By: Augie Alvarado
Eurocentrism is the comparison of all cultures to the Western civilization and the cultures that come along with it. The idea of eurocentrism revolves around the favoring of Western culture over other, possibly “non-mainstream”, smaller cultures. This concept is often mixed up with the term ethnocentrism, and while the two complement each other, their differences are important in understanding global relations and diversity.
Ethnocentrism describes the process of analyzing and assessing other cultures according to one’s own culture. Someone who compares elements of their own culture to others’ like using chopsticks vs using Western cutlery or methods of bathing, is an ethnocentric person.
While both concepts have the potential to harm diversity and range of culture within a region, ethnocentrism seems to have more of a harmful effect. The obvious reason why ethnocentrism is dangerous for a society is because it makes people apprehensive when deciding whether to explore new cultures. The perceptions of certain cultures through media, especially movies and TV shows, are often incorrect and allow for the spread of incorrect knowledge. Ethnocentrism can be the cause of societal polarization as well. People who are scared to try new things and explore new cultures are an ever-growing reason for the isolation of cultures, communities, and entire societies. I like to think about the combination of media perception and societal polarization by comparing how many people travel to some countries/regions over others. The amount of people that travel to the United States each year is almost twice as much as the amount of people that visit Indonesia. The more remote regions of certain countries are always less visited than the major cities because traditions and food are often not as explored previously by travelers.
Ethiopia has gone through much change politically, resulting in very little tolerance of ethnocentrism from the government. Ethiopia values diversity so strongly, that even with conflicts unfolding constantly, the government has upheld previously implemented Acts that do not allow for any discrimination from government policy and require all policies to be reviewed by all local government before implementation. It is hard to determine past ethnocentric views of Ethiopia, but with every country, there will always be a clash of culture and understanding.