Ethnocentrism VS Cultural Relativism

OK guys.... at this time I will share you about the information that I got from the lecture on last Thursday....

it is about ethnocentrism and cultural relativism...

 

Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are mutually exclusive. They are two extremes on the opposite sides of a philosophical spectrum.

Ethnocentrism is the view that one particular ethnic group is somehow superior to all other. Ethnocentrism leads us to make false assumptions about cultural differences. We are ethnocentric when we use our cultural norms to make generalizations about other peoples' cultures and customs. Such generalizations often made without a conscious awareness that we've used our culture as a universal yardstick can be way off base and cause us to misjudge other peoples. Ethnocentrism can lead to cultural misinterpretation and it often distorts communication between human beings.

Ethnocentric thinking causes us to make wrong assumptions about other people because . ..

• Ethnocentrism leads us to make premature judgments.
• "They" may not be very good at what we are best at.
• By evaluating "them" by what we are best at, we miss the many other aspects of life that they often handle more competently than we do.

On the other side.......

Cultural relativism is the view that individual beliefs and values systems are culturally relative. Cultural relativism is the view that moral or ethical systems, which vary from culture to culture, are all equally valid and no one system is really"better" than any other. This is based on the idea that there is no absolute standard of good or evil, so every judgment about right and wrong is a product of society. It means that no moral or ethical system can be considered the "best" or the "wrong", and no particular moral or ethical position can be actually be considered "right" or "wrong".

So........ what's your idea about that???