Presentation on Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism with examples and similarities & differences between them.

1. Presentation
On
Ethnocentrism & Cultural
Relativism
Amity University, NOIDA
Amity Institute of Pharmacy
By: Unnati Garg

2. ETHNOCENTRISM
 Ethnocentrism is judging another culture
based upon the values and standards set in
one's own culture.
 It is a form of bias, where we tend to
immediately judge another culture as 'bad'
or 'wrong' based upon their actions, if their
values are not aligned with our own beliefs.
 We all do it, some time or the other, mostly
not even realizing that we're being
ethnocentric at that moment.

3. Example 1: Terrorism
and Hate Crimes
 Terrorism and hate crimes take place when
one religion or community believes that it is
superior, and better than any other religion
or community.
 Ethnocentrism tends to blind people from
seeing things from another perspective―
just because another community does
something that yours doesn't― like a
particular style of worship, for instance,
doesn't make it inferior to yours, and nor
does it make the other community's style of
worshiping incorrect.

4. Example 2: In Business
Though it is easy to assume that
ethnocentrism affects only the lesser-
educated, less aware people in the
world, it is not really true.
Ethnocentrism can be seen on a large
scale in business, and at the workplace.
For instance, an employee may refer to
his client as a 'moron' if the client
needed some time to understand
whatever the employee was trying to
tell him. A business owner might yell at
his foreign employees and call them
stupid because of their different races,
cultures, or values that are different
from the boss'.

5. Example 3: In American
Society
 The popular belief among American
ethnocentric people is that their country,
culture, values, development, and
everything else is superior to every other
nation in the world, and that every other
nation is inferior to the United States.
 This belief has led to political meddling
among the matters of other countries,
leading to misunderstandings and
miscommunication between different
countries in the world.

6. Example 4:
Ethnocentrism and
Culture
 Every culture on earth tends to impart
ethnocentrism, albeit unintentionally.
 Various aspects of culture such as
mythological tales, folktales, legends,
religion, songs, proverbs, language, rituals,
etc. promote the superiority of that one
culture over others.
 Though this is an unintentional kind of
promotion of ethnocentrism, it instills the
belief that 'my race/my culture' is really
better than the rest, in so many ways in
most of us, especially during childhood or
teenage.

7. CULTURAL RELATIVISM
 Cultural relativism refers to not judging a culture to
our own standards of what is right or wrong, strange
or normal. Instead, we should try to understand
cultural practices of other groups in its own cultural
context.
 For example, instead of thinking, “Fried crickets are
disgusting! ” one should instead ask, “Why do some
cultures eat fried insects?”.

8. Categories
ABSOLUTE: Everything
that happens within a
culture must and should
not be questioned by
outsiders. Example: Nazi
party’s point of view
justifying the Holocaust.
CRITICAL: Creates
questions about cultural
practices in terms of who
is accepting them and
why. It also recognizes
power relationships.

9. Examples
In some homes, women are
confined to the kitchen and are
proud to play their roles in such a
setting while in some set-ups,
women are encouraged to
leadership and engage in what
would be considered “men’s
fields.”

10. Examples
 Many cultures where Islam is the predominant faith, a
more thorough covering of the body is expected than in
other cultures.
 What constitutes breakfast varies widely from place to
place. What is considered a typical breakfast in Turkey, as
illustrated in the above image, is quite different from
what is considered a typical breakfast in the U.S. or Japan.
While it might seem strange to eat fish soup or stewed
vegetables for breakfast in the U.S., in other places, this is
perfectly normal. Conversely, our tendency toward
sugary cereals and milk or preference for egg sandwiches
loaded with bacon and cheese would seem quite bizarre
to other cultures.

11. SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
ETHNOCENTRISM AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Both these viewpoints or concepts present extremist views, i.e. while ethnocentrism leans
towards intolerance, cultural relativism leans towards incredibly high tolerance of cultural
features.
Both views present negative connotations. Ethnocentrism in its extreme form gives rise to
and supremacist, while cultural relativism allows the propagation of certain practices that
basic human rights
In terms of sensitivity, ethnocentrism is insensitive to other cultures, while cultural relativism
shows high cultural sensitivity.
These views involve examining a culture and all its aspects and evaluating them. The basis for
evaluation differs according to the view employed.

13. REFERENCES
 https://opinionfront.com/examples-of-ethnocentrism-to-help-you-understand-
it-better
 https://opinionfront.com/similarities-difference-between-cultural-relativism-
ethnocentrism