Cultural Chauvinism, Cultural Degradation, Cultural Pride

Cultural chauvinism, Cultural pride and cultural degradation are all aspects of ethnocentrism. In order to compare and define these aspects of ethnocentrism we must first have a clear definition of ethnocentrism itself. Ethnocentrism is the simple belief of the superiority of an individual’s culture. Ethnocentric individuals often believe that their culture is superior to others in every aspect. Chauvinism is an unreasoning devotion to race, sex, country, region and ect. When we add culture to chauvinism we now have an unreasoning devotion to one’s culture. This cultural chauvinism is the beliefs that one’s culture is superior and one can infer from the article that cultural chauvinism is accompanied with acts. In order for this to be an ism it had to be implicated through government practices. One example of this is the oppression of men who were not European men throughout the history of America. Men who belonged to minority groups were oppressed and had their rights as American men and citizens alienated. The law during those periods allowed cultural chauvinist to be justified in their oppressive, prejudice and degrading behaviors. Cultural degradation is the feeling of one’s culture being inadequate. Cultural degradation is normally followed after the oppressive acts implicated by cultural chauvinist. Those who are victims of cultural degradation often have a sense of low self esteem, self hatred and low self worth. They give into to the beliefs of chauvinistic people after continual discrimination and oppression. Last Cultural Pride is a healthy esteem in one’s culture. This differs from cultural chauvinism because it does not condone discrimination, oppression and overall superiority of one’s culture. These people also engage in healthy political action that affects their culture in many ways. They also raise awareness of microcultural thoughts. It’s like having school pride in school. One thing we should be mindful is that most cultures adopts beliefs, values and attitudes from other cultures. Many cultures have interconnecting beliefs, values and attitudes which prohibit them from being completely exclusive and unique because of similarities. Is there such thing anymore as a complete unique culture or a “Pure Culture” (meaning untainted from its original state)?