Ethnocentrism within Anthropology

Ethnocentrism within Anthropology
Introduction
Cultural anthropology is a subject which is important in collecting data about people’s lifestyles. Ethnocentrism is also a wide subject in the study of human beings. Several arguments have been made in regard to the relationship between ethnocentrism and cultural anthropology. This article tries to explain those relationships in detail in order to allow clear understanding of those relationships.
Cultural anthropology and ethnocentrism
Cultural anthropology in a branch of anthropology that is concerned with the study of cultural variations among human beings, evaluating information about consequence of global economic and political processes on local cultural occurrences. It involves the study of culture, beliefs, practices and values, ideas and technologies. On the other hand, ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s group has a mode of living, values, and patterns of adaptation that are more recognized than those of other groups. It involves general contempt for other groups. It can manifest itself in attitudes of superiority and occasionally hostility By means of a variety of a variety of theoretical approaches and research methods; it has been possible for anthropologists to study cultures of people in any part of the world. These include both industrial and post-industrial societies, (Ferraro 15).
Humans acquire culture through learning and enculturation and socialization, different cultures are developed by people living in different parts of environments. This is linked with ethnocentrism which may involve violence, discrimination and verbal aggressiveness against the living values of other groups. Thus, ethnocentrism can be defined as making of false assumptions about other groups of people based on our limited experience. This also allows people to adapt to their environment in non-genetic ways. Consequently, people living in different environments will have different cultures. American anthropologists focused on the ways people expressed themselves in their surroundings in terms of symbols such as art and myths. The two approaches interlinked and complemented each other. For example, kinship and leadership function both as symbolic systems and social institutions. Ethnocentrism has an impact on individuals by making us believe that our race or group is the only one that we do not see past our own values. This prevents us from interacting freely with other people. People who are ethnocentric do not even know that they are experiencing it, (Hubinger 58).
Currently, almost all socio-cultural anthropologists refer to the work of both predecessors and are interested in what people do and say, (Ferraro 15). Ethnocentrism is also found in many multinationals. This is the belief that certain goods produced by certain companies are less superior to the goods produced locally. It also involves the belief that imported goods are less helpful to a country compared with locally pr...