ETHNOCENTRISM’S ROOTS

ETHNOCENTRISM’S ROOTS
Historically, ethnocentrism was associated with
European expansion and colonization across the globe,
and was often conflated with racism. Within the context
of White European ethnocentrism, culturally based
biases were often assumed to be grounded within the
laws of nature or seen as supported by biologic or other
scientific fact. For example, early Europeans conceptu-
alized non-Europeans as natural slaves who were
innately savage, imperfect, and subservient. Over time,
this concept underwent a theological modification that
conceptualized non-Europeans as natural children who
could be uplifted from savagery through Christianity.
After the introduction of Darwinian theory, European
proponents of scientific racism used questionable quan-
titative data on intelligence (such as cranial capacity)
to establish the natural superiority of White European
males over their female counterparts and over all
peoples of color. These attitudes were used to justify
the enslavement of subjugated peoples as well as to
establish institutional barriers to sharing sociopolitical
power with designated out-groups. Although the emer-
gence of ethnic identity and ethnocentric bias has his-
torically taken the form of Eurocentrism, in the late
20th century the political mobilization of groups such
as African diaspora and Hispanic populations has
resulted in the growth of, for example, Afrocentrism
and the Chicano movement