E T H N O C E N T R I S M

T S C I T I L O P

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A N T H R O P O L O G Y

 The we are about to undergo which we all know is called “Understanding

Culture, Society, and Politics.

 This subject cover 3 bodies of knowledge which follows: Anthropology,

Sociology and Political Science.

 What is anthropology? It is the study of human societies and cultures and

their development. This study is important when you are incorporating a person’s
behaviour which reflects the culture and/or norms of the society where they
belong. If you want to further your studies in anthropology, there you will
understand why the elderly terribly disapprove cutting your nails in the evening,
and sleeping while you still got a wet hair.

 In the other hand, sociology the study of the development, structure, and
functioning of human society. This will explain why a certain person act with such
 behaviour which is elicited by their society, structure of the local community and
the people that influences a person’s behaviour and attitude.

 Last but not the least is the ever controversial politics which is covered by
political science. This body of knowledge will help you understand the different
important events that took place in the Republic of the Philippines. The infamous
1973 declaration of Martial law under the Proclamation no. 1081 of the 1973
constitution.

 This three bodies of knowledge will help you all know, understand and
appreciate the nation where you belong.

KINDLY CHECK Chapter 1 the Proponents…

 Ethnocentrism is when you refused to bow when greeting a Japanese friend,

insisting on shaking hands instead, you'd be displaying your ethnocentrism, or
your belief that your own culture is superior to others.
 Ethnocentric thinking causes us to make wrong assumptions about other people
because . . .
 Ethnocentrism leads us to make premature judgments.

 "They" may not be very good at what we are best at.

 By evaluating "them" by what we are best at, we miss the many other aspects of life
that they often handle more competently than we do.
Ethnocentrism leads us to make false assumptions about cultural differences. We are ethnocentric
when we use our cultural norms to make generalizations about other peoples' cultures and customs.
Such generalizations -- often made without a conscious awareness that we've used our culture as a
universal yardstick -- can be way off base and cause us to misjudge other peoples. Ethnocentrism can
lead to cultural misinterpretation and it often distorts communication between human beings.

Some very simple examples of ethnocentric thinking. . .

We often talk about British drivers driving "on the wrong side" of the road. Why not just say
"opposite side" or even "left hand side"?
We talk about written Hebrew as reading "backward." Why not just say "from right to left" or
"in the opposite direction from English."
We encourage SNU students going on short-term missions to use the phrase "Oh, that's
different" rather than more pejorative terms when encountering strange customs or foods.
Xenocentrism
The opposite of ethnocentrism is xenocentrism which means preferring ideas and things from
other cultures over ideas and things from your own culture. At the heart of xenocentrism is an
assumption that other cultures are superior to your own.