Ethnocentrism And Cultural Relativity Essay example -- essays research

It is always troublesome non to understand an early(a) culture, especially, in New York City where we live in a society that is rapidly changing. The City has increasingly brought people of various cultures, to interact closer with severally another(prenominal). This interaction can be either demonstrable or banish depending on the level of sensitivity and respect people have for other culture groups. These two types of behaviors are related to two important concepts know as ethnocentrism and cultural relativity.Ethnocentrism is the attitude of prejudice or mistrust towards outsiders that whitethorn exist within a group (in-group) in relation to other (out-group). (Harper-Collin Dictionary of Sociology). Importantly, there are also three levels of ethnocentrism a positive one, a negative one, and an extreme negative one. The positive definition defines ethnocentrism as the point of view that ones own way of smell is to be preferred to all others (Herskovits 1973 21). There i s nothing wrong with such feelings, because it characterizes the way most individuals feel about their own cultures, whether or not they verbalize their feelings (Herskovits 197321). It is this point of view that gives people their sense of people-hood, group identity, and settle in history. Ethnocentrism becomes negative when ones own group becomes the refer of everything, and all other are scaled and rated with reference to it(Herskovits 197321). It reaches extreme negative form when a more powerful group not only(prenominal) i...