Ethnocentrism vs. Cultural Relativism
Back to: Cultural Standards
The Cultural Standard Model is based on a concept we can call
culture-relativistic.
That means it regards different cultural rules, norms and lifestyles as relative to each other. There are no „right“ or „wrong“ cultural standards, every culture has to be understood from the inside and cannot be assessed or judged from the outside. Awareness, sensitivity and tolerance are essential values in a culture-relativistic view of the world.
The opposite concept is an
ethnocentric perspective.
People with this perspective are inclined to regard their own culture as more important or even superior to other cultures. They judge different cultural standards as „strange“ without trying to understand the background and origin of the lifestyle they perceive. This attitude can lead to a lot of intercultural misinterpretations, and the ethnocentristic concept eventually might cause intolerance, bias and discrimination of cultures deviating from the own lifestyle and habits.
Ethnocentrism vs Cultural Relativism
The following video shows the difference between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism:
At first sight, the culture-relativistic perspective seems to be far more appropriate for dealing with intercultural issues than the ethnocentric approach. To understand a culture from inside gives the opportunity to learn and to develop communication styles that improve understanding and mutual respect.
But is it really that easy?
In some cases, it can be very challenging to tolerate and accept standards of other cultures. This leads us to some questions of
Self Reflection
A Turkish woman tells you that her sister was killed by her father in law. It was, according to her, an unavoidable „honour killing“ due to inadmissible acting of her sister, a „normal“ procedure in the culture she comes from. What do you think? How do you react?You work with a young girl from Africa. She tells you that next week she has to go to her aunt in order to get an „intervention“. After you asked her some questions she unwillingly admits that the intervention will be a genital mutilation. This kind of manipulation, according to her, in her cultural environment is expected from all girls of a certain age. What is your reaction?