ANT E101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Cultural Relativism, Ethnocentrism, Anthropocentrism
Document Summary
Anthropocentrism: the erroneous idea that one"s culture and its value are somehow right or superior to another culture"s. Many people therefore judge another culture according to the standards of their own. Ethnocentrism: the tendency to judge of one culture from your own perspective. Opposing your own religion/values on another without first understanding their perspective. Anthropologist all work against the notion of ethnocentrism. Early periods of colonialism, their goal was to convert the first nations to. Christians because they believed that their right of ways was correct and believed that first nations were backward. Christians, they believed they were doing them a favour. An approach adopted and promoted by anthropologists. Understanding another society in its own terms. Making sure that we use appropriate terms when talking about another culture. But, at time, can be morally problematic! We do not want to condone horrific acts of violence, genocide, human suffering, inequality, etc.
