I appreciate the effort, but do we need a paragraph delineating ethnocentrism? Also, these examples seem as much like societal norms as they do ethnocentrism
I dont think a paragraph is needed but I think the current definition is very poor and doesnt capture ethnocentrism. Chatgpt suggestion lol:
An American tourist criticizes traditional Japanese floor seating, insisting that chairs are the āproperā way to sit at a dining table.
what do you think?
Lol, kind of a funny example. Itās ācorrectā, though I do imagine that it presumes the reader will be familiar enough with Japanese table-setting to understand the discrepancy. I sort of take for granted that the juxtaposition here is obvious, but I donāt know how confident I am that, say, a meandering 20 year old from India or Iowa or some random part of the world will immediately or fully grasp the tension implied in that scenario.
Itās also hard because there are about a million ways someone could be ethnocentric, from innocently mistaken and harmless down to really gross behavior.
My initial example is that, unfortunately for us, a pretty widely-understood stereotype is the English tourist who expects everyone to speak English. Itās maybe not the most artful example, but itās going to be almost universally understood at a glance by basically anyone. Something like:
āAn American tourist visiting France expresses frustration when restaurant staff do not speak English, insisting that they should as āEnglish is the global language.āā
Not the most sophisticated example, but Iād be shocked to find someone who doesnāt understand what itās getting at and/or has been on either side of that coin at some point.
Yeah youāre right hahah that was a pretty niche example. I think going some route with the American tourist makes a lot of sense but my only concern is that
starts to border on describing cultural imperialism (which we have a card for) rather than ethnocentrism. From my understanding (though Iām no expert on this) is that cultural imperialism is attempting to impose ones culture onto another culture whereas ethnocentrism is more just evaluating anotherās culture by your own cultureās standards.
Idk why chatgpt keeps giving Japanese examples but is bowing maybe less niche?
āAn American tourist in Japan criticizes locals for bowing instead of shaking hands, seeing handshakes as the āproperā way to greet someoneā
In this case, the tourist is evaluating Japanese customs through an American lens and deeming them inferior or incorrect without insisting that they change it. Maybe some similar modification can be made to your example if we want to go that route instead.
I also think your current suggested example is better than the one we currently have in the cultural imperialism card.
{{c1::Cultural imperialism}} is the deliberate imposition of oneās own cultural values on another culture.
Example: cultural products of first world countries overtaking third world local culture
Lol, I donāt know. Itās hard to estimate what other people know about other cultures. I sort of think bowing is like One Of Those Things that people know, but every time I assume what other people know I am always fantastically disappointed.
Maybe something about eating with oneās hands, or utensil use? Might be hard to find a way to really frame this that couldnāt possibly be misconstrued as imperialism in one way or the other
I think bowing is pretty commonly known and at least the language of the example kind of implies that bowing is a cultural standard and yeah I agree itās a tough distinction but I think we should just try to avoid any language that makes it directly seem like theyāre trying to change the culture rather than just evaluating it/having an opinion on something thats different.
If we want to avoid the sense that theyāre trying to change it, itās harder if the person in the example is criticizing the behavior, no?
It might need to be a personal/internal judgement if we want to avoid the perception of undue influence
Good point. Definitely right.
An American tourist in Japan sees bowing as unusual and overly formal, given that handshakes are the norm in American culture.
maybe? this makes it more about passing an internal judgement/thought.
Yeah, itās simple enough at least, doesnāt take up a huge amount of space.
The only other thing that stands out to me, but maybe not worth the labor in fleshing out (no pun intended) is to compare/contrast food (we eat pigs and birds but not horses, plenty of folks donāt eat pigs but do eat birds, bla bla bla).
But, I donāt know if I care enough to wrk out the nuances of all that. Bowing probably works 97% as well with 0.2% of the effort and time spent
I agree I think itās pretty clear and a much more accurate description compared to the original.