Cultural relativism" can mean several different things, and much of the debate over its desirability

can be traced to this ambiguity. Descriptive cultural relativism is basically undeniable: Cultures do, in
fact, differ in their social and moral norms. But normative culture relativism is not as obviously true: It
isn't clear how, if at all, our treatment of people in different cultures should vary based on their
culture's norms. So the normative sense of cultural relativism that says we ought to judge other
people by the standards of their own culture could be right, but isn't necessarily.

There is also methodological cultural relativism, which is a method that many sociologists and
anthropologists use to sort of temporarily suspend judgment about other cultures until they get all the
facts in. This is probably a good thing, but it's a very weak sense of relativism; in the end they still go
home and publish in Western academic journals according to Western cultural norms. It doesn't
even require any particular relativism: You can just have the norm in your own culture that you don't
judge other cultures until all the facts are in.

"Ethnocentrism" can also be an ambiguous word. It normally means something quite negative---the
tendency to view people of your own culture as inherently superior and people of other cultures as
inherently inferior. It frequently results in hatred and even violence. But sociologists also use
"ethnocentrism" in a sort of technical sense, to mean simply that we judge people of other cultures by
the standards of our own culture. This latter is not obviously wrong---one culture's ideas can in fact
be more correct than another's, and it may turn out that we happen to live in the culture that has the
best ideas.

I think a key point to keep in mind here is that it matters why you are using the moral standards you
are. Is it simply because you grew up with them, and never questioned them? That is probably
ethnocentrism. But have you actually analyzed those norms, challenged them, confronted them with
evidence, and yet they still held up? Then what you are doing is definitely not the negative kind of
ethnocentrism, though it may be "ethnocentrism" in this broader more technical sense.

Indeed, it's not clear that the strongest form of normative cultural relativism is even coherent. Most
cultures are not cultural relativists; that is, most people in most cultures do not think that one should
judge others only by the standards of the others' own culture. They think that their standards are the
objectively correct ones that everyone should use. So in order to be a cultural relativist, you need to
judge people only by their own culture, but the only culture that actually tells you to do that is your
own culture, namely the subculture of Western academic sociologists. So you are in the end still
judging based on your own culture, and you are still faced with the question of why your culture's
norms are better than anyone else's. Or in fact you could justify being an imperialist, because
Western culture has a historical tradition of imperialism and you could simply be acting according to
the norms of your own culture---so how can anyone judge you as wrong?

Yet I understand where normative cultural relativism comes from; it is an attempt to respond to, and
in some sense atone for, the extreme violence and destruction created by colonialism and
imperialism. One of the things that our imperialist forebears did was judge other people based on
their own culture, so if we don't do that, maybe we won't be imperialists! But that doesn't actually
follow. That wasn't what made them imperialists, and indeed getting rid of it doesn't necessarily stop
us from being imperialists.

A much better approach in my opinion is the concept of universal human rights. By a gathering of
global consensus (or something close to consensus), we have established global human rights
principles such as those set down in the UN Charter. These are rights that everyone agrees
everyone should have. Furthermore, these rights are precisely the sort of rights that explain what is
wrong with colonialism and imperialism. What made our forebears imperialists was not that they
judged according to their own culture, but that they violated (what we now recognize as) universal
human rights. Yet ironically many cultural relativists actually oppose universal human rights, arguing
that they are somehow imposing Western values on everyone else---something that I think many of
the people from non-Western cultures who helped design and ratify the UN Charter may find
baffling.
. ETHNOCENTRISM Ethnocentrism is judging another culture based upon the values and standards set in one's own
culture. It is a form of bias, where we tend to immediately judge another culture as 'bad' or 'wrong' based upon their actions,
if their values are not aligned with our own beliefs. We all do it, some time or the other, mostly not even realizing that we're
being ethnocentric at that moment.
. 3. Example 1: Terrorism and Hate Crimes Terrorism and hate crimes take place when one religion or community believes
that it is superior, and better than any other religion or community. Ethnocentrism tends to blind people from seeing things
from another perspective― just because another community does something that yours doesn't― like a particular style of
worship, for instance, doesn't make it inferior to yours, and nor does it make the other community's style of worshiping
incorrect.
. 4. Example 2: In Business Though it is easy to assume that ethnocentrism affects only the lesser- educated, less aware
people in the world, it is not really true. Ethnocentrism can be seen on a large scale in business, and at the workplace. For
instance, an employee may refer to his client as a 'moron' if the client needed some time to understand whatever the
employee was trying to tell him. A business owner might yell at his foreign employees and call them stupid because of their
different races, cultures, or values that are different from the boss'.
. 5. Example 3: In American Society The popular belief among American ethnocentric people is that their country, culture,
values, development, and everything else is superior to every other nation in the world, and that every other nation is inferior
to the United States. This belief has led to political meddling among the matters of other countries, leading to
misunderstandings and miscommunication between different countries in the world.
. 6. Example 4: Ethnocentrism and Culture Every culture on earth tends to impart ethnocentrism, albeit unintentionally.
Various aspects of culture such as mythological tales, folktales, legends, religion, songs, proverbs, language, rituals, etc.
promote the superiority of that one culture over others. Though this is an unintentional kind of promotion of ethnocentrism,
it instills the belief that 'my race/my culture' is really better than the rest, in so many ways in most of us, especially during
childhood or teenage.
. 7. CULTURAL RELATIVISM Cultural relativism refers to not judging a culture to our own standards of what is right or
wrong, strange or normal. Instead, we should try to understand cultural practices of other groups in its own cultural context.
For example, instead of thinking, “Fried crickets are disgusting! ” one should instead ask, “Why do some cultures eat fried
insects?”.
. 8. Categories ABSOLUTE: Everything that happens within a culture must and should not be questioned by outsiders.
Example: Nazi party’s point of view justifying the Holocaust. CRITICAL: Creates questions about cultural practices in terms
of who is accepting them and why. It also recognizes power relationships.
. 9. Examples In some homes, women are confined to the kitchen and are proud to play their roles in such a setting while in
some set-ups, women are encouraged to leadership and engage in what would be considered “men’s fields.”
. 10. Examples Many cultures where Islam is the predominant faith, a more thorough covering of the body is expected than
in other cultures. What constitutes breakfast varies widely from place to place. What is considered a typical breakfast in
Turkey, as illustrated in the above image, is quite different from what is considered a typical breakfast in the U.S. or Japan.
While it might seem strange to eat fish soup or stewed vegetables for breakfast in the U.S., in other places, this is perfectly
normal. Conversely, our tendency toward sugary cereals and milk or preference for egg sandwiches loaded with bacon and
cheese would seem quite bizarre to other cultures.
. 11. SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ETHNOCENTRISM AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM Both these
viewpoints or concepts present extremist views, i.e. while ethnocentrism leans towards intolerance, cultural relativism leans
towards incredibly high tolerance of cultural features. Both views present negative connotations. Ethnocentrism in its
extreme form gives rise to and supremacist, while cultural relativism allows the propagation of certain practices that basic
human rights In terms of sensitivity, ethnocentrism is insensitive to other cultures, while cultural relativism shows high
cultural sensitivity. These views involve examining a culture and all its aspects and evaluating them. The basis for evaluation
differs according to the view employed.
. 12. REFERENCES https://opinionfront.com/examples-of-ethnocentrism-to-help-you-understand- it-better
https://opinionfront.com/similarities-difference-between-cultural-relativism- ethnocentrism