ETHNOCENTRISM & CULTURAL

RELATIVISM
 Learning Objective

At the end of the discussion,

• I become aware of why and how cultural relativism

mitigates ethnocentrism

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 2
Let us begin with a period
in modern history.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 3
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 4
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 5
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 6
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 7
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 8
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 9
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 10
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 11
DISCUSSION

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 12
 Encountering other cultures

• Culture shock
– Immersion in an unfamiliar
environment causes
disorientation
– Radically different cultures
can challenge or cause us
to question our basic
assumptions
– Anomie

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
ETHNOCENTRISM

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 14
 ETYMOLOGY:
• From Ancient Greek, ἔθνος (éthnos) which
means “a company, later a people, nation”
• Centrism - A focus on, or belief in the
superiority of, one culture, people, place, or
other thing.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 15
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 16
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 17
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 18
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 19
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 20
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 21
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 22
CULTURAL RELATIVISM

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 23
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 24
 Cultural Relativism
• Evaluating a culture on
its own terms
• Learning to “see” from
the perspective of
another in order to
understand a culture
• Refraining from making
judgments of “right” and
“wrong”

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
QUIZ?

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 26