Culture, Ethnocentrism and Schindler’s List Essay

Culture is made up of values, behaviors, objects, and new(prenominal) characteristics customary to the individuals who atomic number 18 a firearm of a certain chemical sort or society. It is how we define and mold ourselves to our societys sh bed principles, enabling us to summate to our society. But until we experience different(prenominal) glossiness different from our confess, we are not even up a fighte of what characteristics make up ours. In most cases, we do not intromit our cultivation until other individual breaches 1 or our traditions, or we disregard some whiz elses.If a individual takes into consideration other cultivations standards and behaviors and empathises that there is no right or wrong mingled with the deuce assimilations, then that person has reached ethnical relativism. However, this is difficult to do as it is park for all volume e genuinelywhere to backside their own elaboration patterns at the marrow of things, no matter which elab oration he or she is a part of. When pack do this, heathen passage of armss are initiated, as seen in the movie Schindlers List, which portrays a nearly textbook example of intense ethnocentrism. cardinal of the features of either farming, ethnocentrism is the practice of settle another stopping point based on the standards of champions own culture (Macionis & Plummer, 2010). When a person evaluates another culture, that cultures traditions, customs, language, and other racial practices are compa rose-cheeked to his or her own, and scrams those plurality to be wanting(p) or lower to themselves. This discount make it to vanity, false pride, and a superiority tortuous, in regard to angiotensin-converting enzymes own ethnicity, resulting in condescending and sometimes tearing behavior towards the other culture.If the hoi polloi of one culture ref utilization or cannot understand or adjust to the other peoples culture, disastrous consequences arise, that include war an d genocide. This is the basis of the national affectionateist and Judaic cultures seen in Schindlers List. A movie by Steven Spielberg, Schindlers List is the true novel of Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party, a wo opusizer, a war profiteer, and the savior of to a greater extent than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust of WWII (Spielberg, 1993). The movie opens in Krakow, Germ whatever during WWII, with the sign persecution of the Jewish people living there. either(prenominal) businesses and jobs the Jewish people had were taken outside by the German military, and they now are cosmos cored into the Ghetto to be crammed together without their possessions and very trivial clothing and food. As the movie progresses, the Jewish people exhibit ever-increasing cruelty at the hands of German soldiers. In the middle of all of this is Oskar Schindler who is feel for a room to make a tremendous profit from the war. He starts a factory making pots and pans, using the Jewi sh people living in the Ghetto as laborers.The story is about Schindlers heathenish attitude (very German Nazi) that changes as he sees the tremendous and unwarranted torture and slay of the Jews that work for him. After questioning his Nazi values, he realizes how very wrong the Nazi opinions are of the Jewish culture, and ends up using his own money buying 1,100 Jews from a Nazi commander, in order to spare them from the Auschwitz expiry camp. His list contains the names of his workers, whom he buys to start another factory in the Chez Republic.After watching the movie, there was very little that this author did not find culturally shocking. The attitudes of the Germans towards the Jewish people were ones of disgust, hatred, and complete indifference to any pain, suffering, or fear the Jewish people were experiencing. The movie was filmed entirely in black and white (except for the little filles red coat), leaving the mantrap to concentrate and absorb the Nazis attitudes of cultural superiority over anyone not like them, without the distractions of the colors surrounding these two conflicting cultures.The red coat is extremely important as it symbolizes Schindlers modify first, as the little girl runs by dint of the Ghetto looking for a place to comprehend as her people are massacred by German soldiers (witnessed by Oskar) and second, when Schindler witnesses the combustion of 10,000 loose Jewish bodies heaped on giant glowing oodles, he sees the dead body of the little girl still wearing the red coat. One cultural difference between the American culture and the Nazi culture is the forcing of an entire race into one cardinal location, stripping a vogue rights, property, and employment.American culture would not do this, but the Nazi culture considered it their duty to round up and exterminate the vermin living in their country. The Jewish people did not mount or protest against their treatment from the German soldiers, even when one Jewish m an was dragged out of a line by a soldier and shot in the head in front of family and friends, for no reason or cause. In another scene of random shooting, a German commander used the working Jews in spite of appearance his camp as target practice.Although the people were working hard and were nearly starved, this Nazi viewed them as nothing more than rats and killed them. A person doing this in America would be arrested, put in jail, and most possible be given a death sentence after his trial. Another cultural difference (and one difficult to watch) was the burning of dead bodies in huge piles out in a field. Because the Nazi culture did not consider Jewish people to be human, it was perfectly gratifying to burn the garbage, as it was the fastest and easiest method of eliminating waste.There is no likeness for this to American culture, and the only other warrant instance of these vast quantities of burning bodies fortuity in history was during the plagues that hit Europe. It was a major culture shock to this writer to see half burned bodies being pulled out of ash piles, then carted to another burning pile, all done by the Jewish people imprisoned in the camp. Ethnocentrism promotes in equality because the culture who believes it is superior can be the larger or overriding culture compared to other cultures, giving it the personnel to create laws that discriminate against anyone that is different.Having supreme power, this culture can change the social and financial status of individuals or ethnic groups, without any concerns or remorse for stripping the very humanity from another culture. The dominant culture increases inequality by segregating any person (or group) judged to be outclassed to its own, or force the inferior cultures to give up their values, beliefs, and practices and require the dominant cultures beliefs.In extreme ethnocentrism, genocide occurs because the dominant culture believes that other inferior cultures need to be wiped fr om the face of the Earth, thus ridding the planet of dirty word and ignorance. Business is not conducted the same way between cultures, so conflicts can continue when the two different cultures are locked to ethnocentrism. One factor is the communication process in which each culture assumes that business allow for be conducted in its own inhering language, say English and Japanese.Correct version is crucial to success if neither culture is willing to do business in a different language other than its own. Certain accents may also honour ethnocentrism, creating a negative stereo-type and possibly reinforcing prejudices (Cross-cultural, 2011). A cultures social organization can also have ethnocentrism conflicts. For example, one culture believes in gender equality while another believes women are inferior to men, and so they have different or no rights compared to the men of that culture.Another conflict between two businesses from different cultures is the use of tyke labor . Western cultures find these practices horrible and exploitive, but those cultures that allow children to work do not put the value of educating their children to a higher place the familys survival. A working child can bring the family the much mandatory finances to provide survival necessities, such(prenominal) as food, clothing, and shelter for the entire family. As we have seen, culture is very complex and can influence every flavour of our lives.Ethnocentrism is a universal human chemical reaction that is seen in all known societies or groups, and in nearly every individual. Ethnocentrism may seem to encourage solidarity of a group and strengthen loyalty, but it also hinders any understanding of a different group or culture. Because one culture believes their way is the best way, there is no bonus to interact with another culture trenchant inferior. Positively, this sort of conflict often leads to social change, but negatively, it discourages changes and promotes discrimina tion, wars, or the genocide of another culture.