Anthropologists often immerse themselves in a distant culture in
order to get a better feeling of the beliefs, views, and ideas
present in a society. They attempt to get an emic (inside) view of
the society. Unfortunately however, many of these anthropologists,
approach the culture with an ethnocentric viewpoint.
What is ethnocentrism? Ethnocentrism is when someone judges
others from their own viewpoint without taking their culture into
account. The opposite of enthrocentrism is relativism, when you feel
that someone believes what they believe because they learned it as
such.
There are four types of biases which are present in
ethnocentrism:
Subjective bias- When experiences of the observer, or
their point of view, influence their outlook on a culture.
Evaluative bias- When the observer judges what is good or
bad, right or wrong, based on their own culture beliefs, not those
of the host culture.
Cognitive bias- When the observer does not recognize that
different words, acts, or symbols have a different meaning that what
they do in their own culture.
Conceptual bias- When the observer does not recognize that
the host culture has different world views than their own.
Let us take the example of ethnologist Charles Wagley, who
studied the Tapirapé Indians of central Brazil. In this culture, the
climate was harsh, and food was limited, also the society was
struggling to preserve the gene pool. As a result, there were strict
rules enforced on how many children couples could have, and what sex
the children could be. When an “accidental” child was born, that
child was killed, also known as infanticide. If Wagley had been
ethnocentric, he would have described this as cruel and inhumane.
Instead, he explained the societal tolerance of the practice, and
avoided subjective bias.
Bias is also present in other kinds of research, such as
medicine. It is for this reason that blind testing is done, where
the subject is unaware if they have they have the placebo or test
drug. Double-blind testing is often used to avoid the bias of the
doctor, this is where neither doctor nor patient are aware if they
are in the control or experimental group.
Through awareness and compensation, biases and ethnocentrism can be
avoided. It is extremely difficult in anthropology, where many
things are subjective, however it can be accomplished. Operational
definitions are often helpful, for they set rigid circumstances
through which thoughts can be described.
Author's name omitted by
request