Ethnocentrism - We’re Living in Our World

 

‘The world doesn’t revolve around you.’ How many times have we heard that statement? Either in passing or directed at us, it simply isn’t true. The world revolves around us. Our culture, our food, our language, our traditions; those are all we know. And because those are all we know, we often end up looking down on other cultures, however subtly, and we believe there couldn’t possibly be anything better than us, could there?

At one point or the other, everyone has scoffed at authentic Chinese cuisine. The Indian-adapted version is great, sure, but frog? Snakes? How revolting, I could never imagine eating that! The food in the West is so bland, haven’t they ever heard of spices? And the French eat snails; how many noses have been turned up at that? We all say that the Indian accent isn’t really an accent, in fact, we’re the only ones without one. When imitating other dialects, we say, ‘Okay, now go back to speaking normally.’ ‘Normal’ is subjective, though, isn’t it? Because in the U.S, it ­would be an Indian accent, and their way of enunciation would be ‘normal’. Why? We’ve grown up in an environment where we were never exposed to other cultures, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that the environment encourages us to remain close minded as we grow up. 

Growing up in an environment that leads us to believe our way of living is the only one is called ‘ethnocentrism’. It’s the belief that our culture is superior to others, and holding it as a standard to which we judge other cultures, often resulting in a negative view of them.

For those who live near the beach, it might be baffling as to why people travel for hours over the weekend just to catch a glimpse of the waves. Parisians may gawk at the tourists gawking at the Eiffel Tower, because to them, it’s just as common as the pigeon on the sidewalk. Taking off our shoes before entering the house is a common practice in India; but in the Western countries, it’s acceptable to sit on the bed without taking them off. Things that are normal to us are often anomalies to everyone else.

Ethnocentrism in the form of squabbling over which cuisine is superior, or which accent is sillier, is harmless, but true to human nature, judgment is never far off, and it leads to the Europeans labelling Indians as ‘savages’ for eating with their hands.

Patriotism and nationalism are cool. But, EXTREME NATIONALISM, not so much. Ethnocentrism, at its extreme, means believing one culture to be so superior that other cultures must succumb to it, and if they don’t, an ultimatum is issued and borders crossed. Sound familiar?

The entirety of the world wars, the Cold War, and much before that, all stemmed from ethnocentrism taken a bit too far.

The high-and-mighty British sailed on over in their ships and essentially told us it was our purpose to serve them because, well, we weren’t Europeans, and we actually knew how to farm (and they were jealous). Actually, they did this all over the world. And their only excuse was that we were ‘inferior’ and ‘uneducated’, because we didn’t know their language, or follow their religion. The sun rose and set on the British empire. Well, there was a time when it never set on the British empire, but that proves my point.

Imperialism is an amazingly apt example of ethnocentrism. Another example, even though it may be a bit on the nose, is racism.

The Whites looked at the Africans and thought, ‘Hey, that’s something I’d like to buy! As an object. Because it’s different from me, it’s obviously inferior, and that gives me the right to treat it however I want.’  The perception that one race was automatically better because of a difference in skin color was what led to years of slavery and atrocities committed against a community whose only crime was having a different skin tone.

In World War two, the Germans’ main driving force was the eradication of Jews, however crass that sounds. Hitler encouraged the spread of the propaganda that the Aryan race was superior in every sense, and that anyone who went against their culture had to be put to death. The belief that their culture was the only one that was ‘right’, and all others were inferior, was the leading factor of one of the world’s largest genocides that haunts us to this day. It was ethnocentrism at its worst.

In fact, ethnocentrism was extremely prominent during this period of unrest in the world. The military intelligence tests developed for recruiting soldiers were largely developed on the assumption that they would be used on white soldiers, so when they were administered on black soldiers, the scores ended up being on the lower side, which led to the still prevalent stereotype that black people have less than average intelligence.  

Ethnocentrism on a large scale can clearly be seen when we reflect upon the Cold War, which if broken down to its barest bones can be described as ‘my ideology versus yours.’ The American culture of capitalism against the Russian culture of communism led to nearly four decades of worldwide tensions and the threat of nuclear destruction. Each side viewed the other as a threat because their views were differing, and they needed to come out on top. The Cold War was just as much a clash of ideologies as it was of egos. Neither side backed down because they knew their culture was superior, and the others would concede eventually.

Ethnocentrism often leads to the idea that different equals inferior, which gives rise to a superiority complex that is almost solely responsible for our colorful history texts.

It’s not all bad, though. Like everything, when used in moderation, it has quite a few positive aspects. It encourages patriotism and a healthy pride in one’s culture and heritage, and a sense of unity within communities, and can increase self-esteem when we are around like-minded people.

Ethnocentrism allows us to stay in touch with our roots, we only need to be careful so as not to dig so deep that we end up uprooting others.

 

About the author

Dev Ranade

Member of the PsyCreative Column,

First-year, B.Sc. Applied Psychology student, SDSOS, NMIMS.

Dev Ranade is an aspiring research psychologist who has been writing since a young age. He writes poetry, fantasy, horror, and blogs on topics of interest, such as social psychology, ethics and morality, and sharks. He is a student in his first year at NMIMS, residing in Mumbai, Maharashtra.