ANT E105 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism, Anthropology Today
Document Summary
Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures using your own way of life as the standard. Cultural relativism: attempting to understand other ways of life in their own terms. Family, community, nation = scales of categories. In group ---- our group (who"s in our group, who"s not in our group) Classifications of human combined with perceived differences: Heaven is where the police are british, the chefs french, the mechanics german, the lovers italian, and it"s all organized by the swiss. Hell is where the police are german, the chefs british, the mechanics french, the lovers swiss, and it"s all organized by the italians. Greatly resemble the monkeys from which they descended. Europeans = hardy and full of spirit, but lacking intelligence. Asians = intelligent & inventive but wanting in spirit. For anthropologists, the significant differences between people are attributed to culture rather than biology. Position beginning with franz boas, and continuing with critiques of race throughout.
