At some point in our lives, each of us will have to respond to some type of cultural difference. Obviously, some professions and lifestyles will expose you to more contrasting societies than others. However, in a global world like ours, coming into contact with different norms is inevitable. There are two basic attitudes you can use when examining these different social norms. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first frame of mind you can adopt to formulate your response is called ethnocentrism. This means that you judge other cultures as if they should fit your worldview, conform to your norms. Ethnocentrism can help you maintain your sense of normalcy, keep your values ​​straight. However, it can also be a very dangerous mindset. Trying to hold other societies to the same standards and judging them by the same rules you would impose on people in your own society prevents you from understanding the values ​​of others. It's difficult to have understanding or sympathy for people if you ignore the thoughts behind their actions in favor of philosophies that better fit your expectations. This view can also lead to racism. The lack of understanding that comes from this judgment can lead people to believe that their culture is superior to another, based on arbitrary opinions about practices or beliefs about which they know next to nothing. The other way to judge other cultures is with a mindset called cultural relativism. This view emphasizes viewing a culture as a whole to judge its parts. With cultural relativism, one must understand that each culture has a logic that makes sense to the members of that society. Whether you approve of these values ​​or not, you can understand them if you evaluate them as a whole, judging them by their standards and not yours. Cultural relativism also emphasizes that each culture was formed under unique circumstances and that these different cultures cannot all be judged in the same way. The disadvantage of this state of mind, unlike ethnocentrism, is that you have to adopt a different way of thinking. Not that you necessarily have to agree with these different values, but you have to use a different mindset. This can confuse your values ​​and personal philosophy. One of the obvious differences between some cultures is race. Most people associate the part of the world you come from with a certain skin color. Some even assume that you have certain characteristics or attributes because of your skin color and heritage. However, from an anthropological point of view, race is not real. “Most anthropologists today agree that biological race does not exist and that racial classifications are socially constructed. This is because a) no group of human beings has ever been isolated long enough from another to make it biologically different from other groups. b) the selection of traits used in the past to define the race is arbitrary and is based exclusively on the visual characteristics and personal preferences of the researcher. c) there is an inability to describe variation within the human species. d) there has been repeated independent appearance of so-called racial characteristics in different populations without any direct genetic relationship. The biggest differences between people are cultural differences." (Week 1: Anthropology and human diversity). According to these findings, differences between races exist only in our minds. We invented other races because we didn't know how to classify people different from us. Race is.