Ethnocentrism is the habit of judging other cultures by the standards of one's own. It shows up in small ways, like assuming your table manners are the correct ones, and in large ways, like dismissing another society's religion as superstition. The term was popularized by William Graham Sumner in the early 1900s, though the tendency is as old as human group boundaries.

Ethnocentrism is not always hostile. It can be a mild preference for the familiar. But it becomes harmful when it justifies conquest, forced conversion, or the destruction of other ways of life. Colonial administrators often described local practices as backward, which made domination seem like improvement. Anthropologists have spent much of the past century unlearning that habit and developing tools to counter it.

Recognizing it

• Assuming your own customs are universal or obvious.
• Treating differences as deficiencies.
• Measuring other societies against a single scale of progress.
• Using words like primitive or savage without irony.

The antidote is not guilt. It is curiosity, plus the discipline to ask how a practice makes sense within its own world.