POWER RELATIONSHIPS

POWER RELATIONSHIPS
Social status and power relationships are continuously
negotiated within every culture; however, those who
hold more authority are able to maximize their status
and advance a particular agenda. For example, by nat-
uralizing socioeconomic and status differences and
devaluing the cultural systems of the out-group, the
in-group creates an environment that fosters individ-
ual and institutionalized prejudice against the out-
group. Therefore, ethnocentrism is closely linked to
differential social power, wherein the more dominant
group can systematically inhibit, exclude, or deny
access to privileges, resources, and opportunities to
subordinate groups when competition for strategic
interests ensues. Conflicts over scarce resources, such
as arable land, potable water, or access to political or
economic power, are often framed within ethnocentric
terms as competition increases and hostilities escalate