This document provides an overview of cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, and xenocentrism. It discusses how cultural relativism is important for cultural understanding and avoiding ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is the view that one's own culture is superior, while cultural relativism recognizes that different cultures should be understood on their own terms rather than judged. The document also briefly discusses xenocentrism, which is the opposite view that other cultures are superior to one's own.

1. UCSP Week 3
Marie Joy Trinidad

3. Reminders
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4. CONCEPTS, ASPECTS & CHANGES IN
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
GOAL
 Explain the importance of
cultural relativism in
attaining cultural
understanding.
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5. WALK THRU

13. CHECKLIST

14. Review

15. Picture Analysis

18. CULTURAL
RELATIVISM AND
ETHNOCENTRISM

19. Lets Begin
Ethnocentrism
Xenocentrism
Cultural Relativism

20. Ethnocentrism
(My culture is
better than
yours)
 When people find cultural practices and
values not their own as disturbing and
threatening, that can be regarded as
ethnocentrism.
 A literal meaning of ethnocentrism is the
regard that one’s culture and society is the
center of everything and therefore far more
superior than others (Kottak 2012:39;
Eriksen 2001:7)

21. Ethnocentrism
(My culture is
better than
yours)
 It is understandable that people laud and hold
importance to the cultural values that were taught them
by their parents, elders, and other institutions of their
society.
 The problem is when a person or groups of people
regard their own society’s set of cultural values as the
only agreeable, acceptable, and highly respectable set of
convictions.
 Such a perspective can harden into “Chauvinism”, a
position that everything about the other culture is
wrong, unreasonable, detestable, and even wicked.
 From this perspective, the practices and institutions of
people from other societies are regarded as inferior, less
intelligent, and even vicious.
 An ethnocentric attitude can be an obstacle to
understanding each other culture and foster tensions
within or between societies.

22. Ethnocentrism
(My culture is
better than
yours)
 Moreover, perhaps everyday statements reflect our attitude that our
culture is best.
 We often use term such as underdeveloped, backward, and primitive
to refer to other societies.
 It is very easy and tempting to evaluate certain practices of other
cultures on the basis of our perspectives.
 William Graham Summer coined one’s culture and way of life are
superior to others.
 An ethnocentric person views his own group as the center of culture
and sees all other cultures as deviations from what is “normal”.
 The factionists note that ethnocentrism serves to maintain a sense pf
solidarity to promoting group pride.
 This type of social attitude and stability is established as the expense
of other people.

23. Xenocentrism
(Your culture is
better than
mine)
• Xenocentrism is a culturally-
based tendency to value other
cultures more highly than
one’s own, which can
materialize in a variety of
different ways.

24. Xenocentrism
(Your culture is
better than
mine)
In the United States, for
instance, it is often
assumed that European
products such as wine and
cheese are superior to
those produced locally.

25. Xenocentrism
(Your culture is
better than
mine)
 In a more extreme sense, some cultures
may idolize other cultures, such as the
Japanese anime genre idolizing American
beauty in its art, wherein it emphasizes
such features as large eyes, angular jaws,
and light skin.

26. Xenocentrism
(Your culture is
better than
mine)
 Xenocentrism serves as an antithesis to
ethnocentrism, wherein a person believes
his or her culture and its goods and
services are superior to that of all other
cultures and people.

27. Xenocentrism
(Your culture is
better than
mine)
 Xenocentrism relies instead on a
fascination with others' culture and a
contempt for one's own, often spurred by
gross injustice of government, antiquated
ideologies, or oppressive religious
majorities.

28. Cultural
Relativism
(Our culture is
different but
that’s ok)
 The concept of cultural relativism
underscores the idea that the “culture
in every society should be understood
and regarded on its own terms”.
 Societies are qualitatively different
from one another, such that each one
has its own “unique logic” (Eriksen
2001:14).
 Cultural traits can only be known and
valued in the context of the society by
which they emerged and are practiced.
 Cultural relativism promotes the idea
that a society has to be viewed from
the inside so that inner logic can be
better explained.

29. Cultural
Relativism
(Our culture is
different but
that’s ok)
 Moreover, appreciating and accepting the
uniqueness of one society’s cultural trait does
not mean that universal human moral traits of
right and wrong no longer apply.
 For instance, cultural traits that promote
subjugation of women by hurting or killing them
to do not necessarily mean that they are right
by virtue of one society’s inner logic.
 There are underlying patterns of human
cultural traits that are common and universally
acceptable to humanity.
 The violent subjugation and elimination of
human life or traits are broadly unacceptable to
the rest of humanity.
 Through a relativist approach consciously
balanced by a universalist understanding of
what is humanely acceptable, the dangers of
ethnocentrism can be addressed.

30. Cultural
Relativism
(Our culture is
different but
that’s ok)
 It is necessary to view cultural variations
with as assumption that one’s own culture
is more “civilized” humans, and more
advanced than others.
 While ethnocentrism evaluates foreign
cultures using the familiar culture of the
observer as a frame of reference as a
standard of correct behavior, cultural
relativism views people behavior from the
perspective of their own culture.
 It places a priority on understanding other
cultures, rather than dismissing them as
“strange”. Unlike ethnocentrism, cultural
relativism is the kind of value neutrality.

31. Cultural
Relativism
(Our culture is
different but
that’s ok)
 Cultural relativism stresses that
different social contexts give rise of
polygamy, bullfighting, cockfighting
and kissing of hands of elders are
examined in the contexts of cultures
in which they are found.
 While cultural relativism does not
suggest that we must unquestionably
accept every form of behavior
characteristics of a values, beliefs, and
customs in the light of distinctive
culture of which they are a part.

32. Wrap up
 Each culture is different.
 Culture is formed by many factors in a
span of many years.
 Expecting other culture to be the same as
yours is unfeasible as every culture is
unique.
 There is beauty in the uniqueness of
different cultures
 Imagine if everyone is the same, what
would our world look like?

33. Performance Task (Group Activity)

34. Rubrics

35. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

36. Don’t forget
 Quiz on October 23, 2020

37. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC