1. Examine the difference between material and nonmaterial culture in your world. Identify ten objects that are part of your regular cultural experience. For each, then identify what aspects of nonmaterial culture (values and beliefs) that these objects represent. What has this exercise revealed to you about your culture?
Ten objects that are a part of my culture are churches, braids, beaded jewelry, gold jewelry, kente cloth, African wax fabric, the ideas of superiority of elders, servitude, the importance of history and the importance of hospitality. The braids, beaded jewelry, gold jewelry, kente cloth, African wax fabric represent the history of my ancestors. These are things that were done and create for many years. This exercise helped me to understand how connected my material culture is to my nonmaterial culture. It also helped me to understand just how important traditions and history is to my culture.
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Do you feel that feelings of ethnocentricity or xenocentricity are more prevalent in U.S. culture? Why do you believe this? What issues or events might inform this?
The feelings of ethnocentricity are more prevalent in U.S. culture. I believe this because I have witnessed how the U.S. deals with people from other countries. Donald Trump beliefs are the most recent testimony to this. He believes that the immigrants in America are destroying the country and order for it to be great again, they must get rid of them. You can also tell by how Americans look down on people of other countries and constantly talk about how great America is when it really is not.
3. What do you think of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? Do you agree or disagree with it? Cite examples or research to support your point of
Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's ethnic group or culture is superior (Leeder, 2004). In order to gain citizenship David Aldwinkle was subject to investigation by inspectors to prove he was culturally Japanese. These investigations included interviewing his neighbors,
(1) Ethnocentrism is looking at one’s own culture and placing it above other cultures, constantly comparing it to the other cultures “below”. In America today, many people look at conflicted areas in the globe such as the Middle East and wonder why their system cannot keep a stable democracy. This idea of constantly comparing other cultures to one’s own and expecting them to be alike or follow the example is a problem in reading historical documents and understanding history as a whole. Nomadic invaders such as the Mongols were described as horrible savage people in the written accounts of the sedentary peoples. This must not be taken quite as literally because accounts tend to be biased more often than not. In examining ethnocentrism, one must always remember that few, if not none, cultures behave extremely irrationally as they may seem. For example, referring back to the views of Middle East today, one must remember that the system of Islamic law and customs has held for centuries, and would not have survived that long if they truly are as irrational as they might seem. Referring back to the example of the Mongols, the attacked people were obviously biased and the Mongols would not have had ruled for so long if they were cruel, savage, irrational monsters. Ethnocentrism is extremely difficult to avoid and is apparent in many documents, such as Columbus’s description of the American Natives (in comparison to the “civilized” Europeans), and should be dealt with carefully. In order to understand all sides of an account, one must look at what is written with deference and understanding.
Ethnocentrism is defined as the process of ignoring other cultures, and specifically focusing on the culture one is accustomed to.
Whether you have experienced a lot of traveling to other countries and continents or perhaps you have never left the East coast, it can be assumed; whether through school or a work environment, you have had at least one experience dealing with different nationalities and cultures. The realization is that we may come from different places and have different backgrounds but most people, cultures included, have more in common then we could imagine.
Kradin, R. L. (2012). When ancestral heritage is a source of discomfort: culture, pre-object relatedness, and self-alienation. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 57(2), 207-222. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5922.2011.01962.x
The term “ethnocentrism,” meaning the sense of taken-for-granted superiority in the context of cultural practices and attitudes, described the way Europeans looked at their “culture” as though they were superior to all others. Westerns even stated that non-Westerns had no culture and that they were inferior to the culture that was building in Europe.
In the recent weeks, I have noticed a trend in our cultural beliefs regarding groups outside of our own. As a nation, while the United States has a strongly individualistic nature from a personal perspective, there is also a strong collectivist belief regarding everyone outside of themselves and their groups. Rather than believing that each member of an external group is responsible for their decisions alone (myth of individualism), separating them from a collective (one bad apple), the consensus is generally geared opposite. For example, the belief that all immigrants want to steal American jobs, when one is not an immigrant, or that feminists are actually misandrists, when one is not a feminist. What I believe we have
Throughout times there has been this belief that one’s culture is better than others. We believe that our traditions, food, clothing, and customs are superior to those in other cultures. This belief system is called ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism originates from the Greek words “ethnos” meaning “people” and “Centrism” meaning “center” (“What Does Ethnocentrism Mean?”). This means that one’s ideas and values are centered on the superiority of their own group. Having an ethnocentric attitude changes how we view other cultures and limits our capability to be culturally relative to others not a part of our own.
According to our assigned text, Ethnocentrism is defined as a tendency to think that out own culture is superior to other cultures (Martin &Nakayama, 2013 p.5). We can observe this through various clips throughout the film. The African characters namely the father of the prince believe their culture is superior to that of the American characters and I understood this to be a representation of ethnocentrism. In addition, differences in economic classes are represented as well within the film. Just as our text explained, there is a disparity that exist among classes although they tend to go unacknowledged (Martin & Nakayama, 2013 p.14). In the film “Coming to America”, there are several observations I made that relate to both ethnocentrism and economic class disparities. For example, King Joffer blatantly states “our son cannot consort with such a girl” which can be viewed as ethnocentrism and economic class disparity. King Joffer offensively refers to the Americans as being beneath them in the following quote “The man is beneath me and so is his daughter” which suggests the economic disparity between the two and are unacceptable from his standpoint. Furthermore, King Jaffore attempts to buy off the Americans thereby insulting them in stating “I know you have been inconvenienced. I am prepared to compensate you. Shall we say one million American dollars”. The American father, Cleo is immediately insulted and infuriated replying to him that he did not care whether or not he was a king in his country and his money was not acceptable. Cleo stated angrily “you cannot buy my daughter”. Furthermore, Cleo stated “this is America” in an attempt to possibly make him aware that their standards were not necessarily welcomed or proper in America. Again these examples display ethnocentrism and economic disparity from what I gathered from the text. The
How do you view opposing culture that is different from your own? I am mostly open minded and, in fact, greatly interested in other cultures on a personal and academic level. Something that I believe many Americans take for granted is our rich mixed cultural heritage and our proximity to some of the oldest cultures on the planet.
Ethnocentrism can be defined as an individual’s belief that the ethnic group or cultural they identify with is superior to all others. “The ethnocentric person judges other groups and other cultures by the standards of his or her own group” (Schaefer 34).
We get our culture from enculturation. It is passed from one generation of people to the next through communication. Culture can define as actual society with particular practices, such as American, Asian,or African culture. According to Herskovits Melville, J who is known for exploring the cultural continuity states, “There is nothing wrong with such feelings, for "it characterizes the way most individuals feel about their own cultures, whether or not they verbalize their feeling" (Herskovits, p. 21). It is ethnocentrism that gives people their sense of peoplehood, group identity, and place in history-all of which are valuable traits to possess. According to Sumner, Graham, American social scientist, said about Ethnocentrism becomes negative when "one's own group becomes the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it" (Sumner 1979, p. 13) We create bias toward our culture and form an idea that one's own culture is the main standard to evaluate another group leading to view. They make their culture the measuring stick. This means that people believe and feel in the superiority of one's own ethnic culture over other culture. This behavior is known as Ethnocentrism. This concept was created amongst different nations earlier than cultural relativism, which has to be devised to counter ethnocentrism. In
When one encounters a culture that has little in common with own, one may experience culture shock. This is a sense of confusion, anxiety, stress and loss one may experience. One of the barriers in effective intercultural communication is ethnocentrism. It stems from a conviction that one’s own cultural traditions and assumptions are superior to those of others. It leads to a tendency to look the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture. It is one of the fastest ways to create a barrier that inhibits, rather than enhances communication (Jandt, 2012).
... its proper expressions, structure and grammar. Moreover, each language is linked to a specific dialect which is associated with educational, economic, social and historical conditions. Moreover, cultural variations also exist in the rules for general discourse in oral communication. Similar to verbal communication, there are also variations in non-verbal communication between cultures. Gestures, facial expressions, sense of time and personal distance take different forms in different cultures. Furthermore, there is an infinite number of cultural diversities which are at the root of intercultural miscommunication. Variations in values , social relationships, religion, economy and politics consist of only a few of these diversities. These differences can be the source of ethnocentrism, if one becomes over patriotic in regards to one’s own culture. Ethnocentrism, is the concept which states that we tend to judge other cultures through our own. Ethnocentric behavior, can cause racism and chauvinism, as in the case of the Second World War. However, intercultural problems can be avoided if we all develop mindfulness, a sense of flexibility and seek information about the other culture.
Ethnocentrism, as stated above, means the belief that one’s own culture is above and beyond all other cultures. Although this is somewhat of a shallow definition, it still provides an adequate explanation of a very complex issue. We see ethnocentrism every single day, in all aspects of life. The United States of America is a prime example of ethnocentrism is action. The people of this country have a tendency to disregard other cultures, instead believing that American culture is the only way to go. This is not to say that this is how everyone thinks, although most people, at one time or another, have had thoughts along these lines.