Blog 2, Taylor Britt

In the article about Richard Lee he gave into ethnocentric culture by believing that he was the top dog when it came to tobacco. He was no skeptic to his habit of his culture, but his bushmen were fair with their ways of the culture. Lee also showed his pride when he contributed to others in his community. But the others showed it in different ways than he did. During their Christmas ritual Lee wrote down how he felt about his bushmen. While he did this he had not realized that he was being ethnocentric. He had an ox that he picked out overall and did all of this by himself without telling his bushmen. He believed that the bushmen were not right or were picking with him. He felt tricked and this happens in all cultures rather than in this specific one. He stood his ground about his beliefs.

In the article about Yanomamo I thought it was critical that as a person in that society, everyone should be shown different cultures and come to an understanding. Everyone has their own morals. It can be overcome. These people work in the field and work hard for their survival. They do everything that they can to provide themselves and their own families with the next meal. After he drifted away from his ethnocentric lifestyle he began to get things done a lot quicker and more efficient by not thinking so highly of himself. He gathered up the names of the dead in his tribes and learned about what not to say before he said it. Obviously, it takes hard work and much effort to step down from an ethnocentric way of life.

I cannot think of an example of a certain group of people, or one person that lives an ethnocentric life. I can say that from reading these two articles it can be very difficult to breakaway from the chains. This way of living is not a very good choice in the way one should live their life. I personally would not want to surround myself with people or an individual that was ethnocentric. But these types of people are out there and could be deprived in a way. By sticking to themselves and being selfish or thinking too highly of themselves, someone can fall into a social hole. People way not want to associate themselves with this certain someone. This is all in my own opinion. An ethnocentric lifestyle is not one that I would want to live.