Why is it important to know the difference between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Cultural relativism is the opposite of ethnocentrism; which states that no culture should be judged based on the standards of another.

Answer 2

Cultural Relativism: The belief that the value systems of different cultures cannot be measured by the value systems of a different culture.

Ethnocentrism: The belief that one ethnic group or nation (usually the one of the speaker) is superior to others and that its values and actions are superior.

Answer 2

The two philosophies are actually quite different.

Ethnocentrism: The belief that one ethnic group or nation (usually the one of the speaker) is superior to others and that its values and actions are superior. -- Example: The British believed when they were conquering their empire in Africa and Asia that their religion, political views, and understanding of the world were inherently superior to the peoples they conquered.

Cultural Relativism: The belief that the value systems of different cultures cannot be measured by the value systems of a different culture. -- Example: If one culture presses criminal charges against a rapist for committing a rape and another culture presses charges against the rape victim for allowing herself to be raped, these are both acceptable value systems that come from different cultures.

Answer 3

Answer 1

Cultural relativism is understanding other cultures and their beliefs. For example what seems normal to one culture may seem offensive to another. ex: like china eats dogs and in America keeps them as pets. Ethnocentrism is the belief that your country is the best and your culture is the best and your right and other cultures are wrong.

Answer 2

Ethnocentrism: Evaluating other people from one's own vantage-point and describing them in one's own terms.

Cultural Relativism: Partially the opposite to Ethnocentrism. It asks one to evaluate a culture from the aspect of people of that culture.

Answer 4

It is important to know the difference because they are fundamentally different philosophies. The former stresses that the values, culture, and genetics of one society are superior to all others while the other is the view that all cultures and values cannot be judged relative to each other. If a person is ethnocentrist, they cannot be a cultural relativist except between cultures that are not part of the "superior culture". If a person is a true cultural relativist, they cannot prize any aspect of their own society and cannot, therefore, be an ethnocentrist.

Of course, both positions are ridiculous. While it is improper to weight different ethnic groups against one another, there are certain values and behaviors that we can demonstrate to be superior to other values and behaviors, through the various indicia of well-being. Sacrificing humans is clearly an inferior behavior and educating humans is clearly a superior behavior based on this simple evaluation.

Answer 5

The two philosophies are extremely different, the only thing that they share is that they purport to answer the question: "Which culture is superior?", even though they both have different answers to this question.

Ethnocentrism: The belief that one ethnic group or nation (usually the one of the speaker) is superior to others and that its values and actions are superior. -- Example: The British believed when they were conquering their empire in Africa and Asia that their religion, political views, and understanding of the world were inherently superior to the peoples they conquered.

Cultural Relativism: The belief that the value systems of different cultures cannot be measured by the value systems of a different culture. -- Example: If one culture presses criminal charges against a rapist for committing a rape and another culture presses charges against the rape victim for allowing herself to be raped, these are both acceptable value systems that come from different cultures.

Answer 6

Cultural Relativism is the moral philosophy. Multiculturalism is its political enactment.