Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

Ethnocentrism and cultural Relativism are perspective to understand own and other culture. The two concept take quite different position in how can we see culture.

Ethnocentrism come from social evolution which some culture have superiority. Who take this attitude have tendency to understand own and other culture in his own cultural context. So they  believe their own culture is more important than others.
The problem of ethnocentrism makes some culture be isolated.In high ethnocentric society, citizen think their culture is so good that they doesn't need to accept other culture. They exclude other culture and there'll be no progress.
The positive aspect of ethnocentrism is making internal comradeship strong. When Korea is under Japanese rule, there are many movement to increase social bond. Literary movement, studying history or Korean language etc. are example of ethnocentric movement. So, more or less, every race or ethnic group has ethnocentrism.

Cultural relativism is attitude that every culture has own values and we never fully translate or understand into other social context or languages. If someone want to get fully comprehend, they should watch the culture or languages into its cultural context where the culture or languages are used.
cultural relativism try to understand other culture and find its own value. So, sometimes, they uncritically evaluate the culture which against humanity. For example, Some culture relativist can argue that cannibalism is just one kind of culture, and it acceptable in its cultural context.