Cultural Anthropology Cultural Anthropology Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

What is your place in the world? How much of the world do you know?

Cultural Anthropology

•Is a social science that studies cultures around the world

•Cultural anthropologists have to remain objective and discourage generalizations

•The goal of cultural anthropology is to prevent ethnocentrism and instead to promote cultural relativism.

ETHNOCENTRISM

•Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's cultural group is centrally important and superior to others

•We are ethnocentric when we use our cultural norms to make generalizations about other peoples' cultures and customs.

•Ethnocentrism leads to cultural misinterpretation and it often distorts communication between human beings.

CAN YOU THINK OF EXAMPLES?

Some very simple examples of ethnocentric thinking. .. ..

We often talk about British drivers driving "on the wrong side" of the road. Why not just say "opposite side" or even "left hand side"?

We talk about written Hebrew or Arabic as reading "backward." Why not just say "from right to left" or "in the opposite direction from English."

We consider certain types of art “naive” or “primitive”

While ethnocentric views are not necessarily intended, they have led to major human disasters throughout history causing

Bullying, Discrimination, Intolerance, War, Genocide….

CULTURAL RELATIVISM (C. R.)

Anthropologists promote C.R. To help understand diversity.

Cultural relativism - the principle that a person’s beliefs and activities make sense in terms of his or her own culture.

C.R. explains human diversity as a logical outcome of the diverse environments in which humans live.

Therefore, everything is relative. Nothing is right or wrong.

FEMALE BEAUTY: is it a cultural universal? Why or Why not?

FE

FOOD?

SOME AIMS OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY:

•To provide objective insight into other cultures

•To help preserve valuable knowledge, cultural practices and languages around the world

•To foster cross-cultural empathy, understanding and collaboration

•To emphasize similarities among human cultures and help bridge their differences and misunderstandings