Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism

Cultural Relativism/Ethnocentrism

Cultural relativism is a principal of regarding the values, beliefs and traits of a culture from the point-of-view of that culture. This is understanding other cultures and their beliefs. For instance what appears normal in one culture may seem quite offensive to another an example is in China dogs are eaten while in America dogs are kept as pets. Ethnocentrism on the other hand is the tendency of believing that one's culture or ethnic group is centrally important and that all other groups should be measured in relation to their own.it is the belief that ones culture is the best and other cultures are wrong (Ariwibowo, 2013).

Cultural relativism is a notion which supports and allows one to see the different traits, habits and values of a person in relevance of his or her own cultural values. All values, norms and traits can be seen in cultural relevance where it is understood that one value for a particular culture can be useful in another way. Therefore this notion does not propagate one becoming judgmental or harsh towards any particular cultural values and norms.

Ethnocentrism on the other hand is extremely opposite to cultural relativism. Those who follow this philosophy only happen to consider their own culture as being most supreme off all but they will judge other cultures by comparing them to their own specific culture. This notion is in sharp contrast with that of relativism which mainly focusses on an unbiased and better understanding of other people's cultures and the related values. Cultural relativism is therefore termed as being more constructive and a positive concept as compared to ethnocentrism.it allows one to see a person's values, habits and morals in the context of their cultural relevance and not through comparing their own cultural values and deeming them as the most great and superior of them all ( Ariwibowo, 2013).

From an ethnocentric point-of-view the bride wore a red dress since according to her tradition white is associated with mourning. She therefore opted to wear the red dress which was against the American culture norms which expects her to wear a white dress.by so doing she believed that her culture was right and superior compared to the American culture. This shows how she believed her culture was important compared to the American culture and choose to disregard it and go for a red dress and not the white dress worn by Americans in weddings.

As we have seen cultural relativism involves regarding the beliefs, norms, of a culture from the cultures point-of-view. She respects the fact that in American cultural norms brides is supposed to wear white and does not in any way disregard this. However she can not wear white since according to her tradition white is reserved for mourning and therefore she can not wear white during her wedding since this is a happy day for her. She respects the American cultural norms but also respects her own cultural norms. Therefore she goes for the different color which is red not to protest the American cultural norms but to be happy on her wedding day according to her own cultural norms.