Spotlight on Students: Cultural Relativism vs. Ethnocentrism

 

(Image courtesy of Society for Women Engineers)

 

This post highlights the work required of my SA 202: Introduction to Anthropology students.  Students were given the opportunity to explore a different culture through two lenses, cultural relativism and ethnocentrism, and through this exercise learn about themselves and the other culture. Several students were given the opportunity to have their exemplary work featured on the blog, and the students who provided permission have their work featured here in this and the following blog posts.   Please show your appreciation for their work through the comments.

 

By: AveriAunna Batts

Culture is like an invisible force that affects every person in the world. It is an impalpable force that influences everyday decisions such as the way a person dresses, the slang language the person speaks, and how individuals interact with one another. Individuals have two ways of approaching cultures that are different from their own. A person can have a cultural relativism approach which is understanding and accepting a different culture or an ethnocentric approach which is completely rejecting a culture. Cultural relativism and Ethnocentrism are vital features in culture and open doors to understanding many cultures such as their values, morals, and ethics. Without these two approaches, Anthropologists would not know as much about culture as they do today.

Cultural relativism is defined as “the moral and intellectual principle that one should withhold judgment about seemingly strange or exotic beliefs and practices” (Welsch, 2017: 12). It is the understanding and open-mindedness of another's culture or beliefs. Cultural relativism is not only beneficial to society but is also needed for every society. Cultural relativism boosts diversity within communities which allows for many enhancements in every field of study. Without cultural relativism, the United States would not be as powerful as it is today. Allowing society to have different approaches and views on life promotes creativity which is needed for improvement in every society. Cultural relativism is essentially the complete opposite of ethnocentrism; while cultural relativism is the acceptance of a culture, ethnocentrism is the complete disregard of a culture.

Ethnocentrism is defined as “the assumption that one’s way of doing things is correct while dismissing other people’s practices or views as wrong or ignorant” (Welsch, 2017: 12). Ethnocentrism is the belief that your culture and morals are above another while being judgmental and completely disregarding every other religion or beliefs people may have. While ethnocentrism can seem like a bad thing, it can benefit society as well. Ethnocentrism in a way enhances solidarity within a society. Solidarity is the agreement between citizens within a community; this can promote fellowship within a community and cause less conflict and violence within a society.

A person with a cultural relativist approach may view the required reading as completely wrong and may even want the employees from the HR Department fired. They may question how any international applicant can have a fair chance of acquiring a placement at the job if they are constantly being compared to one another. Culture relativists may believe the HR Department should not be bothered by the way internationalists fill out their job applications; they should just understand that trying to switch two different cultures can be challenging for a person and even more for a family. America is a competitive country when it comes to applying for jobs and international applicants may want to include more information to best be considered for the job.

A person with an ethnocentric approach to the required text would probably want to ban international applicants altogether. They would believe that if international applicants cannot understand the cultural practices of an American job application than they cannot effectively carry out job responsibilities. If they consistently carry out their values, they should stay in their own country where their values are accepted and expected. Ethnocentrists could also believe that America has already undergone too many terrorist attacks, and the company in the required reading does not need a potential threat on their hands. They could also believe in regards to the text that all jobs should consider any international applicant no matter their credentials; America is perfect by itself and the “others” are just trying to corrupt and ruin its country.

Today many people are inconsiderate and do not understand the challenges foreigners face by moving to the United States. The process can be exasperating, so mistakes are bound to happen like with any other person. My empathy and understanding of internationalists fueled my reaction to the text to be more culturally relativistic. The international applicants should be unjudged for consistently making an unexplained mistake. Instead, the HR employees should have observed the mistake, and a plan should have been set up once a pattern was established amongst international applicants' mistakes. The HR employees did this. They had a great idea to help the international applicants by developing separate sections on the company’s website on how to complete the application. While their frustration can be understood, their approach to the idea is what was wrong. Morgan could have just come up with an idea to include resume expectations on their website without the judgment toward all international applicants. Overall a cultural relativist approach is healthier than an ethnocentric one. It allows for non-bias creativity and can aid in making a society, group, or community more efficient.

 

Bibliography

Anthropology Asking Questions about Human Origins, Diversity, and Culture, by Robert Louis Welsch et al., Oxford University Press, 2017, pp. 3–29.

 

By: Brooke Baldwin

When thinking of other cultures' ways of life, it is hard to not compare it to one's own way of life. Society today tends to place judgement based on a first impression of anything outside of their specific culture and set of social norms. Confronting this topic from an anthropological point of view fosters and promotes a judgement free perspective. Diversity among cultures is to be expected, and no culture is superior to the other based on how they differ from one another. In this essay I will discuss two ways to view differences among cultures. I will not only define these two different viewpoints but use them to interpret a realistic example that may occur in the workplace.

Ethnocentrism is the “tendency to view one's own culture as best and to judge the behavior and beliefs of culturally different people by one's own standards” (Gezon & Kottak, 2012, as cited by Boston, 2013:1). This relates to both women present in the given story line. These women believe that oversharing on a resume is a safety risk for an applicant. Although it is a norm from where the applicant is from to provide personal information on a resume, these women are passing judgement that this is not the correct way to submit a resume based on their experience from their own culture. Besides the judgement, Morgan also expresses frustration towards correcting the differences in the resume. Her attitude perceives that she is correcting a mistake rather than fixing a difference between social norms. Kennedy also mentioned the international applicants should “get with the program” by not including the extra information. The frustrations these women are expressing already gives an assumption that the differences in culture norms could affect that applicant’s chance of being hired.  

Cultural relativism “means that they must take the position that the values and standards of cultures differ and deserve respect” (Gezon & Kottak, 2012, as cited by Boston 2013:1). My interpretation of cultural relativism represented in this example was the ending. Morgan explained that coming from somewhere else they are accustomed to different cultural standards and expectations.  It is a social norm for them to give this information, unlike here in the United States. Then suggesting to  include some information about resume expectations on the  website. This could assist everyone, not just international applicants.  I interpreted this as Morgan trying to place herself in that applicant's viewpoint to really understand why he presented himself this way. She wanted to be more proactive in the future to ensure applicants knew what was expected and maybe some things they did not need to include in their resume. This action benefits both sides of this scenario. Rather than continuing to complain about the inconvenience, this solution respects both cultures and the expectations the company requires from applicants. 

Both of these methods we are all guilty of. Many times I find myself placing judgement on something simply because it is out of my ordinary way of life. This bad habit does not always come from a malicious intent, but is still disrespectful and should not be encouraged. This example took place in the workplace and should not be accepted. Both women used ethnocentrism when passing judgement on the applicant simply because the person followed the social norms they are used to. Not much consideration was given to the fact that there was a cultural difference between her and that applicant. Every culture has unspoken social norms to fit their society and how they live life.  It is unfair to hold someone up to your social norms that has never really been introduced to that way of life before. Morgan used cultural relativism to respect the differences between the two cultures. She stated an understanding for the reasoning for the extra information in that applicant's resume. Rather than continuing to pass judgement, she offered a resolution to fix this problem for future applicants that could benefit both U.S citizens and international. Morgan was accepting of how that culture differed from her own. In this scenario I would like to think I would react in a helpful manner as Morgan did and accept the cultural differences we may have.

In conclusion, all cultures differ from each other. It is important to show respect in how you react to those differences. No one culture has the right way of life. As an anthropologist it is important you must use ethnocentrism in your work to remain biased and respectful to that culture. 

 

References

Boston, D. (2013, January 01). How to Think like an Anthropologist: The Pitfalls of Ethnocentrism and the Advantages of Cultural Relativism. Retrieved September 09, 2020, from https://humerusrevelations.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-think-like-anthropologist.html (Links to an external site.)

 

Gezon, L and C Kottak.  2012.  Culture.  McGraw-Hill.  

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Spotlight on Students: Cultural Relativism vs. Ethnocentrism

Pictured above are various types of resumes.  Readers should be aware that resume standards vary by profession and one should consult appropriate Career Counselors to ensure they are formatting their resume appropriately for the job they are applying for.  Image source: MacGuire 2020

 

This post highlights the work required of my SA 202: Introduction to Anthropology students.  Students were given the opportunity to explore a different culture through two lenses, cultural relativism and ethnocentrism, and through this exercise learn about themselves and the other culture. Several students were given the opportunity to have their exemplary work featured on the blog, and the students who provided permission have their work featured here in this and the following blog posts.   Please show your appreciation for their work through the comments.

 

By: Ragavi Premnath

 

Everyone has their own way of doing things, whether that be texting a friend, driving on the right side of a street to your work, or submitting a resume in hopes for a new job in a new place. No matter who the person is, culture plays a huge role in an individual’s everyday actions. There are, however, differences in the way one perceives culture. Cultural relativism and ethnocentrism can have varying impacts on the ways humans interact with each other and accept what others may deem as unconventional. For example, two Human Resources employees, Morgan and Kennedy, were reviewing resumes from several job applicants who were wishing to pursue a career in America. As they were reviewing the resumes, they found one from an international applicant who shared more information than was necessary for the job, such as their religion, names of spouse and children, and a photo of themselves. This made Morgan and Kennedy’s job more difficult as they had to take the extra step to fix the resume and send it in with the proper information as a means of protecting the individual who sent in the application. Individuals who are not familiar with the proper customs of a standard American resume might send in a resume with the standards that their own culture deems proper for the job. There are surely multiple different ways to have interpreted the above scenario, but this paper is mainly intended to focus on two main interpretations: ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.

The book Anthropology: Asking Questions About Human Origins, Diversity, and Culture defines the term ethnocentrism as “[the] feeling that everyone else does things the wrong way and that our way of doing things is right” (Fuentes, Vivanco, Welsch, 36). In opposition to ethnocentrism is cultural relativism. Cultural relativism is another approach in which anthropologists view the cultures of different individuals in order to gain a better sense of the diversity that makes each individual unique. The authors of the above text define cultural relativism as the way in which “we interpret and make sense of another culture in terms of the other culture’s perspective, using their own goals, values, and beliefs rather than our own to make sense of what people say and do” (Fuentes, Vivanco, Welsch, 37).

From the above scenario, it is easy to see that both Morgan and Kennedy interpreted the international applicant’s resume in an ethnocentrism fashion. Fuentes, Vivanco, and Welsch state, “we are constantly judging their society and how it does things by our own goals, morals, and understandings, we cannot ever understand them in their own terms” (37). However international applicants may feel about the correctness of their resume, ethnocentrism stands as an obstacle to accepting other cultural methods of writing resumes in America. Such characteristics of ethnocentrism bring about a feeling of frustration to those who have a hard time understanding other cultures, such as the two Human Resources employees, and often will direct judgement towards those that cannot easily accustom themselves to the American norm. Anthropology: Asking Questions About Human Origins, Diversity, and Culture claims, “we do things-or think things out-in the “right” way and everybody else thinks and does everything incorrectly” (Fuentes, Vivanco, Welsch, 36). Both individuals failed to understand where the international applicant was coming from and immediately felt anger towards the applicant who had no idea that their resume was considered inappropriate in American culture.

 In a new perspective, Morgan and Kennedy could have behaved in a culturally relativistic manner to the international applicant’s resume. Instead of feeling frustrated and making comments about the resume, Morgan and Kennedy would have then proceeded to make the changes necessary to the resume and update their website with the required information needed on resumes from everyone in order to help those outside of American cultures fill in a proper resume structure. Fuentes, Vivanco, and Welsch claim, “no group of people is homogeneous, so it is impossible to judge an entire culture based on the actions or beliefs of a few” (37). Therefore, in this instance it is impossible to judge the entire country based on the international applicant’s submission. They also state, “understanding another culture in its own terms does not mean that the anthropologist accepts and defends all the things people do”  (Fuentes, Vivanco, Welsch, 37). This is a true fact given that Morgan and Kennedy still needed to go forth and make changes to the international resume for proper submission. In a culturally relativistic manner, both can carry out this task perhaps with an empathetic demeanor instead.

After viewing both interpretations of this scenario, I can conclude that either interpretation could be valid based on the given situation and setting. As a student of Hindu faith and having grown up in America for most of my life, I can understand the frustration that Morgan and Kennedy faced upon reviewing the load of resumes although it did seem a little rude. At the same time, I can also understand how applicants who are not familiar with the resume process might submit something that is not generally accepted but will not quite know that it is incorrect. If I were either of the two human resource employees I probably would not have been as frustrated as they were, but I would have proceeded to fix the resume issue and then would lodge a complaint to the head of the department to update our website with accurate resume information. By doing this I would have been impressing a culturally relativistic approach upon the situation. If I were to portray an ethnocentric manner, I would have probably sent the resume back with a note saying to fix the document with the necessary information. This would not be an accurate representation of my actual behavior, but it is rather a suggestion of what it could be. Overall, ethnocentric and culturally relativistic interpretations take place in our everyday lives in any action that we choose to take.

Work Cited

Agustin Fuentes, Luis A. Vivanco, Robert L. Welsch. Anthropology: Asking Questions About Human Origins, Diversity, and Culture (1st ed., pg. 36, 37). Oxford University Press, 2017.