What is Ethnocentrism? | History of Filipino

 

Original Photo by https://pages.vassar.edu/realarchaeology/2013/09/22/ethnocentrism-in-archaeology/

Ethnocentrism is a belief that one’s own culture is better than others. They tend to compare, evaluate, and even judge other people’s ways based on the values and standards set in one’s own culture. Their worldview is based on the beliefs, assumptions, expectations, and values shaped by one’s language, behavior, customs, values, religions and other aspects.

Due to ethnocentric beliefs, many people are blinded from seeing things in another perspective. Ethnocentric people tend to dislike or make false judgment on other cultures. They tend becoming biased and judge another culture as bad and wrong.

Even though we deny it, most of us are ethnocentric at some point in our lives. Some do not even realize that they are being ethnocentric at that moment. Below are some of the examples of ethnocentrism:

• The American society sees themselves as a world leader. As a result, they interfere in the political affairs of other countries and try to control them, leading to misunderstanding and miscommunication amongst nations which sometimes result to war.
• During the time of Adolf Hitler, Germans believed that they are a superior race. This led to the death of 6 million Jews whom they considered as an inferior race.
• European countries go beyond their ethnocentric biases and saw nonEuropean cultures as uncivilized and underdeveloped countries of savages and barbarians. They used this perspective to justify colonialism and imperialism.
• Cases of hate crimes and terrorism violence can usually be traced back to religious conflicts and misunderstandings.