Anthropology Optional (Cultural Relativism) by Sourabh Mishra

Model Answer

Question #1. Write short notes on the Ethnocentric approach. 10 marks (150 words)

Approach

• Introduce the Ethnocentrism
• The ethnocentric approach of Thinker
• Ethnocentric approach
• Examples of cultural ethnocentrism
• Conclude the topic on positive note.

Introduction:

Ethnocentrism is a term applied to the cultural or ethnic bias whether conscious or unconscious in which an individual views the world from the perspective of his or her group, establishing the in-group as archetypal and rating all other groups concerning this ideal.

Ethnocentrism is the belief that your culture is natural and correct while other people’s cultures are incorrect, unnatural, or inferior.

The ethnocentric approach of Thinker:

• The term ethnocentrism was coined by William Graham Sumner to refer to a feeling that one’s culture is always superior to other cultures.
• Sumner (1906) says ethnocentrism is the technical name of this view of things in which one’s group is the centre of everything, and all others are scaled and rated concerning it.
• He further says that it leads people to exaggerate everything in their folkways, differentiating them from others. Based on this feeling, other cultures are judged by one’s own culture.
• Ethnocentrism gives rise to a feeling of superiority in the sense that we judge other cultures as wrong rather than in other ways.

Ethnocentric approach:

• Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture.
• Part of ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own race, ethnicity, or cultural group is the most important or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups.

Examples of cultural ethnocentrism:

1. Judging Other Countries’ Diets

• An example of ethnocentrism is when you judge other countries for the way they eat, but don’t have a moral reason for this.
• For example, many Americans might think Peruvians eating Guinea Pigs to be disgusting. But a Peruvian might ask: how is eating Guinea Pig different from eating chicken? In traditional Peruvian cultures, Guinea Pigs are animals to be eaten.
• This is a common criticism that Quebecois Canadians have of English-speaking Canadians. They will travel to Quebec and expect Quebecers to speak English to them, even though their local language is French.

2. Expecting Others to Speak English

• Many of us arrogantly believe that everyone should speak English to us, no matter where we are in the world.
• When traveling the world, many of us English-speakers live with the expectation that others will speak English to us. We have this luxury because English is currently the world’s dominant language – especially in business interactions.
• This can lead to ethnocentrism when we roll our eyes are people who aren’t bilingual, even when we’re in their own country.

3. Judging Women’s Cultural Outfits

• Women’s outfits differ significantly across cultures and societies. And while many of us might say “It’s a woman’s right to decide what she wears and we should respect her no matter what”, different cultures have various views on this.
• Plenty of Europeans might feel like it’s very normal for women to wear bikinis at the beach. But head to more conservative nations and women might always cover their shoulders or hair.
• In this example, again, both cultures may use an ethnocentric lens to look at the other culture. One culture says that’s the oppression of women. While the other says that outfit is immodest.
• Sometimes, we need to accept other people’s cultures with an open mind and try to see where they’re coming from.

4. Delegitimizing Others’ Religious Celebrations

• Ethnocentrism is also often directed at other cultures’ religious beliefs.
• For example, in 2014, China attempted to crack down on the celebration of Ramadan in the Muslim region of Xinjiang.
• This is an example of the dominant culture believing a minority culture’s beliefs and practices are a threat or inferior within the space of the nation. The minority culture is othered so the majority culture can maintain and promote their own practices and traditions as the natural or normative traditions within the nation-state.
• This is an example of ethnocentrism being put into policy in order to protect one ethnic identity and suppress another.

5. Assimilationism

• Assimilation policies state that immigrants to a country should leave their old culture behind and embrace their host country’s culture.
• This is a mindset that is driven by fear that your culture will be diluted by migrants. Some could argue that it is ethnocentric because it reveals a preference for your culture to remain the dominant norm and remain the standard within your country.
• But other people might argue that the willingness to protect your own culture is not ethnocentrism because it’s not saying other cultures are less valuable but rather that yours needs protection. Here, it all depends on perspective – and even, perhaps, judgment about whether a culture is genuinely under threat of dying out.
• Other immigration approaches include Integration, where different cultures all live together in a patchwork throughout a city, and Self-Determination, where everyone can choose which culture they want to follow.

Conclusion:

Taking a look at ethnocentrism helps us to identify our own biases and blind spots. And usually, people who study ethnocentrism come to conclusions that highlight the importance of cultural pluralism and compassion.

While we might not want to change our culture and traditions, we could use the theory of ethnocentrism to get to know other people’s cultures better. If we understand other people’s perspectives, we can live more harmoniously together, and remain open-minded to learning from each other.

Question #2. What is cultural relativism? What is its importance in Anthropology? Is cultural relativism compatible with Human rights? 15 marks (250 words) 

Steps-

• Introduce the Cultural relativism.
• Historical view of cultural relativism
• Thinkers’ perspective
• Importance of Cultural Relativism
• Associated Problems with Cultural Relativism
• Relative Culturalism Distorted the Human Rights
• Conclusion

Introduction

Cultural relativism is an anthropological approach that emphasizes understanding any particular culture through the logic and meanings of that culture only, which is under observation.

Historical view of cultural relativism

• The concept originated with the emergence of the historical particularism school of thought, led by Franz Boas, in the late 19^th
• Boas argued that every culture owes its particular state to the historical process through which the society evolves.
• Since these processes are unique, therefore every culture must be seen independently, and not in the context of another.

Thinkers’ perspective

Franz Boas:

• Cultural relativism is the idea that cultures cannot be objectively evaluated as higher or lower, better or worse, and right or wrong.

Alain Locke:

• A systematic approach to the recognition of value equivalence to militate against the pernicious forms of valuing the cultural exchanges into intractable problems.

Importance of Cultural Relativism

• Cultural relativism is increased tolerance towards people with different cultures and customs.
• It leads to the view that no one culture is superior to another culture when compared to systems of morality, law, politics, etc.
• It is an important methodological consideration in anthropological research.
• Anthropologists must temporarily suspend their value, moral, and esthetic judgments and seek to understand and respect the values, morals, and esthetics of the other culture.

Associated Problems with Cultural Relativism

• A culture may try to marginalize or decimate a minority. It cannot be justified by society’s ethos.
• It propagates the idea that differences should be settled by the majority and as an accepted feature of the culture.
• Infanticide is practiced in culture; it can be regarded as failing to measure up to the universal standard of morality.

Justifications and Examples Associated to Human Rights:

Human rights exist at both, international and national levels. At the national level, human rights exist through decisions of the judiciary, legislation, and customs.

• For example- the US constitution prohibits slavery and servitude. One justification for human rights is that they are inherent to human beings as they are God-given. The US Declaration of Independence says that people have rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

Human rights education can be defined as education, training, and information aiming at building a universal culture of human rights through sharing knowledge, imparting skills, and moldings attitudes to astrong respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. The promotion of understanding, tolerance, gender equality, and friendship among all nations, indigenous peoples, and racial, ethnic, and religious groups; and the enabling of all persons to participate effectively in a free and democratic society governed by the rule of law. Human rights education is, therefore, an action-oriented process.

• For example- The right to education for all is mentioned in Indian constitutions.

Relative Culturalism Distorted the Human Rights

• Radical cultural relativism would hold that culture is the sole source of the validity of a moral right.
• Radical universalism would hold that culture is irrelevant to the validity of moral rights and rules, which are universally valid.

Conclusion

Cultural relativism presents the challenge to ethics as universal standards of right or wrong. It comes from the claim that moral judgments are relative to the individual or particular societies and are not universally applicable.