Attitudes in Culture
Cultures are part of the human social experience. Culture is comparable to ice cream; each variation (flavor) tends to be sweet and desirable while still having a vast array of ingredients and textures. Think about going to an ice cream shop and choosing a "good" flavor and a "bad" flavor. This is a difficult task because what you might say is "bad" might be another person's favorite flavor.
Just as taste is relative, so is culture.
Even though cultures are desirable and viewed as needed, they are often judged and labeled as being "good", "bad," "evil," etc. (Usually, with one's own culture being judged as the "good" one.)
We have to strive to set aside personal judgments when studying other cultures.
Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge others based on our own experiences.
If you have an ethnocentric perspective, you view your culture as right and different cultures as wrong.
Any time you hear someone judge another culture negatively for their beliefs, food habits, styles of dress, or behaviors, you are hearing ethnocentrism.
Look at this photograph of a woman from the Kayan tribe in Indonesia. In her tribe, it is considered beautiful to have a very long neck. Young children begin wearing rings around their necks in order to elongate them. There are many people in American culture who might label these practices in a negative way. These negative and judgmental feelings are ethnocentric.
Everyone is likely to experience some ethnocentric thoughts when exposed to new environments. Most people need time to adjust to new different cultures and people.
The transitioning to new diversity is called culture shock.
Culture shock is the disoriented feeling which occurs in the context of being in a new culture. It tends to leave over a few days or weeks; the greater the familiarity with the culture, the less the shock.
Sociologists strive to practice cultural relativism- to judge cultures using the standards of that culture, not the standards of the sociologist’s culture.
Cultural relativism is the tendency or ability to look for the cultural context in which differences in cultures occur.
Consider the same example about the Kayan women in Indonesia.
A cultural relativist might say, "This culture has a different standard of beauty than my own and has an interesting life-long process for achieving that standard."
Cultural relativists do not have to accept all versions of morality, ethics, values, and traditions in order to be teachable.
A cultural relativist might disagree with the way that women are required to dress in some Middle Eastern nations, but they will work to remember why the women do this. They must put the cultural difference in that nation's own cultural context. Remember, it is not wrong, it is just different.
Anyone who is planning a trip to another community, state, or country would be wise to do their cultural homework and prepare in advance to understand how to immerse themselves into the parts of the culture that fit their value system.
You can begin your cultural homework at the CIA World Factbook by looking up as many cultural details as you can.
