Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Multiculturalism, cultural relativism, and ethnocentrism

Team Soc,
Today you are going to pick up where you left off yesterday.

What is multiculturalism? Fill out the definition.
 - How has it been implemented? Have specific examples.
 - Has it been successful (in the US, Europe, elsewhere)?
 - What is your response to multiculturalism? Is it good, bad, both? Why?
 - Does multiculturalism encourage unity (through greater knowledge of one another) or divisiveness?
What is cultural relativism?
 - How does it relate to multiculturalism?
 - What are the ramifications of cultural relativism (i.e. if one embraces cultural relativism, how does it impact how you interact with another culture)?
 - Are all cultural traditions (especially morally) equal? Should they be considered equal?
 - Can a culture be right sometimes and wrong at others? How would we know or decide if this was true?
What is ethnocentrism?
 - Is ethnocentrism superior to or inferior to cultural relativism? Why?
 - Some might say ethnocentrism is equal to cultural imperialism. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Final reflective questions:
 - Are you either cultural relativistic or ethnocentric? Or is there a tertium quid?
 - How can someone argue that cultural relativism is just a form of ethnocentrism?

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