Anthropology, 6th Period

[the-ascended.livejournal.com]

There's coffee brewing, or bottles of water on the desk. Daniel smiles at them with his own coffee, and waves his hand towards them. "Help yourself," he said.

"Today, what we're going to be discussing ties in with the point from last lesson that people usually are not aware of their culture.

Ethnocentrism.

What is it? Is it just something that affects anthropologists? Is it something that you yourself have experienced or encountered? Can you think of any examples of it you've seen in Fandom?"

Comments

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"That's when you think your culture or society is the most important and then you measure everyone elses by it, right? I don't think that it affects just anthropologists; I think it affects anyone who deals with another culture or people from another culture."

[the-ascended.livejournal.com]

"Exactly, Blair," Daniel replied. "Can you think of an example where ethnocentrism might come into play?"

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

Blair thought for a moment, chewing on a pencil. "Aliens."

[the-ascended.livejournal.com]

Daniel tried not to choke on his coffee. "Care to elaborate a bit further?"

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"Sure!" Blair bounced happily. "The American government calls foreigners or immigrants 'aliens' instead of visitors or foreign nationals or whatever their own country calls them. It's total ethnocentrism to give them this demeaning name."

[the-ascended.livejournal.com]

"That's good, yes," Daniel nodded. "They do this despite the fact that often these foreign nationals provide valuable skills and help stimulate the US economy."


[[And they make you fill in so much paperwork and jump through so many hoops and call documentation that you need to leave the country "parole" as if you've done something wrong...! *ends rant*]]

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"Even if they didn't do anything but hang out or cause problems, they're still people. Just because they aren't American, doesn't make them bad or wrong or less than other people." Blair shook his head disgustedly. "The Japanese pull some of the same crap and it's sad that people can't understand that everyone has the same value."

[the-ascended.livejournal.com]

"Playing the devil's advocate a minute here, do all people have the same value?" Daniel asked. "Does a crack dealer who sells drugs to school kids have the same value as, say, the surgeon general or an AIDs charity worker in Africa?"

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"Yes." Blair paused for a moment before nodding. "Don't they? Even if someone does something wrong or even does nothing right that doesn't make them less valuable as a human being."

[kikidelivers.livejournal.com]

Kiki, being Japanese and now living in America, shifted in her chair uncomfortably at Blair's earlier comment.

"I can see where you are coming from," Kiki offered quietly, "but I think you're being a little bit unfair. After all, you're judging my culture out of hand - have you ever lived there and experienced it for yourself? Isn't looking at it that way engaging in a bit of ethnocentricity?

"We all judge the everything around us - people, events, spirituality, customs - through the lens of our own unique and individual experiences. For people who share a common culture, these lenses tend to be similar in the values and mores that shape those views through them."

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"No, I haven't lived there but I don't know that I was saying anything that was particulary judgmental. It's fact that they call non-residents a name that's comparable to American's calling people aliens."

[kikidelivers.livejournal.com]

"You did, however, make a judgment call in how you phrased it," Kiki pointed out. "You said, 'The Japanese pull some of that same crap.' By calling the Japanese system 'crap,' just because it is different or because you are looking through it by the lens of your own experiences and culture, you are making a judgment. Agree or disagree with it, that is your own decision and yours alone, but if you sneer at another culture's methods or customs as ethnocentric, then it's a little... well, I guess it'd be a little hypocritical."

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"That's true, I shouldn't have called it crap. I do disagree with the way that the two countries label non-residents, but I could have found a less offensive way of stating it. I'm sorry."

[kikidelivers.livejournal.com]

"Apology accepted," Kiki smiled. "Now, just becuase I'm curious, why do you think 'alien' is such a bad term? I guess I'm an alien in this country, but honestly? The term doesn't bother me or upset me."

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"Well, it's like the Man looks at it from his own society and says 'those people are different from us' and lumps them into one giant pile. But everyone isn't the same. Pip and Walter aren't from the same culture, but in America they're both called aliens. I feel like it belittles and demeans their own culture."

[kikidelivers.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Kiki replied. "I guess I never looked at it that way. I've felt calling me an alien is no different than calling me a foreigner or a stranger. They're all the same to me, and it's what I am, if I think about it, which I guess I usually don't..."

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"I guess the best way to identify you would be by your nationality. Or" Blair bounced excitedly. "We could have a truly globally enlightened culture and everyone would be one society and only identified by their names. That would be so awesome."

[kikidelivers.livejournal.com]

Kiki nodded. "I don't really think about myself in terms of my nationality because I'm used to it, I think. I do think about myself in terms of my being a witch, though," she added. "I think I feel I've been more shaped by that than my nationality. If we had one large global society," she mused, "would we have a loss of culture? I mean, less diversity and more homogeneity, as cultures mingled and absorbed each other?"