by his students.
 Boas first articulated the idea in
1887: "civilization is not something
absolute, but is relative, and our
ideas and conceptions are true only
so far as our civilization goes
Cultural relativism
The goal of this is promote understanding of
cultural practices that are not typically part of
one’s own culture.
Using the perspective of cultural relativism
leads to the view that no one culture is
superior than another culture when compared
to systems of morality, law, politics, etc.
It is a concept that cultural norms and values
derive their meaning within a specific social
context.
decided in each society. The concept of
cultural relativism also means that any
opinion on ethics is subject to the perspective
of each person within their particular culture.
The goal of this is promote understanding of
cultural practices that are not typically part of
one's own culture.
Using the perspective of cultural relativism leads
to the view that no one culture is superior than
another culture when compared to systems of
morality, law, politics, etc.
Overall, there is no right or wrong
ethical system. In a holistic
understanding of the term cultural
relativism, it tries to promote the
understanding of cultural practices
that are unfamiliar to other cultures
such as eating insects, genocides or
genital cutting.
SOME IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT
CULTURAL RELATIVISM ARE:
1. Cultural Relativism does not mean anything a culture
or group of people believe is true.
 A good example of this is flat earthers. Just because
someone believes this to be true, doesn’t make it so. We
have endless evidence against their claims. However, if
you wanted to understand how the flat earthers came
to believe this point, you would temporarily put aside
your own views and evidence for a moment and try to
examine their claim from their point of view. This can
also be valuable in debunking some of their claims in
the long term. By learning to speak their ‘language’ we
can open lines of communication that are more
productive, and hopefully get them out of their insane
2.
Cultural Relativism does not mean that
anything a culture does is good or moral.
This is one of the ones that confuses
people. Some people might claim that we
can never understand something because
it’s ‘cultural’. Not so.
There are certain beliefs and practices
that are objectively harmful. But this is
where someone, who has never studied
anthropology might not understand that
kinship/marriage patterns don’t actually
3. Cultural Relativism doesn’t mean that
cultures can’t be compared.
There is sometimes a strange notion
that there are no commonalities between
cultures. It is true that there are very few
universals across all human experience,
but there are definitely some core things
that humans all do, most of which relate to
survival and continuity.