Understanding Other Cultures: Part 2

So, in the last post, you learned how looking at the whole situation is helpful when studying other cultures. (If you missed that post, just click here to read it.)

Here’s how Anthropologists understand other cultures:

1. Holistic perspective (Anthropologists look at the whole situation)

2. Comparative perspective (Anthropologists compare different cultures)

3. Cultural relativism perspective (Anthropologists don’t think that one culture is “better” than the other, there are just different ways of doing things)

If you don’t believe in cultural relativism, and instead you think your culture’s way of doing things is the ONLY way of doing things and the only RIGHT way to do things, then you are called ethnocentric. Anthropologists try NOT to be ethnocentric, and instead view cultures more objectively.

So, these are the perspectives that Anthropologists take and don’t take when studying other cultures.