Xenocentrism Valuing Other Cultures More Than Your Own

Xenocentrism is a culturally based tendency to value other cultures more highly than one’s own, which can materialize in a variety of different ways. In the United States, for instance, it is often assumed that European products such as wine and cheese are superior to those produced locally. In a more extreme sense, some cultures may idolize other cultures—such as the Japanese anime genre idolizing American beauty in its art, wherein it emphasizes such features as large eyes, angular jaws, and light skin. Xenocentrism serves as an antithesis to ethnocentrism, wherein a person believes his or her culture and its goods and services are superior to that of all other cultures and people. Xenocentrism relies instead on a fascination of others culture and a contempt for ones own, often spurred by gross injustice of government, antiquated ideologies, or oppressive religious majorities. Consumerism and Xenocentrism The entire world economy could be said to rely on xenocentrism in order to make the supply and demand model function internationally, though the concept of non-indigenous goods sort of puts a damper on this theory. Still, international markets rely on selling their products as the best anywhere in the world in order to capture foreign consumers and get them to fork over the extra shipping and handling fees to transport the good or service overseas. Thats why Paris, for instance, boasts its one-of-a-kind fashion and  fragrances as uniquely available only in Paris. Similarly, even the notion of champagne relies on an ethnocentric idea that the grapes that go into their particular sparkling wine are so unique and perfect that no except those from the Champagne region of France can call their sparkling wine Champagne. On the inverse of this situation, consumers worldwide herald the champagne as the best available, adopting a xenocentric idea of wine in this case. Cultural Impact In some extreme cases of xenocentrism, the impact on the local culture of its people favoring others cultures can be devastating, sometimes even wiping out the culture entirely in favor of its more desirable counterpart. Take the American ideal of the land of opportunity, wherein newcomers from all different cultures immigrate every year to the United States in hopes of starting a new life and achieving the American dream. In doing this, these immigrants often times must forsake their own culture in favor of adopting their American ideals.   After several generations of this American idealism, this xenocentric notion that the United States offers a culture of a better quality of life, the original culture of that group of people living in the United States has almost entirely died out, save a few lasting—perhaps shared—traditions. Another downside of xenocentrism is that often times  cultural appropriation rather than appreciation results from this love of others culture. Take for instance people who admire Native American headdresses and wear them to music festivals—while this may seem like it is being appreciative of a culture who the person thinks has better fashion than say his or her European culture, it actually serves to disrespect the sacred nature of that object to Native American people.