ANTH 010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Trobriand Islands, Cultural Relativism, Relativism
5 Aug 2020
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Ethnocentrism- at an early age, one begins to believe that their culture is the right way . *after enculturation, our culture becomes our default way of understanding the world. Cultures always change and innovate, but it can be uncomfortable. *people often have difficulty understanding different ways of life are biased for/or against them. *only can see the world from our perspective ex: plural marriages. ***anthropologists use culture to describe unfamiliar life ways in a less biased/ethnocentric fashion ( tool ) Argue that every culture has patterns and is adaptive in its own way. No culture is simple or ideal; completely dangerous or irrational. Ethnocentrism tempts us to see other cultures in this way corrected with the culture concept. The twin pitfalls- when trying to understand others, it is very important to avoid ethnocentrically judging too positively (better) or negatively (worse)
