Friday, March 25, 2011

How does Ethnocentricity cause conflict?



The English had an Ethnocentric view of the first australians and as a result conflict emerged from what seemed to be the first impressions of a peaceful relationship. The english based their conclusions of the First Australians being savage on their own cultural standards and as a result they perceived them of being "sub-human". One of the people that influenced the first encounters of both the Australians and British was Bennelong, a great leader of a tribe who was kidnapped by British people. When he died his obituary was included in the paper, and it was quite negative because he had connected with his own tribe and discarded his british lifestyle to reconnect with his roots. In the Video "The First Australians" the Aborigional's thought that the british were ghosts because of they're white skin tones and because of they were wearing clothes, so the Aboriginals were also ethnocentric towards the british so this conflict created was entirely not the British's fault. Also in the movie it told of another way that conflict started and it was that when the british were exploring australia they discovered the Aboriginals had planted crops on the most fertile ground, near the river. The British ignored the Aboriginals needs and planted their own crops simply out of ignorance of the First Australians. The Main cause of this conflict was because how to british treated the Australians, like savages. The Australians were treated like savages because of their culture. They were treated like savages because they often didn't wear clothes and the british had a stereotype of people not wearing clothes, that they were stupid and weren't as valued as the british people, hence they treated them like animals.

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