One’s own culture is the standard to which we
judge other cultures. When one believes that his or her culture is superior to
another’s culture, this is called ethnocentrism. You think that your culture is
dominant and the best compared to all other cultures. The home culture is the
culture we are all used to and have become accustomed to, therefore observing
other cultures is strange and unfamiliar.
Home culture is the basis on which we judge
other cultures due to certain lifestyle choices, like the music you listen to
within your immediate culture. Hipsters, for example, pride themselves on
listening to indie and underground music, thus knowing most bands before they
"sell out" and become mainstream. In this case, hipsters are more
likely to judge other cultures and consider them musically inept when they only
know songs on the "Top 40" charts. Most hipsters are accustomed to
listening to music that deviates the norm, and thus they use their musical
knowledge to judge others. Hipsters are by definition are a subculture in the
sense that they are a distinct group set apart from the main culture.
The way every person views other cultures is very
subjective. Every person has a “self”, which is the individual identity of a
person as perceived by the same person. Outside of the “self” is called the “other”, which is someone or something outside of oneself. When looking at different cultures it is easy to stereotype and lump
large groups of people together into what is called the “generalized other”.
The generalized other is an internalized sense of the total expectations of
others in a variety of settings regardless of whether we’ve encountered those
people or places before (Conley). When viewing other cultures it is important
to take into account the other cultures without passing judgments, which as
stated earlier, is cultural relativism. By understanding more cultures in the
world, it is easy to understand the world as a whole.
Bibliography:
Conley, Dalton. You May Ask
Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking like a Sociologist. New York: W.W.
Norton &, 2011. Print.
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