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: Gavin Granberry
Throughout history many cultures have created different values, norms, and customs that have shaped their societies. They all have made ways and rules in which they use to navigate life. In addition, many people take pride in the ways in which they were raised and choose to live, but they sometimes go too far. They begin to think offensively about other cultures compared to theirs and they truly can not obtain the joy that such a diverse world provides. They are not able to gain a perspective of beauty that comes with being culturally relative and instead are being ethnocentric.
For example, a group of friends goes out to a party for the night and one of them, Wes, meets someone, Sakura, who happens to be Japanese. Wes proceeds to ask her out and she replies “maybe another time”. Afterwards Wes mentions his interaction to his friends and expresses his excitement of a possible future date. Wes’s friend Charlie responds by stating “Not necessarily. It is rude for Japanese people to deny any request, even if they do not want to do something.” Wes then becomes irate and wonders why Sakura was not forthright with him. In the end, Charlie reminds his friend, “Many women are afraid to turn down requests because of the backlash they could receive” and “Reactions like yours do not help them feel any safer or encourage them to be more direct.” All in all, the way Wes reacted could have definitely been different and that is what this essay intends to address.
The website Difference Between states ethnocentrism is the perspective “that your culture is the ideal, and that no other culture is more acceptable and right than your culture” (Julita, “difference between”). Furthermore, the website says that cultural relativism is “the concept of understanding different cultures and respecting their own beliefs” (Julita, “difference between”). With that being said, Wes’s response was definitely ethnocentric. Plus, his friend Charlie represented a more culturally relative perspective, which caused him to address Wes’s actions. Wes was not able to understand that Sakura was being polite rather than teasing him. He saw Sakura's actions as weird and did not attempt to give her the benefit of the doubt. He took a stance of superiority over Sakura’s practices. He embodied ethnocentrism by dismissing her point of view and deeming it wrong and bogus.
On the other hand, a culturally relativistic way Wes could have gone about it would be by taking a moment and removing his bias from the situation. He would have then taken a moment and considered the Japanese way of thinking Charlie presented. Therefore, instead of being irritated by the lack of clarity in her response he would have made it a moment to learn and fully consider his own views. Wes could have seen the consideration of his feelings on Sakura's behalf and the extra protection a custom like that provides to his female counterparts.
In conclusion, I personally do not understand Wes’s perspective. He was crass and entitled for feeling as if he even deserved a response. In all honesty, he somewhat made the situation worse than it was due to his closed mindedness. As someone who loves history and culture, I do not think I would have been so quick to judge. Plus, I would have listened to my friend and considered that I could be in the wrong. Overall, I always take an opportunity to learn something new and I would never pass on the chance to see the beauty from a culturally relativistic view.
Bibliography
Julita. “Difference Between Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism.” Difference Between Similar Terms and Objects, 20 Oct. 2011, www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/culture-miscellaneous/difference-between-cultural-relativism-and-ethnocentrism/.
By: Keira Robinson
As humans we all have natural reactions to actions, foods, objects, or anything that differs from our norms. These could either be positive or negative, judgmental or accepting. Each person has their norms based on their culture and what they have grown to be familiar with. Culture is shared by groups of people who share the same beliefs as one another (Merriam-Webster). People perceive other cultures outside of their own in their own way based on their cultural relativistic and their ethnocentric reactions. For example, in the prompt Wes attempted to ask out Sakura, a Japanese exchange student, on a date. She said she would possibly have a date with him another time and Wes goes back to the group of friends and said he is definitely going out with her sometime in the future. Another friend Charlie states how it is actually rude in their culture for Japanese people to deny a request even if they do not want to do it. After hearing this, Wes gets angry and believes that she should have just been honest instead. Charlie then explains that some women could be afraid of saying no because of reactions that certain men could have towards the word no and how his friend's reaction most likely did not help her feel safe. From this prompt this paper will focus on the culturally relativistic and ethnocentric interpretations.
Cultural relativism is defined as “the principle of regarding and valuing the practices of a culture from the point of view of that culture and to avoid making hasty judgments” (Lavigne, Romero, Worthy, 20). This helps promote an understanding of different cultural beliefs or actions that may be different to another, which requires one to be open to the experience and perspective. It is important to understand that people in other countries or cultures may eat different animals, have different traditions, and more and that is okay. One should attempt to learn, not judge. Ethnocentrism is completely the opposite of cultural relativism. Ethnocentrism “is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one’s own culture” (Lavigne, Romero, Worthy, 20). This is harmful and promotes negativity towards other cultures that are not one's own. This also stems from the fact that one believes that their own culture is better than another. It creates untrue assumptions and it dismisses other practices or views them as wrong instead of coming from a desire to learn.
From the prompt it is easy to tell that Wes had an ethnocentric reaction. Once he found out that in Sakura’s culture it is rude for Japanese people to deny a request he immediately got angry, stating “that’s crap” in a heated rage. From this reaction it is noticeable that Wes is possibly not used to this understanding that culturally the word no could be rude. Instead of seeing it as Sakura being nice by not openly denying him, he sees it as her “stringing” him along. The fact that Wes had this reaction demonstrates an ethnocentric reaction from him as he immediately puts his guard up and is not accepting of a different culture's point of view and reasoning behind it.
Charlie had a culturally relativistic reaction. Charlie was the one to explain that it is actually rude for Japanese people to deny any request, and although they may not want to do it, they may still say they are open to the request simply because it would be considered rude otherwise. Charlie is also the one to try and calm down Wes after his negative reaction towards that information. Charlie gives reasons for why Sakura could have left it as an open-ended answer, noting that she could possibly be scared to turn down the request because of negative reactions that she could possibly receive. This ultimately makes Charlie have a culturally relativistic reaction for he is understanding of the different culture and accepting of it.
After evaluating the prompt my initial reaction is more of a culturally relativistic reaction. In the prompt I learned to understand that in Japanese culture saying no is considered rude. Also it may be safer to say the word no in certain circumstances. From an ethnocentric point of view I do not necessarily believe that the word no is rude because I was not raised to believe so but I completely understand Sakura and the Japanese culture's reasoning behind it. The reason for safety issues is something I feel that many women all across the world could relate to for the fact that women are often afraid to tell a man no simply because of the fact that there could be negative reactions that could harm them. From experience, there a men that do not accept the word no and will keep pressuring for a date, sex, or anything else. By Sakura saying maybe she is putting more protection on her in case she were to get the wrong reaction. From this understanding I am displaying a more culturally relativistic reaction because I am willing to relate and learn how she feels and how her beliefs are from her culture.
Overall, each individual has their own culture and differences in the way one partakes in everyday life. This prompt is just one of many different examples. People can be judgmental of anything out of their norm and although it is a natural reaction, it is up to the individual to be willing to learn. Each person partakes in a reaction whether it is ethnocentrism or culturally relativistic and these interpretations could be a time of educating and acceptance or negative and dismissive.
Works Cited
Fernado Romero, L.D. Worthy, Trisha Lavigne. “Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism.” Culture and Psychology, MMOER, 27 July 2020.
“Culture.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster.
