Ethnocentrism and you

What is ethnocentrism? The way I see it ethnocentrism is simply the way in which we analyze other cultures and habits. We compare them to our society and judge their actions based on how we view such actions, not how they view such actions. Every time you hear about some tribe from the amazon and the rituals and practices that they have you often times call them "barbaric", or perhaps "uncivilized". But are their practices so much different than ours? In the way some of them are preformed yes, but the same principles remain. For instance some American Indian tribes would have all the warriors gather around before battle in a tent and would pray while the tent was filled with hot rocks and water would be pored onto the rocks (kinda like a really really intense steam room). When the Indians emerged they believed that the ritual had cleansed their souls and made them stronger in battle. Insane right? Or is it? Tell me what happens before every football game you have ever seen? Where do all the players go? To the locker room. And tell me, what do they do? They all gather around the coaches and they give a pep talk to the entire team.  And when the players leave the locker room tell me, how do they feel? Is their moral high? Why yes, as a matter in fact the moral is rather high. Now what other event that I have mentioned caused high moral? Perhaps the Indian ritual in the tent. So is it possible that the tent ceremony is really just the native American version of the pep talk? It seems logical now doesn't it. But what is the difference in your thoughts of the native American tradition now than when you first heard it? The ritual didn't change, so what did? Your perspective changed. You now understand the purpose to the ritual. Before you had an idea of what it was for, but had no idea how to relate it to something that you have knowledge on. But you now have the familiar ritual of our own to compare it to, the pep rally. With the two different rituals in mind you can compare and contrast them and then finally you can comprehend the idea behind the Indian Ritual. So why do we look at a ritual so similar to one of our own with such negative preconceptions? Its because we don't understand them. People are most afraid of things that they don't understand (examples of this are people that are afraid of the dark, afraid of dogs and cats and have never been hurt by these animals, and often times foreign rituals). But why don't we understand these other cultures right away. We are all human, shouldn't we all think the same? No, in fact we don't all think the same. In fact we think very differently from one another. As it turns out your culture has a effect on every part of you, even the way you think. Some very interesting information has been coming up about this lately. Dr. Nisbett and Takahiko Masuda came up with an interesting experiment to show the different ways that different cultures think. Look at the picture at the top of this entry. Now take a good look, now scroll down the screen until you can no longer see it. What do you remember from the picture? You remember the big fish right. Interestingly enough that is not what people in Asia most often remembered about the photo. They remember the background of the picture. Now why is this. Some believe it is because of the way that we are brought up. As Westerners (Americans in particular) we are taught to look for the big fish, the strong fish, the fish you would want to be if you were in that picture.  While the Asian (particularly the Japanese) most likely describe the background because they are raised to view the whole picture, to look for the ideas to why the picture has the characters it does. Its also because the way Americans and Japanese view logic. As Americans we contradict, and argue over differences. While the Japanese often times try to take more passive approaches and view both sides of a differences (which is ironic considering that the Japanese congress often has mass fist fights within its walls on a fairly regular basses). But as you can see cultural based differences are the cause of our views of other cultures as well as the cause and definition of ethnocentrism.    

what is normal? an overview of The Social Construction of Reality

What is normal? 

nor⋅mal

 [nawr-muhl] 

–adjective

1.	conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.

2.	serving to establish a standard.

3.

Psychology. a. approximately average in any psychological trait, as intelligence, personality, or emotional adjustment. b. free from any mental disorder; sane. My definition of normal in terms applicability to sociology is Normal: any action or characteristic or belief that is considered acceptable to society as a whole. Common actions and beliefs are the base of the social construction of reality. Ideas and beliefs as to what is considered food. In many cultures dogs are often times seen as meals rather than man's best friend. In our culture dogs are not considered to be food, but why then in parts of Asia is dog considered a specialty. Do the dogs there taste better? Is the meat of the dogs there better for you than the meat of dogs here? No, dog is dog no matter where it is. What changes are the beliefs of those eating the dogs. It is not the taste of dog that keeps people from eating it, it is the belief that dogs are friends not food. A great fictional example of this is in the movie finding nemo. There are a group of sharks that decided that they were going to give up their life of killing fish and start living with them. The sharks bodies had no problem eating fish, in fact they are built to do it, but their beliefs made them view the act as disgusting, their beliefs not there bodies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_MQdMKuY5A . Applying that same concept to the real world and you get vegetarians. The vast majority of vegetarians never thought meat was disgusting as a child. This belief of theirs came about when they discovered where meat came from. When some people find out that the burger they got from Burger King is made from cows just like the ones at the farm on the side of the highway they are on, then they find it disgusting. Other people can have the same experience and think nothing of it. The vast majority of the population fall in the second group of people can come to terms with the idea that they are eating something that was once alive. The reason they can (my self included) is because of their social construction of reality. Meat eaters have come to the conclusion that yes all though this burger was once part of a living animal it taste good and gives me energy, it is meat in their minds, not a leg, or a back, or even a rib cage, it is meat. Vegetarians view meat as a part of an animal, identifiable. Identity is what allows us to attach emotion to an object. Because meat is identifiable to vegetarians they find it impossible to eat. Which is also the reason the majority of people would never become cannibals. Identity has a lot to do with the social construction of reality and human behavior. A example that everyone knows but rarely thinks of is hostages. What is on a hostage's head when they are on camera? Think about it a black bag. Why would the hostage takers bother to put a bag over a hostages head. Are they trying to keep them from escaping? To a degree yes, but that is not the main reason. The main reason is to keep the hostage takers from identifying with the hostage, reverse Stockholm syndrome in a way. Over the years criminal masterminds and world leaders have learned that if a hostage taker gets to know a hostage they are less likely to kill them. That is why police always wade out hostage situations, the longer the people are hostage, the more time they spend with the hostage taker, the more the hostage taker gets to know them, the harder it is for the hostage taker to kill the hostage if the time comes. That is where the black bag comes in. By covering the face and making it hard to talk the hostage taker doesn't get to know the hostage well, which makes it less difficult for the hostage taker to kill the hostage if the time comes. But now getting back to the social construction of reality. Beliefs are what gives every society its foundation. Beliefs are what cause our actions, are ideas, and our lives. Every thing is constructed upon our foundation of beliefs, and based on what are beliefs are determines how far our society will go to thrive, and are beliefs are what will eventually make our society fall.