1. Ethnocentrism Reflections
Feedback on Student Reflection Papers by James T. Bretzke, S.J.

2. Ethnocentrism
Culture tends to produce ethnocentrism as a way of viewing the world and especially other cultures in terms of one’s own culture.
Ethnocentrism is a natural result of culture’s functioning, but poses great challenges to intercultural communication
Ethnocentrism is often tied to a certain “tribalism” and “in-group/out-group” dynamics which impede dialogue

3. Some cross-cultural linguistic anecdotes
Belief that in a foreign country if you just speak English more loudly everyone should understand
“How much is that in ‘real’ money? (American tourists abroad)
“Why can’t you Jews and Arabs just get along as good Christians?” (US diplomat)
French tourists in Rome anecdote: “on ne dit pas ça comme ça!” (that isn’t how it is said!)
Anecdote in a French department store with an African worker and a French customer: “Attention, s’il vous plait” (Please watch out); response: “You should watch out for me!”

4. Ethnocentric Cuisine?

5. Cross-Cultural Mores

6. Cross-Cultural Feminism?

7. Geographical Ethnocentrism: We’re #1!

8. Cultural Narrative Self-Critique Resource?

9. Ethnocentrism & Cultural “Hiddenness”

10. Ethnocentrism Grounded in Fundamental Values & Root Paradigms
Fundamental Values express assumptions about the world as a whole, and in particular about human nature and concomitant appropriate behavior.
These values are incarnated in Root Paradigms, e.g., The Way of the Cross for Christianity, Magis
Karl Rahner termed these “global pre-scientific convictions” that get “smuggled” into our reflection—usually unawares
These also account for a good deal of tension and even serious hatred & divisions

11. Toxic Ethnocentrism: Historical Examples
Justification for colonialism, slavery, etc.
“Manifest Destiny”
Overt Racism
Cultural supremacy movements

12. Rudyard Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden” (1899 poem supporting US conquest of the Philippines in the 1898 Spanish-American War)
Take up the White Man's burden —
Send forth the best ye breed —
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild —
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child. …
Take up the White Man's burden —
The savage wars of peace —
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

13. Toxic Ethnocentrism: A recent example
harassing-two-women-for-speaking

14. Some Take-Aways
Ethnocentrism, because of its involvement with a culture’s Fundamental Values and/or Root Paradigms, is often at best only partially “conscious” to individuals and groups within a particular culture. Thus, it rarely is explicitly a self-conscious “choice” on the part of the individual
Ethnocentrism often functions in tandem with what Betsworth terms cultural narratives which are “self-deceptive” and are “cover stories”
Close connection between Ethnocentrism and the whole set of processes connected with Enculturation (or Socialization) by which an individual becomes socialized or integrated into a particular culture (often at a relatively young age)
Dynamics of Acculturation can be one way in which the limiting effects of Ethnocentrism are positively addressed. In fact any sort of positive “acculturation,” including sustained contact with other cultures, travel, study, language acquisition, etc. will usually help lessen the negative effects Ethnocentrism

15. Corrective Paths: Ignatius & C.S. Song
Ignatius of Loyola’s “Presupposition”
Presuming good will in the “other”
Asking questions for clarification
“Fraternal” correction done in charity
C.S. Song’s Stages of Conversion: Based on “Alice in Wonderland”
The World is Different
Blessed Ignorance
Bi-Lateral Cease-Fire
Conversion to Dialogue
C.S. Song, Tell Us Our Names: Story Theology from an Asian Perspective, (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1984)

16. What Might Shift?
If we attend more carefully to these core cultural concepts what might change?
Different emphases?
Different insights?
Different pastoral responses?

17. Neither the Answers Nor the Processes Are Simple….
Need for communal & genuine search for the truth
Need for openness to the Spirit wherever it moves
Need for prayer
Need for Cross- Cultural dialogue