The Shrew's Dinomeetay ideas: April 2011

Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's group, or culture is superior to everybody else's. One believes that their way is the only way. Cultural Relativism is where you think that everybody should and does understand the same beliefs, no matter what culture.

The two stories that we read had examples of the two words that were defined earlier. In the story Shakespeare in the Bush, the anthropologist experience cultural relativism and ethnocentrism. When the anthropologist tried to share the story of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, she thought that the elders would understand it for the most part, a few little details might have to be explained. She believed that motives and personalities are all the same all over the world. However, it turned out that the elders thought that too with their way of living. And it really changed her thought pattern.
While she read "Hamlet", the elders said that she was wrong. Ghosts didn't exist, it must have been an omen, or that water is good, you can only drown if your are bewitched. There are countless examples of the elders telling her she was wrong and she didn't know how it was done, how they thought they knew the true meaning of it because they were smarter. "Of course the king would have many wives, why would he have only one?" These are all examples of Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.

In "Eating Christmas in the Kalahari" the anthropologist thought that he was above others because of his culture (being willing to share, plus making a huge deal out of it). He was starting to feel prideful and supirior compared to all of the vilage people. They taught him a huge lesson and humbled him. He learned to be humble when they cut open the ox, saw inches of fat on it, and called it a bag of bones. He learned that all cultures are different, but that doesn't make them better than eachother, just different. Their culture shouldn't be judged on how rich they are, or how socially high they are. They were able to come up with a tradition of keeping everybody humble. This story had alot of ethnocentrism on the anthropologists part.