【分析解答题】

Nearly every society in human history has considered its own language finer, its own food tastier, its own manners more refined (or more honest), its own morals better (or more sensible), and its own religion the one true religion. (1) In smaller groups ethnocentrism takes the form of "team spirit", "local pride", and "company morale." Taken to extremes, ethnocentrism easily leads to chauvinism (the glorification of one’s own group along with fear and hatred of others), racial and religious oppression, warfare, and even genocide. In moderate forms, however, ethnocentrism makes for high morale and effective cooperation within a group. (2) Whether in a football team before a big game or in a nation at war, ethnocentric feelings have the beneficial effect of mobilizing and uniting a threatened group against its enemy. Finally, ethnocentrism can provide satisfaction and comfort. People often make themselves feel better by believing in other’s inferiority. "At least I’m not a grinD、"An important step in the uphill struggle ofAmerican blacks and women to win social equality was the increased self-esteem generated by such ethnocentric slogans as "Black is beautiful" and "Sisterhood is powerful."

As soon as it became clear that ethnocentrism was a common phenomenon, social scientists realized that they themselves might be unfairly judging the behavior of different peoples according to their own cultural values. (3) To avoid any taint of ethnocentric prejudice, anthropologists began to adopt an attitude of cultural relativism; the view that human thoughts and deeds should be judged not by any outside standards but only by those of the society or group in which they take place.Cultural relativism thus stood for scientific objectivity, fair-mindedness, and liberalism. It rapidly became the dominant view in anthropology and sociology.
At first, some anthropologists interpreted cultural relativism so rigidly that they refused to make any judgments whatever about human behavior. (4) In the 1930s the anthropologist RuthBenedict maintained, for instance, that the cultures of the world were all equally valid patterns of life and nothing any people did was invalid if it was in harmony with the rest of their culture. Paradoxically, the extreme cultural relativists, who wanted to give all other peoples due respect and resist all tendencies toward ethnocentrism in themselves, were drawn to the logical conclusion that anything goes—infanticide, headhunting, slavery, torture, ritual mutilation—provided only that it is in accord with the culture in which it occurs.
History soon exposed the fallacy of this doctrine of total objectivity. Under Hitler, the Nazis enslaved millions and put millions more to death. (5) After the 1930s it was no longer possible for scholars to maintain the stance of total cultural relativism. While contemporary anthropologists and sociologists continue to believe that the practices of another people cannot be judged on the same terms as their own culture, they also believe that those practices can be judged in the light of universal values and basic human requirements. Thus, any cultural practice that conflicts with such universal human needs as emotional security, physical health, and self-preservation should not be deemed as valid as practices that serve those needs.