Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentricism ethnocentricism is a name that tends to explain or evaluate other cultures in their own way. In modern countries this trend may be more general than the original tribe. Especially in the past, citizens of the great powers are less likely to observe people in other countries and cultures than members of small tribes who are familiar with the way they have their culturally diverse neighbor. As a result, American visitors may report that people in London "drive the other side of the road" or Britons can find the "strange" or "rough" custom of the European continent Absent.

What is ethnocentricism? Ethnocentricism has three levels: positive, negative, and extreme. In a positive definition, ethnocentricism is defined as "people's own way of living takes precedence over the views of all others" (Herskovits, p. 21). There is no problem with this emotion ("Herskovits, p. 21), because" It expresses how most people feel about their own culture, expressing their emotions with words ". It is ethnocentricism, giving people the idea of ​​personality, group identity, historical status. These are all valuable features. "When my group is all centered, all other groups are measured and evaluated accordingly," ethnocentricism becomes negative (Sumner 1979, p. 13). When that rule is imposed on others, when it positively denies what they have, it reaches an extremely negative form (Herskovits, p. 103)

William G. Sumner defines ethnocentricism as the technical name of objects of objects whose groups are all centered and all other groups are measured and evaluated accordingly. He further said that ethnocentricism often leads to self-esteem, vanity, belief in his own group's superiority, and contempt for outsiders. These problems can occur when society is divided into groups and they are outside the group. Ethnocentricism is explained in social science and genetics. In anthropology, cultural relativism is opposed to ethnocentricism and is used as an opposite term.

There is no broad consensus on the cause of ethnocentricism. Various social science and biological science fields have developed the theory about the mechanism of ethnocentricism. The social identity approach of psychology suggests that ethnocentricism is caused by a strong perception of their culture. It combines self esteem with a positive view of culture. In theory, in order to maintain this forward view, people make social comparisons and disadvantage competitive culture groups.