Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentric, derived from the Greek words of Ethnos, meaningrace, people or cultural group, and Kentrikos, meaning concentratedabout or directed to a center is a word that greatly describes manycultures on this planet we call Earth . The official definition ofEthnocentric is " characterized or based on the attitude that ones owngroup is superior" or "having race as a central interest". There is a wholeworld of problems, politics, and, other cultures, but it seems that theaverage American's only interest is that of themselves. The reason I choseto focus more on the American being ethnocentric is because I have been Why is it that in most foreign countries being knowledgeableabout world politics is just as important as their own culture's politics? America is the melting pot of the world with s
Today I feel that people are arrogant towards thoseforeigners who don't wash away their former demeanor. " Ethnocentrism may manifest itself in behavior such as warfare,attitudes of superiority, hostility, violence, discrimination, and verbalaggression. Why don't werealize that we are so lucky to live in a secure and free country that shouldglorify diversity and not promote prejudice. According to this analysis, prejudice is a psychological inability to tolerate the existence of different others and results from a need to maintain absolute faith in one's own cultural world view". American sociologist,political economist and the originator of the term ethnocentric, WilliamGraham Sumner, in 1904 defined ethnocentrism as : "the view of things in which one's own group is the center of everything and all others are scaled and rated, in reference to one's group. Ethnocentrism in my opinion is very ignorant, unintelligent, and closedminded in that your normal rituals may seem just as strange to othercultures, but are seen by them in a more understanding way. Each group thinks that its own folkways are the only right ones. Ethnocentrism has been instilled in us since birth, learning toattach our selves to our cultural groups depending on them for comfortand a sense of safety. Professor Michael Bond from SimonFraser University quoted: "the mere existence of different others is inherently threatening because they either implicitly or explicitly challenge the absolute validity of one's own perspective. This is when the child starts to care for othersand takes a better understanding of respect and friendliness towardsthem. o many different culturesand we accept this variety into our country as we were accepted when ourancestors came over. When we make contact withpeople whose beliefs and cultural tradition challenge our own perspectivemost feel some sort of intimidation. Piaget's theory on child development states that achild believes he is the center of the universe until he learns to "de-center"himself, i. I realize that we are all ethnocentric to varying degrees becausewe are born into a culture at birth and we cling to that culture as a .
Common topics in this essay:
Diversity Ethnocentric,
Fraser University,
Graham Sumner,
Crusaders Muslims,
one's own,
own perspective,
world politics,
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