Narrator Listen to part of a talk in an anthropology class. Now ge

Professor
    Culture shock can be an excellent lesson in relative values and in understanding human differences. But why does culture shock occur? That’s because we’re not prepared for these differences. Because of the way we are taught our culture, we are all ethnocentric. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own patterns of behavior are best, to be specific, the most natural, beautiful, right or important. When we say one is ethnocentric, it means that his outlook or world view is centered on his own way of life, while, therefore, other people, to the extent that they live differently, live by standards that are inhuman, irrational, unnatural, or wrong.
    There’s no one in our society who is not ethnocentric to some degree, no matter how liberal and open-minded he or she might claim to be. People will always find some aspect of another culture distasteful, I mean...it may be others’ sexual practices, a way of treating friends or relatives, or...simply, a food that they cannot manage to get down with a smile. This is... I should say, not something we should be ashamed of, because it is a natural outcome of growing up in any society. However, as anthropologists who study other cultures, it is something we should constantly be aware of, so that when we’re tempted to make value judgments about another way of life, we can look at the situation objectively and take our bias into account.
    Ethnocentrism can be seen in many aspects of culture—myths, folktales, proverbs, and even language. For example, in many languages, especially those of non-Western societies, the word used to refer to one’s own tribe or ethnic group literally means "mankind" or "human". This implies that members of other groups are less than human. For example, the term Eskimo... is used to refer to groups that inhabit the arctic and sub-arctic regions. However, it is an Indian word used by neighbors of the Eskimos who observed their strange way of life but did not share it. The term means "eaters of raw flesh", as such is an ethnocentric observation about cultural practices that were normal to one group and repulsive to another. On the other hand, if we look at one subgroup among the Alaskan natives, we find them calling themselves Inuit, which means "real people"—they obviously didn’t think eating raw flesh was anything out of the ordinary. Here, then, is a contrast between one’s own group, which is real, and the rest of the world, which is not so "real". Both terms, Eskimo and Inuit, are equally ethnocentric—one as an observation about differences, the other as a self-evaluation. However, Inuit is now seen as a more appropriate term because of its origin.
    Now, shifting from language to myths and folktales, we find a good example of ethnocentrism in the creation myth of the Cherokee Indians. According to this story, the Creator made three clay images of a man and baked them in an oven. In his haste to admire his handwork, he took the first image out of the oven before it was fully baked and found that it was too pale. He waited a while and then removed the second image—it was just right, a full reddish brown hue. He was so pleased with his work that he sat there and admired it, completely forgetting about the third image. Finally he smelled it burning, but by the time he could rescue it from the oven it had already been burnt, and it came out completely black!
    OK, let’s see food preferences. Food preferences are perhaps the most familiar aspect of ethnocentrism. Every culture has developed preferences for certain kinds of food and drink, and equally strong negative attitudes toward others. Now, can anyone of you give us an example?
Student A  As far as I know, in Southeast Asia, the majority of adults do not drink milk, and in China, dog meat is a delicacy.
Professor   Well, what if in American culture?
Student B  Of course, to many Americans, it’s inconceivable that people in other parts of the world do not drink milk, and eating a dog is enough to make most Americans feel sick.
Professor   That’s it. Certain food preferences also seem natural to us. We usually do not recognize that they’re natural only because we have grown up with them; they’re quite likely to be unnatural to someone from a different culture. And it is interesting to note that much of ethnocentrism is in our heads and not in our tongues, for something can taste delicious until we are told what it is.