So when anthropologists bash Western civilization and glorify trival societies in Africa, do they consider?

Question

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/kenya_elections

Answer 1

So do two wrongs make you right?

Answer 2

anthropologists have used many different models over the years to understand other societies as well as their own. Etnocentrism is to think your own society is the best and compare everyone else to your own understanding and standards, eg: we are more civilized because we have lots of cars, therefore people without cars are uncivilized. Does that sound like you??? hum, very civilized...

Answer 3

Depends on your definition of "successful."  Gluttonous consumer culture too concerned with individual  material gain to realize it is consuming it's very source of survival?.....Doesn't sound too "successful" to me. But who am I to judge?

Answer 4

n***s burned French civilians in a church, and not too long ago. Your point being?

Answer 5

Are you kidding?  Western civilization as we recognize it has been around for only a few hundred years.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the Renaissance was really the birth of modern Western society.  A few hundred years.  That's a pittance.  Ancient Egypt lasted 3,000 years.  China's been kicking it for several thousand, as well.  I mean, maybe if we want to include ancient Greece and Rome, but we have a thousand years between the fall of Rome and the rise of western Europe.  I'm sorry, but claiming we've got the "most successful civilization in history" is just American exceptionalist nonsense.

Also, anthropologists don't "bash" Western civilization as, like, a vital part of their profession.  Many anthropologists study Western civilization.  They don't "glorify" any cultures, either, unless they are wretched anthropologists.  The first duty of an anthropologist is to know his or her cultural biases and work to keep that out of his or her research.  An anthropologist is more likely to be critical of Western civilization, sure, but that's due to both learning about other societies and seeing where they function better than ours and to at least attempting to overcome their natural "We're number one!" urge.  

And let's face it, there are plenty of societies who do things far better than us Westerners manage it.  We're on top because we're rather war-mongering.  Even our technological prowess has more to do with arms races throughout history than anything else.  We don't treat our elderly particularly well, we're just now learning about the sort of social safety nets common in supposedly less civilized societies, and our rates of suicide and drug abuse are rather appalling.  There are things we do right, of course, but this sort of "We're always number one!" attitude is... actually, it reminds me of those idiots who always think they're right and refuse to listen to anyone else.  Yeah, the ones who end up falling flat on their faces someday, because no one's always right and we can all stand to learn from one another.

Answer 6

Who says anthropologists bash Western civilization.  And what "trival" African socieities are you referring to?  The Egyptians?   Or is your problem with coming to terms with the fact that our ancestors came from Africa?  Just wondering.

Answer 7

if you were to profile

a thousand professional anthropologists

one of their markers would be

a disgruntlement with their own society

when they were young

that is what made them

look outside their own culture

for answers

but with experience

their original romanticism cools

and they realize

that though cultures may vary

human nature is startling similar

cross-culturally

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