The Concept of Ethnocentrism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Concept of Ethnocentrism - Essay Example Several nations and their cultures have placed themselves at the top of an imagined hierarchy of cultures and nations and therefore they have assigned other cultures lower ranks than theirs. This has led to the incorporation of the belief that one nation, its culture is superior, and that it will always be ahead of the rest hence making people believe this form of deception naturally. This form of belief has resulted in a few nations becoming the center of admirations making all other nations to strive to emulate the nations at the center in order to move higher in the imaginary rank. For example, the United States of America has always thought of itself as more powerful, more economically positioned, and as generally better in all spheres than other nations. This has been evidenced by the country's dabbling in the matters of other nations without much regard to the right formality that should be followed. A good illustration of this dabbling in the country's current involvement in a ffairs of Middle East, which is mainly castigated by the perceived belief that it is a superpower. This has led to the country spending a lot on affairs of other countries, which are not necessarily in its control, rather than focusing on funding development in needy developing countries. Cultural ethnocentrism continues to prevail in the majority of the African communities where the communities believe that these cultures are better than the rest and they in, particular, tend to be unreceptive to the western culture. They normally feel that their cultural order is threatened by the arrival of new groups and they thus strive to resist what they term as invaders in their communities. This evidenced by the disagreements in cultural markers of identity such as clothing and other visible elements which the people try by all means possible to uphold them despite the foreign influence.