2.Intercultural Prejudices
In complex societies with large populations and many competing groups, prejudices between groups within the society may become a common element of daily experience, varying from good-natures rivalry to direct antipathies. In the United States, we may think of our own state as “God’s own country,” our politics as the only rational way of doing things or our religion as the only road to salvation.The attitude that one’s own culture is the naturally superior one, the standard by which all other cultures should be judged, and that cultures different from one’s own are inferior is such a common way of reacting to other’s customs that it is given a special name by anthropologists. Ethnocentrism, centered in one’s ethos, the Greek word for a people or a nation, is found in every culture. People allow their judgments about human nature and about the relative merits of different ways of life to be guided by ideas and values that are centered narrowly on the way of life of their own society.
Ethnocentrism serves a society by creating greater feelings of group unity. When individuals speak ethnocentrically, they affirm their loyalty to the ideals of their society and elicit in other persons of the group shared feelings of superiority about their social body. This enhances their sense of identity as members of the same society and as bearers of a common culture. A shared sense of group superiority—especially during its overt communications between group members—can help them overlook internal differences and prevent conflicts that could otherwise decrease the ability of the group to undertake effectively coordinated action.
For most human history, societies have been smaller than the nations of today, and most people have interacted only with members of their own society. Under such circumstances, the role of ethnocentrism in helping a society to survive by motivating its members to support one another in their common goals has probably outweighed its negative aspects. However, ethnocentrism definitely has a darker side. It is a direct barrier to understanding among peoples of diverse customs and values. It enhances enmity between societies and can be a motivation for conflict among peoples whose lives are guided by different cultures.
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