Do anthropologists reject Western culture because they fear it's ethnocentric to like their own culture?

Question

You should meet my college prof who calls for the 'destruction of Western civilization'.

Answer 1

aaaahhhh I suspect your prof ought to get stuck with one like me in his class. One or more.

Answer 2

I don't think people would reject western culture because of fears of ethnocentrism.  I think your professor has just gotten stuck in the realization of the shortcomings of Western cultures.  There are people who definitely believe a return to "simpler times" and rejecting modernity is a way to solve all the world's problems, but this isn't anything unique to Anthropologists.

I do believe your professor is a bad representation of Anthropologists, though.  We don't normally reject Western culture.  It's difficult to hold to the concept of cultural relativism if we want to destroy Western civilization (believing in the inferiority of one culture is just as bad as believing your culture to be better than everyone else).  We just have to realize our shortcomings so they don't get in the way of our studies.  Your professor doesn't seem to be able to do that, unfortunately.

Answer 3

I think you're missing the point.

Anthropology means recognising/accepting ones own cultural bias - this is not a rejection.

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Answer 4

Yes, there is that problem in social science. My ideology does not matter much to my results, as I am constrained by the scientific method and peer review. I have been told that this 60's type of relativistic, ideological pseudo-scholarship is becoming less prevalent in social science. I remain unconvinced of that.

Answer 5

So you had a bad prof.  There are plenty in every field.  It doesn't mean the whole field is trash.  Anthropologists don't just study Non-Western cultures.  My Intro to Social Anth prof was an Indian Jew (from India) who got his doctorate studying a New England fishing village.  Anthropologists are supposed to respect everyone's culture, including modern American.  Anthropologists are supposed to acknowledge their biases and try to set them aside so they can be impartial because scientists, even social scientists, are supposed to be impartial.  Bad anthropologists give the field a bad name, just like bad Women's Studies profs make feminists look like Feminazies.

Answer 6

Anthropologists do not "reject" Western culture.  We simply understand that there are many different ways to live.

Answer 7

When you see the Orient or any other parts of the world, you see our world in a different way, and sometimes this reality shock some of us... I have lived 4 years in China, and never feel homesick, but when I was in the plane coming back, I began to fall sick... Now its better but still, we can see how we are controlled in our society, and this alone is enough to make some of us rebellious a little.

Ask your teacher if he did travel across the world, just for fun, I bet he has done the whole globe!