Ethnocentrism by

Ethnocentrism - What is it?

lggiessmann — 2025-02-16 22:23:20 UTC

Ethnocentrism is the act of assessing a culture's norms or beliefs in the context and comparison of your own, instead of the lens of that proprietary culture. This can often lead to a negative or disparaging lens of that culture. (Introduction to Sociology 3e Ch.3)

Related Concepts to Ethnocentrism

lggiessmann — 2025-02-16 22:36:40 UTC

Cultural Relativism

Cultural Imperialism

Social Norms

Deviance

Xenophobia

Why can this be harmful?

lggiessmann — 2025-02-16 22:44:20 UTC

Ethnocentrism has the opportunity to create bigoted and xenophobic reactions to different customs or norms than the subject is used to. More so, ethnocentrism does not allow one to understand or appreciate a culture in the way that it is intended, because the conception of what something subjectively SHOULD look like is based on their own proprietary culture. An example of this is provided above

Cultural Relativism

lggiessmann — 2025-02-17 01:09:12 UTC

Closely related to the definition of ethnocentrism, cultural relativism is the opposite of the harmful behavior. Rather, it is viewing another's culture as unique and experiencing it for what it is instead of applying your own lens to that. (Introduction to Sociology 3e Ch.3)

Cultural Imperialism

lggiessmann — 2025-02-17 01:16:22 UTC

Cultural imperialism is defined as imposing ones own cultural practices or ways upon another person. This can be exceptionally harmful and demeaning. A real world historical example of this would be countries coming to another country to provide "aid," while at the same time necessitating those countries follow their religion and practices.

Social Norms

lggiessmann — 2025-02-17 01:24:26 UTC

A social norm is a set of accepted behaviors and scripts in society that people adhere to. Erving Goffman defines that as standards and beliefs that are considered normal. A social norm for example is that one wears clothes to the grocery store. Or, that one uses a fork to eat their dinner.

Deviance

lggiessmann — 2025-02-17 01:28:29 UTC

Deviance is the act of straying away from those social norms. Deviance is subjective and dependent on factors such as culture. A deviant action for instance could be something obvious like burglary, or something like urinating next to someone else's urinal when all the other ones are empty. (Goffman Stigma)

Xenophobia

lggiessmann — 2025-02-17 01:29:49 UTC

Xenophobia is the outright irrational fear or hatred of other cultures for no particular reason. A xenophobe would hate Mexico simply because it is not their culture. Or, making fun of one's culture or ethnicity.

How these influence Ethnocentrism

lggiessmann — 2025-02-17 01:49:29 UTC

Cultural imperialism, perceptions of deviance/norms, and xenophobia all create an ethnocentric perspective. When ideals of superiority or fear are fostered about other cultures, whether instilled socially or individually, they reproduce oppression of foreign ideas. These foreign ideals are vital to the furtherance of society as a whole.

The Solution - Cultural Relativism

lggiessmann — 2025-02-17 01:56:39 UTC

Cultural relativism is the prescribed antidote for an ethnocentric lens. When one evaluates a culture based on it's own merits and relative principles, they can engage, participate and learn from that culture. However, if one evaluates that culture in an ethnocentric manner, they fail to learn anything from the experience due to pre-conceived notions and ideals inhibiting shared experience