soc101- 200 words

Ethnocentrism: Consider your textbook's description of ethnocentrism (pp. 52 - 53), along with the Topic 4 Lesson Presentation (slide 18). In a post of between 150 and 250 words, discuss the following prompt: First, write your own brief definition of the term "ethnocentrism." Then, discuss at least one example or phenomenon in which ethnocentrism plays a part. Finally, describe any situations in which you have experienced ethnocentrism, either negatively or positively. 

Many times the language we use reflects our attitudes. William Graham Sumner coined the term ethnocentrism to refer to the tendency to assume that one’s own culture is normal, or superior, to all others. In order to become a critical thinker, a researcher, a sociologist, or an informed citizen, you need to recognize when you are judging someone by your own cultural standards and ignoring their way of life.

(pp. 52 – 53)

Ethnocentrism

Once we acquire the cultural ways peculiar to our own society, they become so deeply in- grained that they seem second nature to us. Additionally, we have difficulty conceiving of alternative ways of life. Just as a fish never “notices” water unless it is out of it, so we tend never to notice our own culture until we are in someone else’s. We judge the behavior of other groups by the standards of our own culture, a phenomenon sociologists call ethnocentrism. Sumner (1906:13) described this point of view as one “in which one’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.” A Peace Corps volunteer living in Blantyre, Malawi, several decades ago found a perfect example: The post office had two letter slots, one labeled “Blantyre” and the other labeled “Elsewhere” (Selin, 2002).

All groups are ethnocentric: families, tribes, nations, cliques, colleges, fraternities, busi- nesses, churches, and political parties. The notion that one belongs to the “best people” can be functional for groups because it provides a kind of social glue cementing people together. But it can also be dysfunctional when it generates intergroup conflict. Combined with competition for scarce resources and a power imbalance between groups, ethnocentrism is particularly destructive (Noel, 1968). It plays a part in group conflicts ranging from small skirmishes to world wars. It can also be of more immediate and prac- tical significance. Some analysts blame our sur- prise at the September 11 attacks partly on eth- nocentrism. Although the threat to civilians was not secret, it seemed “too outlandish to be taken seriously. . . . In the world of intelligence, this is known as mirror-imaging: the projection of American values and behavior onto America’s enemies and rivals” (Goldberg, 2003).

a humane measure (Murdock, 1934). The Inuits believe that individuals experience in the next world a standard of health similar to that which they enjoyed in the period preceding death. Consequently, the Inuits see the practice as min- imizing the disabilities and infirmities their loved ones would encounter in the hereafter. Social scientists have pointed out that the prac- tice can be adaptive for a people whose subsis- tence is precarious and who must strictly limit their dependent population. For Americans who are appalled at the traditional Inuit custom, it is worth noting that many Japanese find quite abhorrent our practice of placing our elderly infirm in nursing homes rather than caring for them at home.