Editing Ethnocentrism (section)

== Anthropology ==
The classifications of ethnocentrism originate from the studies of [[anthropology]]. With its omnipresence throughout history, ethnocentrism has always been a factor in how different cultures and groups related to one another.<ref name=":2" /> Examples including how historically, foreigners would be characterized as "Barbarians". These trends exist in complex societies, e.g., "the Jews consider themselves to be the 'chosen people', and the Greeks defend all foreigners as 'barbarians'", and how China believed their country to be "the centre of the world".<ref name=":2">{{cite book |doi=10.4135/9781446220375.n79 |chapter=Ethnocentrism |title=Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity and Culture |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-7619-6900-6 |page=103 |editor1-last=Bolaffi |editor1-first=Guido |editor2-last=Bracalenti |editor2-first=Raffaele |editor3-last=Braham |editor3-first=Peter |editor4-last=Gindro |editor4-first=Sandro }}</ref> However, the anthropocentric interpretations initially took place most notably in the 19th century when anthropologists began to describe and rank various cultures according to the degree to which they had developed significant milestones, such as monotheistic religions, technological advancements, and other historical progressions.

Most rankings were strongly influenced by colonization and the belief to improve societies they colonized, ranking the cultures based on the progression of their western societies and what they classified as milestones. Comparisons were mostly based on what the colonists believed as superior and what their western societies have accomplished. [[Victorian era]] politician and historian [[Thomas Babington Macaulay|Thomas Macaulay]] once claimed that "one shelf of a [[Western literature|Western library"]] had more knowledge than the centuries of text and literature written by [[Asia]]n cultures.<ref name=":3">{{cite book |editor1-first=William H. |editor1-last=McNeill |editor2-first=Jerry H. |editor2-last=Bentley |editor3-first=David |editor3-last=Christian |editor4-first=Ralph C. |editor4-last=Croizier |editor5-first=J. R. |editor5-last=McNeill |editor6-first=Heidi |editor6-last=Roupp |editor7-first=Judith P. |editor7-last=Zinsser |title=Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History |edition=2nd |date=2010 |publisher=Berkshire |isbn=978-1-933782-65-2 |jstor=jj.9941129 |oclc=707606528 |pages=952–954 }}</ref> Ideas developed by Western scientists such as [[Herbert Spencer]], including the concept of the "[[survival of the fittest]]", contained ethnocentric ideals; influencing the belief that societies which were 'superior' were most likely to survive and prosper.<ref name=":3" /> [[Edward Said]]'s concept of [[Orientalism]] represented how Western reactions to non-Western societies were based on an "unequal power relationship" that the [[Western world]] developed due to its history of [[colonialism]] and the influence it held over non-Western societies.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=New Dictionary of the History of Ideas|last=Bangura|first=Ahmed S.|date=2005|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |editor1-last=Horowitz |editor1-first=Maryanne Cline |isbn=0-684-31377-4|volume=4|location=Detroit, MI|pages=1679–1680|chapter=African and Black Orientalism|oclc=55800981}}</ref>

The ethnocentric classification of "primitive" were also used by 19th and 20th century anthropologists and represented how unawareness in cultural and religious understanding changed overall reactions to non-Western societies. 19th-century anthropologist [[Edward Burnett Tylor]] wrote about "primitive" societies in ''Primitive Culture'' (1871), creating a "civilization" scale where it was implied that ethnic cultures preceded civilized societies.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Race and Racism|last=Moore|first=John H.|date=2013|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|others=Mason, Patrick L.|isbn=978-0-02-866195-7|edition=2nd|volume=2|location=Detroit, MI|pages=124–125|chapter=Ethnocentrism|oclc=825005867}}</ref> The use of "savage" as a classification is modernly known as "tribal" or "pre-literate" where it was usually referred as a derogatory term as the "civilization" scale became more common.<ref name=":4" /> Examples that demonstrate a lack of understanding include when European travelers judged different languages based on the fact that they could not understand it and displayed a negative reaction, or the intolerance displayed by Westerners when exposed to unknown religions and symbolisms.<ref name=":4" /> [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], a German philosopher, justified Western [[imperialism]] by reasoning that since the non-Western societies were "primitive" and "uncivilized", their culture and history was not worth conserving and thus should welcome [[Westernization]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450|last=Da Baets|first=Antoon|date=2007|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|editor-last=Benjamin|editor-first=Thomas|isbn=978-0-02-866085-1|location=Detroit, MI|pages=456–461|chapter=Eurocentrism|oclc=74840473|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216195643/http://1.droppdf.com/files/noC4Z/encyclopedia-of-western-colonialism-since-1450.pdf|archive-date=December 16, 2019|chapter-url=http://1.droppdf.com/files/noC4Z/encyclopedia-of-western-colonialism-since-1450.pdf}}</ref>
[[File:FranzBoas.jpg|alt=Photograph of anthropologist Franz Boas|thumb|Franz Boas|281x281px]]
Anthropologist [[Franz Boas]] saw the flaws in this formulaic approach to ranking and interpreting cultural development and committed himself to overthrowing this inaccurate reasoning due to many factors involving their individual characteristics. With his methodological innovations, Boas sought to show the error of the proposition that race determined cultural capacity.<ref name="Eriksen2015">{{cite book |last1=Eriksen |first1=Thomas Hylland |title=Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology |edition=4th |date=2015 |publisher=Pluto Press |isbn=978-0-7453-3593-3 |jstor=j.ctt183p184 |pages=10–18 }}</ref> In his 1911 book ''[[The Mind of Primitive Man]]'', Boas wrote that:<ref name="Boas The Mind of Primitive Man"/><blockquote class="templatequote">It is somewhat difficult for us to recognize that the value which we attribute to our own civilization is due to the fact that we participate in this civilization, and that it has been controlling all our actions from the time of our birth; but it is certainly conceivable that there may be other civilizations, based perhaps on different traditions and on a different equilibrium of emotion and reason, which are of no less value than ours, although it may be impossible for us to appreciate their values without having grown up under their influence.</blockquote>Together, Boas and his colleagues propagated the certainty that there are no inferior races or cultures. This egalitarian approach introduced the concept of [[cultural relativism]] to anthropology, a methodological principle for investigating and comparing societies in as unprejudiced a way as possible and without using a developmental scale as anthropologists at the time were implementing.<ref name="Eriksen2015" /> Boas and anthropologist [[Bronisław Malinowski]] argued that any human science had to transcend the ethnocentric views that could blind any scientist's ultimate conclusions.{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}}

Both had also urged anthropologists to conduct [[Ethnography|ethnographic]] fieldwork to overcome their ethnocentrism. To help, Malinowski would develop the theory of [[Structural functionalism|functionalism]] as guides for producing non-ethnocentric studies of different cultures. Classic examples of anti-ethnocentric anthropology include [[Margaret Mead]]'s ''[[Coming of Age in Samoa]]'' (1928), which in time has met with severe criticism for its incorrect data and generalisations, Malinowski's ''[[The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia]]'' (1929), and [[Ruth Benedict]]'s ''[[Ruth Benedict#Patterns of Culture|Patterns of Culture]]'' (1934). Mead and Benedict were two of Boas's students.<ref name="Eriksen2015"/>

Scholars generally agree that Boas developed his ideas under the influence of the German philosopher [[Immanuel Kant]]. Legend has it that, on a field trip to the Baffin Islands in 1883, Boas would pass the frigid nights reading Kant's ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]''. In that work, Kant argued that human understanding could not be described according to the laws that applied to the operations of nature, and that its operations were therefore free, not determined, and that ideas regulated human action, sometimes independent of material interests. Following Kant, Boas pointed out the starving Eskimos who, because of their religious beliefs, would not hunt seals to feed themselves, thus showing that no pragmatic or material calculus determined their values.<ref name="Boas The Mind of Primitive Man">{{cite journal |last1=Boas |first1=Franz |title=The Mind of Primitive Man |journal=Science |date=22 February 1901 |volume=13 |issue=321 |pages=281–289 |doi=10.1126/science.13.321.281 |pmid=17814977 |bibcode=1901Sci....13..281B }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hitchens |first1=Janine |title=Critical implications of Franz Boas' theory and methodology |journal=Dialectical Anthropology |date=November 1994 |volume=19 |issue=2–3 |pages=237–253 |doi=10.1007/BF01301456 |jstor=29790560 }}</ref>