Discussion Overview
The purpose of this discussion is to explore how ethnocentrism can shape and distort our understanding of social problems, using the Amazon rainforest as a case study. Ethnocentric perspectives often prevent us from fully appreciating the complexities of other cultures and recognizing the unique challenges they face. In the previous assignment we learned about how changes in cultural values and norms over time can lead to rise of social problems because we are learn to see things, peoples, practices in new ways. One factor that prevents us from understanding the scope of a social problem can be ethnocentrism (using one’s own cultural norms to understand other cultures that appear different from their own). Ethnocentric thinking can be racist and often distorts the actual reality of the peoples and cultures.
The amazon rainforest is under threat due to numerous factors ranging from globalization to climate change, political instability, and land rights to name a few. We often hear people talk about the disappearance of the rainforests, which is important to do, but what is often less noticed is the disappearance of the peoples of the rainforest even though they are being decimated much faster than the vegetation.
The peoples of the amazon use plants for medicine. This is the foundation of much of western medicine and the field of ethnobotany explores the medicinal properties of plants and how peoples across the world use them. In studying social problems, we need to re-think our relationship to our past as you saw in the previous assignment. Likewise we need to re-think the way that cultural differences are understood saw that we can more accurately understand certain social problems.
Post: (200-word minimum)
Watch the two videos below and respond to the following questions:
- How does ethnocentrism distort our understanding of the social problems faced by the Amazon rainforest and its Indigenous peoples?
- What steps can we take to move beyond ethnocentric perspectives to better address these challenges?
Use specific examples from the videos and integrate key concepts from the module to support your response.