In response to:

Ethnocentric Studies

Striker11 Wrote: Aug 17, 2012 11:02 AM
You are right, you can separate right/wrong, good/bad from understanding different cultures. However, once you make such a judgement about another culture (cannabilsm is bad), you have left the tenets of anti-ethnocentrism. You are right, you can always take things too far, but when you can easily find glaring exceptions to a position that is a given, that position should be rejected.
Ethnocentrism is under-rated. Most college students are exposed to the concept only if they take a course in Introductory Sociology or if they should chose to major in sociology. Even then, the concept of ethnocentrism is presented as an evil to be extinguished by fostering the value of anti-ethnocentrism.

For those who are not well-versed in the language of sociology, ethnocentrism refers to the tendency to judge other cultures by the standards of one’s own culture. Since this is a natural human tendency, the task of fostering anti-ethnocentrism is difficult, to say the least. But it is also self-defeating....