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A Critique Of The Concept Ethnocentrism As Set Forth In Selected Social Science Literature

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A Critique Of The Concept Ethnocentrism As Set Forth In Selected Social Science Literature

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Content This dissertation has been
microfilmed exactly as received
70-5197
ARISS, Robert McLeod, 1908-
A CRITIQUE OF THE CONCEPT ETHNO-
CENTRISM AS SET FORTH IN SELECTED
SOCIAL SCIENCE LITERATURE.
University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1969
Social Psychology
University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
© C opyright by
ROBERT M cLEO D ARISS
1970
A CRITIQUE OF THE CONCEPT ETHNOCENTRISM AS SET FORTH
IN SELECTED SOCIAL SCIENCE LITERATURE
by
Robert McLeod Ariss
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Sociology)
August 1969
UNIVERSITY O F SO U TH ERN CALIFORNIA
T H E G R A D U A T E S C H O O L
U N IV E R S IT Y PA R K
L O S A N G E L E S , C A L IF O R N IA SO O O- 7
This dissertation, •written by
...........
under the direction of /lija... Dissertation Com
mittee, and approved by all its members, has
been presented to and accepted by The Gradu
ate School, in partial fulfillment of require
ments of the degree of
D O CTO R OF P H IL O S O P H Y
( / Dean
Date Aug us t , 1 . 9 6 . 9
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE /
vy\j5 ;Vl..
/ / X A Chairman/
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION.............................
Purpose and Objectives
Justification and Expectations
Previous Writings on Ethnocentrism
Definitions and Clarifications
Methodology
Hypotheses
Scope
II. SUMNER AND ALLPORT: PIONEERS IN ETHNOCENTRIC
STUDIES .................................
Sumner1s Role in Ethnocentrism Theory
Critique of Sumner's Folkways
Allport's Role in Ethnocentric Theory
III. SOME HUMAN BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF
ETHNOCENTRISM ...........................
Existent Biological Background to Racio-
centrism
Historical Aspects of Ethnocentrism
IV. HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF ETHNOCENTRISM ........
Ethnocentrism in Teutonic Cultures
Norse-Eskimo Ethnocentrism
V. SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS AND ETHNOCENTRISM . . .
Ethnocentric Stereotyping in the Southern
California Mission Indian Program
Chapter Page
VI. SYNCHRONIC FACTORS IN THE EXPRESSION OF
ETHNOCENTRISM............................. 216
Situational Factors in Ethnocentrism
Basic Personality and Ethnocentrism
The Phenomenological Approach and Ethno
centrism
The Whittier Institute on Human Relations
VII. CONTEMPORARY GLIMPSE OF ETHNOCENTRISM AND
THE UNIVERSITY CULTURE ....................230
VIII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS......................240
APPENDIXES......................................... 251
A. Second Annual Institute on Human
Relations
B. Questionnaire Regarding Effects of
Ethnocentrism
C. Formal Demands by Militant Minority
Groups
BIBLIOGRAPHY 287
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Some critical treatments of ethnocentrism appear
in scientific writings, but many more examples of ethno
centric behavior are to be noted in mass media matrices
varying from conscious to culture-bound expressions. It
is felt that a wider appreciation of ethnocentrism is to
be attained by including also a selection from folkloric
sources as well as from the more formal scientific and
philosophical treatments. One aspect of this critique,
in deference to holistic approaches, is to contrast the
social scientific and philosophic to the folkloric atti
tudes in regard to ethnocentrism.
Ethnocentrism is defined in this study as the
pattern of attitudes of superiority which is attributed by
a sociocultural group to its own members and to its own
practices and activities when these aspects are compared
to analogous activities of other sociocultural groups.
1
Purpose and Objectives
The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze
and to clarify the processes operating within the field
of ethnocentric expression as it applies to human socio
cultural behavior. The principal role of ethnocentrism,
that of validation and reinforcing of sociocultural group
value systems and the fostering of morale within such
groups, will be discussed. The cohesive sentiments
developed by ethnocentrism within the unitary sociocul
tural group will be related to the antagonisms developed
among such unitary groups when in contact with cross-
cultural situations and as well the manifestations of
ethnocentrism developed within the subcultural groups of
the unitary sociocultural system. A unitary sociocultural
system is a group wherein the human carriers acknowledge
one another as members, are in conscious accord with the
values and traditions of their way of life, and who inter
act with assent in carrying out sociocultural objectives.
The largest such group at this point in time is the
national state.
Ethnocentrism also consists of a set of behavioral
effects manifested within the several sociocultural
enclaves which, in their totality, constitute the human
way of life in its widest sense. Ethnocentric behavior
studies fall within the fields of psychology, anthropology,
and sociology. The processual aspects of ethnocentrism,
and their end product, ethnocentric behavior, will be
discussed from the points of view of the above-mentioned
social science disciplines.
The basic objective of this discussion is to set
forth the mechanisms, processes, and the functions of
ethnocentrism, and, secondarily, to subject the folkloric
aspect of ethnocentrism to critical analysis.
Justification and Expectations
A comprehensive understanding of the nature of
ethnocentrism is needed to avert harmful intergroup con
flict in the present-day sociocultural order. Knowledge
of ethnocentric process is more important in this instance
than concern with the end products: ethnocentric socio
cultural group expressions. Use of the comparative
method is suggested in order to appreciate the ubiquity
and the entrenched condition of this rather self-centered
sociocultural complex with its endless manifestations
throughout the whole range of human groupings. Descrip
tion and clarification of the action of social forces
centering in ethnocentric phenomena are of utmost impor
tance at the present time when intergroup tensions at
international levels are developing in such a conflict
laden manner.
While it is expecting too much to anticipate any
great reduction of international conflict in the immediate
future, especially in regard to politico-military involve
ments at alliance levels, at the least it is mandatory to
consider candidly the nature and bearing of sociocultural
group self-interest upon intergroup relations. This writ
ing attempts to describe the workings of ethnocentrism
and to evaluate some of the group relations consequences,
ultimately with suggested applications of this knowledge.
At maximum, the writer expects to be able to focus
conscious attention upon the motivations behind ethno
centric attitudes and thinking so that its great effec
tiveness for activating social coherence and morale is
appreciated. Simultaneously, however, a counterbalancing
tendency, counterethnocentrism, is also to be noted,
wherein ethnocentric action is minimized in intergroup
conflicts, especially when the consequences of such tur
moil occasion dysfunctional or lethal results. At minimum,
it is expected that considerable resistance to open
discussion of ethnocentrism might be present, as these
values are closely associated with vested interests and
group welfare considerations, often felt to be unsuitable
areas for discussion.
Previous Writings on Ethnocentrism
A survey of the principal earlier writings on
ethnocentrism will now be offered. There seems to have
been relatively little written either directly or syste
matically about ethnocentrism. Very few articles list
the word "ethnocentrism" in their titles, although many
books and journals in social science and folkloric writ
ings treat ethnocentrism at some length.
Definitions and Clarifications
Basic concepts to this study of ethnocentrism are
listed.
Ethnocentrism.— Ethnocentrism is "the technical
term for this view of things in which one's own group is
the center of everything, and all others are scaled and
rated with reference to it."’ 1 ' By way of elaboration,
^W. G, Sumner, Folkways (New York: Dover Publica
tions, Inc., 1959), p. 13.
6
Sumner continued:
. . . Each group nourishes its own pride and
boasts itself superior, exalts its own divinities,
and looks with contempt on outsiders. Each
group thinks its own folkways the only right
ones and if it observes that other groups have
other folkways, these excite its scorn.
Critique.— According to Webster, critique is a
3
careful and thorough analysis of any subject. Both the
positive and the negative aspects of ethnocentrism are to
be considered from a point of view of the adaptational
value of the concept for the human way of life in its
widest manifestations. Adaptation is a teleological con
cern for humans and constitutes a basic position for appre
ciation of the nature of culture, an activity wherein the
human psyche makes use of cognitive guidance to achieve
its objectives.
Man-in-culture.— By man-in-culture is meant the
human life pattern consisting of an interplay among the
individuals who are in sociocultur interaction. The
social portion is an expression of le&_. .?g, as the
2Ibid.
Webster^s New International Dictionary of the
English Language (unabridged ed.; Springfield, Mass.;
G & C. Merriam, 1929), p. 534.
previous adult generation passes on its social practices
to the maturing group. There is depth in time involved
in this interaction (diachronic). Culture carriers in
the current on-going (synchronic) situation combine social
usages from the past with practices coming into vogue
during their life spans. Genetic process and human biol
ogy are basic to the somatic phase of man-in-culture,
while learning processes are the principal means of
transmitting culture through time. Ethnocentric attitudes
attach to both of these aspects and much confusion
ensues when the functions of human biology are assumed to
be causal antecedents to cultural process. It is only
indirectly that any human biological unit can effect the
cultural aspect of the human way of life, and that is by
originating and/or transmitting behavioral patterns that
are, or have been, incorporated into the way of life.
The interaction of the two phases of man-in-culture will
be analyzed separately in regard to the central interest
in this writing. The centrism associated with somatic
type will be designated "raciocentrism," and that per
taining to sociocultural effects will be designated
"sociocultural-centrism."
Adaptation.— Adaptation is a concept borrowed
from biological interests involving modification of
animal or plant organic structures in order to adjust the
life form more effectively for existence under the condi
tions of its environment. The adaptation envisaged in
this thesis is an analogical one: that of social rather
than organic structural adjustment, and with man making
the adaptations in the sociocultural environment. Indi
rectly, the wider natural environment is managed by prac
tices developed within the social environment, an instance
of the telic, or human self-directional propensity.
Ultimately, however, the sociocultural tradition must
operate in a consistent manner within the limitations
imposed by the" natural environment, or be subject to
extinction. The alternatives open for sociocultural
adaptation are infinitely more numerous than those avail
able to infracultural beings in their adaptations and
human intelligence provides the means for taking advantage
of the opportunities. Seemingly, this combination of
factors should make human beings nearly invulnerable in
adapting their ways of life to external circumstances;
however, there is also a tendency to traditionalize
irrational practices, or "culturally standardized
unreason,"4 so there is a continual interplay between
adaptive and maladaptive tendencies in all human ways of
life. The alternative to adaptive practices on the part
of sociocultural systems is dysfunctionalism resulting in
breakdown of such systems.
Knowledge.— In the scientific sense, knowledge is
"clear perception of fact by the senses or the understand
ing."5 Carter made the following insightful statement in
his article, "Plants across the Pacific":
Science is built upon a foundation of multiple
probabilities . . . only when a series of
probably correct answers begin to indicate the
same thing, do we begin to know something.
In accord with this view of knowledge, ethnocen
trism will be examined relative to evidence drawn from
several social science fields as noted later in this
chapter. It is felt that an interdisciplinary approach
will afford the fullest understanding of ethnocentrism.
4Clyde Kluckhohn, Mirror for Man (Greenwich,
Conn.: Premier Book, 1963), p. 26.
5George P. Carter, "Plants Across the Pacific,"
Memoirs, Society for American Archaeology (Salt Lake
City, Utah), XVIII, No. 3, part 2 (1953), 66.
6Ibid.
10
Existential-evaluative. -Existential-evaluative
are contrasting terms used by Kluckhohn."^ Existent (a
shortening of Kluckhohn’s term) designates the valid
operation of natural forces, the conditions, processes,
limitations, and laws within which physical, biological,
and sociological activities take place. Evaluative
(normative) designates the subjective interpretations
placed upon such activities by human beings in accord with
their own desires. The evaluative approaches are overly
self-involved and deferential toward the telic propensity
in human psychology; they are biased and may be nonvalid
in relation to the actual operation of natural or socio
cultural forces. The existent and the evaluative are
complementary, however, when the policies of human beings
are in accord with the actual working of the above-men
tioned forces. The operation of natural forces are per
ceived by the cognitive function < ] b f men everywhere, so
i
ultimately the human mind^ is the Mechanism for inter-
' ' !
preting nature, Man is the measure of the universe,
simply because human ideational faculties apprehend the
i
See Talcott Parsons and E, A. Shils, Toward a
General Theory of Action (Cambridge; Harvard University
Press, 1951), p. 392.
11
interrelationships. There is a range of attitudinal
interpretation of the operation of natural and socio
cultural forces? however, which may afford rather differ
ent final expressions dependent on basic outlook. Two
ethos systems are polar in this respect: the Promethean .
ethos approach calls for subjection of natural processes
to human desires, while the Buddhist ethic advocates man
in harmony with all other aspects of nature in a suppres-
g
sion of selfish impulses in order to attain serenity.
Genuine and spurious culture.— The concept of
genuine versus spurious culture was developed by Edward
g
Sapir. Genuine culture, whether in a complex or a simple
society, is essentially harmonious, balanced, and self-
satisfactory. "It is the expression of a richly varied
and yet somehow unified and consistent attitude toward
life."^*0 Genuine culture affords many outlets for
Q
C. W. Morris, Six Theories of Mind (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1932).
9
Edward Sapir, "Culture Genuine and Spurious,*
in Selected Writings of Edward Sapir, ed. David G, Mandel-
baum (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press,
1951), pp. 308-331.
10Ibid., pp. 314-315
12
creative activity of the carriers and elicits easily
their innermost support. Spurious culture, by contrast,
is superficial, overspecialized, and restrictive; it
depends on external pressures to obtain conformity from
its members.
Self-fulfilling prophecy.— Self-fulfilling proph
esy, a precept set forth by w. I. Thomas, applies well to
ethnocentrism. Thomas said: "If men define situations as
11
real, they are real in their consequences." As well
as to the objective elements of a situation, men respond
to the subjective meaning of such situations may have
for them. Subsequent behavior in turn is affected by the
prior ascribed meaning. What began as a false statement
of a situation has called forth new behavior which makes
the originally questionable statement become actual.
However, a redefining of the situation can prevent the
wishful belief from becoming actualized. The self-ful
filling prophecy is a mechanism whereby aspirations are
transmuted into realities. When this process brings about
13,Cited in R, K. Merton, Social Theory and
Social Structure CGlencoe, 111,: Free Press of Glencoe,
1961), p. 421.
13
a negative fulfillment, it is called "the suicidal
prophecy.n ^
Group♦ — For purposes of this writing., a group is
a plurality of persons in communication with each other
who share a common objective.
Culture bondage.-"-Culture bondage is the tendency
to act in accord with the values or training acquired
from one's early learning situation (enculturation)? it
may be likened to the conditioned response, specifically
the secondary response patterns, learned as a member of a
particular way of life or subdivision thereof.
The previous definitions constitute the major
concepts in this discussion of ethnocentrism. Other less
basic considerations will be defined as they are brought
into use in the development of the theoretical portion of
this presentation.
Methodology
A survey of social science writings regarding the
concept "ethnocentrism" will be effected by compiling a
12Ibid., p. 423, fn.
14
bibliography of titles in several social sciences; namely,
sociology, anthropology, both physical and social; other
fields such as social psychology, political science, and
history will also be searched for treatments of ethno
centrism. In the text a commentary will be made on the
theoretical import of some of the major works, or a note
of the emergent trends in theory will be included in an
attempt to understand and to explain ethnocentrism, at
least partially.
The approach will involve analysis of the ideas
of many writers as expressed in their development of the
concept as well as an attempt to synthesize these ideas
into a consistent statement of the forces causing and
conditioning ethnocentric behavior. Behavioral situa
tions, noted in historic events or writings or verbal
utterances, will provide datum points for analysis of
ethnocentric processes. In the bibliographic section,
the works included will show some interdisciplinary cross
cutting of ethnocentric concept and behavior. Also, the
institutional structures within which ethnocentric
expressions are imbedded will be discussed. A series of
definitions and clarifications relating to the concept of
ethnocentrism will be set forth.
15
The expression of ethnocentric behavior within
human sociocultural groups will be related to individual
psychological manifestations. Also, ethnocentric behavior
will be related to animal ways of life, especially those
of the "herd animals" whose emotional manifestations are
so often analogous to human social group manifestations.
Socialization (enculturation), the learning to
live according to the values of one’s original culture,
will be discussed as the process through which culture
bondage is attained, and by means of which one is invested
with his basic personality configuration* Here, acquisi
tion of ethnocentric attitudes by example and precept
within primary, peer, reference, secondary, and voluntary
group settings will be discussed as interrelational situ
ations within which ethnocentric patterns are transmitted
from the older to the younger generation of culture car
riers, The structure and role of the "social compo
nent"^— that is, that preferential recognition and re
warding of carriers of cultures for performing in accord
with the central values of those cultures, along with the
13
Ralph Linton, The Cultural Background of Per
sonality (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1945),
pp. 59-60,
16
tendency to ignore or discourage activities that are felt
to be inconsistent with the above-mentioned sociocultural
ethos expressions— will be treated.
Concepts related to ethnocentrism will be dis
cussed; for examples, culture bondage, basic personality
structure, morale, consciousness of kind, in-group, out
group attitude formation with laudatory designations for
the in-group and derogatory terms for out-groups, refer
ence group phenomena, stereotypy, discrimination, preju
dice, and bigotry, and the structure and attitudes asso
ciated with clannishness, local group preferential behav
ior, provincialism, nationalism, and Chauvinism. The
concept of social distance will be discussed in relation
to the above-mentioned sociocultural groupings.
Hypotheses
A principal hypothesis proposal at this time is
that ethnocentrism exemplifies, in an overall way, the
14
"self-fulfilling prophesy" concept of Merton. The
aspirations and objectives of social groups precondition
them to achieve their particular complex of desired ends.
14
Merton, op. cit., pp. 421-436.
The cooperative interaction of carriers of a culture
toward achieving their traditionalized goals in an ap
proved manner, is motivated by the persuasive feeling
that their particular way of life is the most sensible,
feasible, comfortable, and beautiful manner of operating.
If the goals of the group are within the bounds of pos
sible achievement, expression of confidence in outcomes
often lends the poise and self-confidence needed for fi
nesse and accomplishment of an objective. However, self-
assurance may not be all that is needed to bring an activ
ity to a successful conclusion; the objective must also
be within the range of possible achievement, or the
individual or group can not bring the prophecy to fulfill
ment no matter how great the self-confidence may be.
The observation of W. I. Thomas that "If men
define situations as real, they are real in their conse-
1C
quences," is the key to the proliferation of all ethno
centric structuring. All such systems thus rest on tradi-
tionalization within the range of the possible, and are,
in the last analysis, contrived rather than the inevitable
outgrowths of a narrowly perceived "human nature."
15Ibid., p. 421
18
It Is expected that as long as social groups
maintain their adaptive behavior, high ethnocentric con
cerns will contribute a morale factor that will facilitate
achieving such group goals. There is also the possibility
that a particular group program, or even a whole way of
life might fall short of achieving success and the self-
fulfilling prophecy aspect would not be validated. Such
a situation might result from cultures in contact attempt
ing to achieve ethnocentric goals while in competition,
with varying degrees of success in fulfilling their own
respective prophecy involvements. In such a situation,
the range might be from virtual extinction of some groups
to, in other instances, a recombined value configuration
implemented by a restated and expanded ethnocentric self
characterization in the surviving culture. An example of
this is to be seen in the Anglo-American-American Indian
fusion of ethnocentrisms. American Indian cultures were
dominated by Anglo-American culture; during this conflict
interplay, Plains Indian culture became a "lost cause"
stereotype for many other American Indian cultures under
going either extinction or extensive change. The over
simplified concept that "Plains Indian equals American
Indian" was reintegrated into the ethnocentric image for
19
present-day Anglo-American culture, an instance of assim
ilation of diverse Indian groups by reducing them to a
stereotyped "culture" that could be accorded minimal
recognition in the mosaic of total Anglo-American culture?-®
An explanation can be offered at this time to
account for relative lack of extensive or systematic
treatment of ethnocentrism. The social group value sys
tems to which carriers of cultures identify are reinforced
by a positive, supportive attitude that can be likened to
"morale." It is felt most important to share in a posi
tive way the expression of morale and to avoid any nega
tive or antagonistic attitudes regarding social group
functioning on the part of individuals to one another, or
of individuals to social groups, or among the groups so
formed within a sociocultural system. The particular value
expressions are a compound of biological and sociocultural
effects, at times patterned in their recombinations, but
at other times random and chancefully structured. These
configurations of action and belief are traditionalized
^■®John C. Ewers, "The Emergence of the Plains
Indian as the Symbol of the North American Indian," Annual
Report of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington: Smith
sonian Institution, 1964), pp. 531-544.
and often charged with urgency and priority via consensus
of the carriers of a social group, whether large or small,
primary or secondary. The ideas of ethnocentrism pertain
to the area of unquestioning belief in the prime appro
priateness, goodness, and beauty of one's original cul
ture— all others having been assigned less adequate posi
tions in a hierarchy of cultures. The rating system
often seems to be a dichotomy with one's own culture
designated as superior and all of the others in an undif
ferentiated inferior category.
The tendency toward de-emphasis in ethnocentric
studies is certainly not to be attributed to ignorance of
the nature of ethnocentrism, but rather to a sense of
loyalty to a way of life, perhaps coupled with an appre
ciation of the dangers of contravening well-established
mores and law ways along with the possibility of unpopu
larity, exile, suspicion of antisocial or treasonable
attitudes, incarceration or at the most execution, all
associated with the investigation or contravening of
ethnocentrism. In short, there is a latent feeling that
investigation of ethnocentrism is equivalent to finding
fault with the practices, a condition that could discour
age such studies. This may be a partial, but it is an
21
evaluative and a nonvalid explanation for the dearth of
social science preoccupation in this area, for self-
awareness regarding ethnocentric phenomena is a major
prerequisite of any realistic "existent” understanding of
social group structure and interaction from that of a dyad
to an intercultural world.
Scope
This critique will review and evaluate research
approaches in social science and folkloric literature in
regard to ethnocentrism from the year 1896 to the present
day concerning the developmental and theoretical consid
erations in the following fields in an interdisciplinary
manner:
1. Sociological, in the widest sense of that
term,
2. Anthropological, also in a widely construed
manner so as to include human biological
concepts within which ethnocentrism can be
expressed. Also, social anthropology is a
major area within which ethnocentric attitude
and behavior abound and constitutes the area
of research for this study.
22
3. The closely allied disciplines of social
psychology, history, and political science,
considered as other principal areas affording
data for conceptual treatments of ethnocen
trism.
The basic conceptual division in social science
lies in the operation and interplay of two sets of forces:
(1) biological, which provides individuals via genetic
heredity, namely the carriers of sociocultural tradition
("way of life"); and (2) sociological (sociocultural),
which accounts for the behavioral expressions of the
carriers of all human ways of life. The sociocultural
manifestations have a continuity in time through "social
heredity," which features the transmission of social
interaction patterns by learning processes. The interplay
of the forces operative in these two areas affords the
resultant manifestations of man-in-culture, wherein bio
logical man is the physical anthropological unit pre
requisite to human behavioral expression and sociocultural
man is the basic social unit prepared by conditioning
processes to respond in both individual and group ways to
stimuli in the natural and sociocultural environments.
Ethnocentric attitudes, both positive and
23
negative, are associated with group interaction; group
self-laudatory attitudes are expressed toward one's refer
ence group (in group) and derogatory, or at least conde
scending, attitudes are held toward all other groups (out
groups). The exaltative attitude that group members have
toward the physical type of their own membership makes it
essential to consider in detail these manifestations which
will be designated "raciocentrism," the tendency to make
the racial type of the reference group the standard for
prejudging all other racial types.
Analogously, the exaltation of the way of life of
any reference group can be designated "sociocultural
centrism." Both centrisms are subsumed under ethnocen
trism, The justification for this distinction is that
different hereditary processes underlie the manifestations
of each activity, genetic heredity in the case of racial
type affording relatively uniform resultants (Home sapiens
man) over immense time periods of human evolution, in
contrast to sociocultural heredity, which through learning
processes, is capable of a much more rapid tempo of change.
Sociocultural heredity is cumulative, with a range of slow
to very rapid concentrations of behavioral effect via
24
traditionalization, but genetic trait build-up is slight
and slow.
CHAPTER II
SUMNER AND ALLPORT; PIONEERS IN
ETHNOCENTRIC STUDIES
Sumner's Role in Ethnocentrism Theory
William Graham Sumner (1840-1910), an American
sociologist, was an important synthesizer of viewpoints
in conflict ideology and theory. Sumner, son of an
English artisan, was born in New Jersey. He studied at
Yale University and spent three additional years in
I I
Europe at Geneva, Gottingen, and Oxford. He tutored
mathematics and Greek at Yale in 1866, was an ordained
Protestant minister at New York Church, and occupied the
position of Professor of Political and Social Science at
Yale between 1872 and 1910. Sumner united the doctrines
of the classical economists with effects of Darwinian
natural selection thinking, all of which he worked into
sociocultural settings, thus sharing the approach of the
Social Darwinists.
25
26
Prior to his interest in conflict thought Sumner
was an organicist thinker influenced by the laissez-faire
viewpoints of Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) and Thomas
Robert Malthus (1766-1834); conflict ideas are involved
directly in the viewpoints as reformulated by Charles
Darwin (1809-1882), who held that natural selection of
biological types made survival partially contingent on
individual animals surpassing others of their own and
different species in food quest and avoidance of mishaps.
Surviving types passed on their superior heredity by
reproducing, whereas the disadvantaged failed to continue
their lineages. Darwin stated that his views applied to
human individuals and societies as well as to those of
other animals and plant groups.
Sumner was influenced toward conflict thought by
the work of Ludwig Gumplowicz (1838-1909), who elaborated
the role of in groups and out groups, and by Gustav
Ratzenhofer (1842-1904), who wrote of the "ever-increasing
peace group." Sumner sought to reconcile laissez-faire
and Malthusian economic individualism with the views of
the conflict school of thought. Richard Hofstadter
called Sumner "the most vigorous and influential Social
Darwinist in American thought."^
Sumner's systematic views on society were pub
lished after his death by a student and disciple, A. G.
2
Keller. There is some inconsistency of viewpoint within
the four volumes of Science of Society from that set forth
in Folkways, a volume which Sumner completed during his
transition from an organicist position to that of a con
flict thinker.
In Folkways Sumner dealt with the concepts of
ethos and ethnocentrism to some extent, although the major
concern of the book was with the folkways and the mores.
Folkways "are solutions to common problems which have
4
become customary." They are guided and checked by the
principles of pleasure and pain; they are adaptive and
manifest a strain toward consistency, although also
■^Richard Hofstadter, Social Darwinism in American
Thought (Bostons The Beacon Press, 1955), p. 51.
2
W. G. Sumner and A. G. Keller, Science of Society
(4 vols.; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927).
3
W. G. Sumner, Folkways (New York: Dover Publica
tions, Inc., 1940).
^Don Martindale, The Nature and Types of Socio
logical Theory (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1960) ,
p. 188,
28
customary usage is subject to chance elements. Folkways
believed to be right and true are enforced by tabu effects
and become morally sanctioned customs (mores) in contrast
to the more generalized folkways whose observance arouses
no moral excitation.
The conflict element in the folkways-mores con
cept of Sumner is emphasized by the we-group feeling as
opposed to the they-group attitude. It is here that the
mores are felt to represent group identity and interest
in a most sensitive manner. Here, there is an easy
transition from mos to ethnocentric attitude wherein the
shared moral precepts of the identification group are made
the ultimate standard for judging all other sociocultural
groups as inferior.
An analysis of the concepts which bear on ethno
centrism and the mores, as set forth in the text of
Folkways, will follow as a discussion of Sumner's thinking
in this area. Because Sumner regarded the mores as a
monolithic attitudinal complex, it has been thought advis
able to indicate that in every community there is diver
sity of feeling associated with varying group interests,
for example among the subcultural entities in a national
culture or the subdivisions thereof. It is thus possible
29
to recognize opposing moral precepts within a culture
which contrast to those stated to be paramount to the
carriers of a particular sociocultural tradition. It is
suggested that the term "counter-mos," or “counter-mores"
be used for this contingency. The processes of moral
sanctification are diverse and lead to intra- as well as
intersocial conflict over objects and practices that
comparable groups invest with moral sanctity,
A further systematization that Sumner noted was
that ethnocentrism invests with a superior connotation
all of the aspects of a particular way of life or segment
thereof. The superiority association consists of the
rationalization, esthetization, and moralization of the
material and spiritual inventory of a cultural tradition,
so that the mores and the ethnocentric preoccupations of
carriers of such traditions reinforce one another in a
patterned manner. In fact, ethnocentric persons would
probably agree that their mos complex was superior to
that of any other comparable way of life. This configura
tion of mos attitudes is a most important aspect for
members of a culture to emphasize? it represents "the
good" especially, in the triad of essences: "the good, the
beautiful and the true."
30
A critical review of Sumner's Folkways is offered
here, for in this important writing he defined and out
lined in detail the scope of the mores and of ethnocen
trism to a lesser degree and of ethos in a casual way.
All three of these concepts are related: the mores are
minute constructs toward the formation of a coherent
social order, ethnocentrism invests the totality of the
mores of a culture with an absolute, although self-lauda
tory, aura. Ethos is a patterned complex of mores that
characterizes the values of a way of life in a wide and
interrelated sense.
Sumner's definitions are clear enough as a basis
for a more elaborate follow up. Folkways and mores are
perhaps not distinguished sharply enough. Folkways arise
from attempts to satisfy human needs, as do also the
mores, but the latter have moral sanctions to enforce
them— are more normative, while folkways lack this
enforcement provision. Ethos is a wider interrelation of
traditionalized and systematized belief, Ethnocentrism
is the unqualified belief in the superiority of one's way
of life over all others.
Sumner began compiling the text of Folkways in
1899 from lecture material he had presented in college
courses. His viewpoint was then swinging toward conflict
thought from the closely related field of organicism.
The Sumnerian emphasis on adaptiveness and the very slow
change of custom was borrowed from the Darwinian mechanism
of natural selection, an extremely slow change tempo
attributed to plant and animal evolution, Darwin had,
however, readapted the thesis of Thomas R. Maithus, the
classical economist, to the effect that food supply vari
ations controlled the reproductive rates of animals, a
position that Sumner had known previously in a framework
unencumbered by the extremely slow tempos of organic
evolution. This double enrichment brought Sumner into
accord with Social Darwinists such as Herbert Spencer
(1820-1903), Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), Ludwig Gumplowicz
(1838-1909), Gustav Ratzenhofer (1842-1904), and Albion
Small (1854-1926), Improvement of genetic type through
conflict was the keynote among these sociologists of whom
Sumner was perhaps the most vigorous and influential
American representative.
According to Sumner, the mores are popular usages
and traditions "that are conducive to societal welfare
when they exert a coercion on the individual to conform
32
to them although they are not coordinated by any author
ity."5
Another factor minimized by Sumner is traditional-
ized irrationality. He mentioned magic as "primitive
stupidity,"^ and noted that folkways can arise from false
inferences. His organicist enthusiasms, however, made
the folkways and mores, like organic structures, "adaptive,
because existent," "correct by right of survival," or
"correct because operative"j all of these are post facto
justifications serving to conceal the nature and origin
of folkways in a biologic matrix, for as Sumner averred,
"they grow as if by the play of internal life energy.
They can be modified, but only to a limited extent by the
O
purposeful efforts of men."
Sumner also leaned on instinctual mechanisms in
establishing folkways firmly in a biological matrix. He
said: "hence the ways turned into customs and became mass
phenomena. Instincts were developed in connection with
Q
them." But immediately afterward, the mechanisms of
5Sumner, op. cit., p. iii.
6Ibid., p. 4. 7Ibid., p. 24.
8Ibjd., p. iv, 9Ibid., p. 2.
33
transmission are through learning: "in this way folkways
arise. The young learn them by tradition, imitation and
authority."10 There is much to reconcile here with a
culturally based learning process implied, but played
down in favor of an instinctual response.
Sumner sought to depress rational factors as much
as possible in order to emphasize the unconscious nature
of folkways. He was inclined to stereotype primitive
peoples as groups caught in the web of custom from the
"cradle to the grave," to use one of his colorful figures
of speech.11 The stereotype is not warranted, for there
are instances of creative and unconventional personalities
in the so-called primitive societies such as Petalesharo,
Pawnee; John Hunter, Kickapoo; Liliuokalani, Hawaiian;
and Eustaquio Ceme, Yucatecan Maya, Excessive stereotyp
ing of the primitive is an approach in accord with Sum
ners tendency to dehumanize cultural factors in order to
attribute a natural aspect to the simpler societies in
accord with his organicist and evolutionistic tendencies.
This is also "down grading," a familiar ethnocentric
tendency.
10Ibid., p. 2. 11Ibid., p. 4
34
Sumner established the role of the in group as
one of peacefulness, while members of the out groups are
targets for hostility, warfare, and plunder. This con
flict relationship is ready-made for the expression of
ethnocentrism.
Sumner introduced the concept of ethnocentrism
and related it to folkways as the tendency of each people
to exalt the totality of their culture over that of other
peoples, whose ways are the objects of a scorn often
expressed in derisive epithets (ethnophaulisms). Ethno
centrism strengthens the folkways to the extent of justi
fying warfare among New Guinea peoples on an intervillage
scale and intertribally among the South American Mbayas,
whose deity directed them to attack neighboring peoples,
killing their men and seizing their property and their
12
women.
Sumner wrote: "For our present purposes, the most
important fact is that ethnocentrism leads a people to
exaggerate and intensify everything in their own folkways
which is peculiar and which differentiates them from
others,
12Ibid,, p. 13
35
There is a tendency to claim highest status as
the "only true people"; this is often implied in the
literal meaning of the name of the group. The Caribs say,
14
for example, that "they alone are people."
Ethnocentrism is characteristic of present-day
states as well as the more simply organized societies.
Each state now regards itself as the best, the finest,
and the wisest bearer of civilization. All other like
15
groups are designated as inferior in these regards.
The sentiment of patriotism, or loyalty to the
civic group wherein one was born, is the current expres
sion of ethnocentrism which is opposed to the catholicity
of medieval times which sought to unite peoples in an
alliance based on religious ties. Had this succeeded,
ethnocentrism would have then reached alliance proportions
within theocracies such as the Christian versus the
Mohammedan ways of life.
Patriotism is felt to be a return of individual
obligation for the state-conferred advantages of security
and welfare. Sumner stated that the masses were always
14
Ibid., p. 14
15
Ibid., p. 16.
36
patriotic in a strongly ethnocentric sense.He sensed
the trend of the times when he wrote, early in this cen
tury:
It used to be asserted that the United States
had its great social purpose to create a social
environment which should favor that development
of the illiterate and unskilled classes into an
independent status for which the economic condi
tions of a new country give opportunity, and it
was asserted that nothing could cause a varia
tion from this policy, which was said to be
secured in the political institutions and polit
ical ideas of the people. Within a few years
the United States has been affected by an ambi
tion to be a world power. (A world power is a
state which expects to have a share in the
settlement of every clash of interests and
collision of state policies which occurs anywhere
on the globe.) There is no reason to wonder at
this action of a democracy, for a democracy is
sure to resent any suggestion that it is limited
in its functions, as compared with other politi
cal forms. At the same time that the United
States has moved towards the character of a
world power it has become militant. Other
states in the past which have had group purposes
have been militant. Even when they arrived at
commerce and industry they have pursued policies
which involved them in war (Venice, Hansa,
Holland),17
It is of interest to note the views of others in
this matter of war, peace, and ethnocentrism. Spencer
believed that organized conflict or militarism was "an
expression of cruder, lower societies. As civilization
16 17
Ibid., p. 15. Ibid., p. 63,
37
advanced, Spencer felt that wars would probably be elim
inated— this is an example of the 'self-adjusting prin
ciple' which offsets any tendency for conflict to be
either uniform or of long duration. In this view he
differed from Malthus who felt that conflict was perpetual
18
in a sort of cyclical rhythm."
Sumner had scant sympathy for the masses, as
indicated in the following quotation:
Wider knowledge always proves they {ethnocentric
sentiments) are not based on facts. That we
are good and others are bad is never true.
... By history, literature, travel and sci
ences, men are made cosmopolitan. The selected
classes of all states become associated; they
intermarry. The differentiation of states
loses importance.^
Here Sumner was illustrating his major theory of mos
change. The elite sector of society is less bound by the
folkways and mores than are the other sectors. The elite
follow their own whims and are the object of imitation by
their inferiors; this interplay among the classes initi
ates change in customs. However, the principal bulwark of
18
R. M. Ariss, "Social Conflict Antecedents in
Herbert Spencer's 'Survival of the Fittest' Concept"
(unpublished Ms., Bogardus Award Paper, University of
Southern California Sociology Department, 1958).
19
Sumner, op. cit., p. 15.
38
the folkways is the masses who generally resist change.
The section on chauvinism identifies the practice
. . . boastful and truculent group self-esteem.
It overrules personal judgment and character
and puts the whole group at the mercy of the
clique which is ruling at the moment. It pro
duces the dominance of watchwords and phrases
that take the place of reason and conscience in
determining conduct. The patriotic bias is a
recognized perversion of thought and judgmen£Q
against which our education should guard us.
A second way for folkways formation was attributed
by Sumner to unknown individuals, as he said, "A mind in
the crowd." The practices are then spread by imitation,
by "the mystic power of the crowd" which seems to be sug
gestion.^ In other discussions he denied that the masses
22
originate; they only transmit tradition.
In remarks on suggestion in politics, Sumner dealt
with ethnocentric notions, as follows:
In politics, especially at elections, the old
apparatus of suggestion is employed again—
flags, symbols, ceremonies and celebrations.
Patriotism is symbolically cultivated by anni
versaries, pilgrimages, symbols, songs and
as
recitations.22
20
Ibid
21
Ibid., p. 19.
22
Ibid., p. 46
23
Ibid., p. 23.
39
A corrective for the extreme credulity involved
24
in suggestion, according to Sumner, is criticism. By
contrast, folkways can become established by irrational
and accidental notions, which suggests to Sumner that
nature people (his phrase for the uncivilized) tend to
reason illogically. Other social scientists have offered
similar views on this subject of absence of logical thought
among a great number of diverse peoples vaguely labelled
as "primitive." What they had to differentiate them was
their non-European traditions. In common with all other
humans, they have complex languages, effective material
cultural practices, and social systems oftentimes very
intricate in the interpersonal and intergroup relations
in which they participate. Levy-Bruhl theorized that
primitive peoples, namely non-Europeans, were prelogical;
that is, they were unable to appreciate and categorize
sensory stimuli, and they reacted mystically in the mental
25
functioning. This is an example of wholesale European
ethnocentrism. Many individuals among the primitives
24Ibid., p. 24.
25
Paul Radin, Social Anthropology (New York:
McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1933), pp. 13-15 (citing L.
Levy-Bruhl, "Les fonctions mentales dans les soci£t£s
inf6rieures") .
40
interacted in social situations with Europeans on a basis
of mutual understanding, some even reaching high levels
of accomplishment in European cultures, just as many
Europeans, accepted into such cultures, learned to live
effectively within what at first must have seemed to have
been very exotic sociocultural environments. Europeans
also manifest illogicality, so neither the assumed spread
in mental endowment nor the differences in sociocultural
tradition are sufficient blocks to reciprocal understand
ing across cultural systems on the part of at least some
carriers— an indication that basically similar processes
were in operation.
The extensive stereotypy involved in lumping such
diverse primitives as, for example, the Arawak of Brazil,
Masai of Kenya, Australian aborigines, the Kachin of
Burma, Polynesians of Samoa, and Hopi Pueblo Indians, all
as prelogical mystics, reveals a basic ignorance of these
gifted peoples and probably represents, as well, another
instance on the part of Levy-Bruhl and Sumner of ethno
centric devaluation of non-European peoples. Occasion
ally, Sumner himself is a prime example of the ethno
centric process he so clearly enunciated.
Comments by Sumner on harmful folkways concern
41
the grave goods and the time wasted on funerary observ
ances. These remarks also afford an insight into Sumner's
attachment to the Protestant ethic. When one recalls
that he was also a Protestant minister, probably profes
sionally involved in conducting funerals, the contrasts
are even more ironical.
Two other modes of origin for folkways are men
tioned, namely the creativeness of a god or a culture
hero in the mythical past. An additional beginning for
folkways is in rationality which establishes the correct
mode of behavior; the tabu factor then enforces the ob-
26
servance of time-honored custom.
Sumner regarded the genesis of folkways as the
basic operation by which the interests of men in groups
are served; he observed that the life of society consists
27
in making folkways and applying them.
Folkways are raised to a higher plane of operation
when human welfare is attributed to their action. At
this level, folkways become mores. Again, "tabu," what
must not be done, is important in mos behavior. Tabu
26
Sumner, op. cit., p. 30.
27Ibid., p. 34.
42
can be protective in facilitating observance of a custom,
or destructive in repressing it. Tabu contains a judgment
28
of societal welfare according to Sumner.
Folkways are the antecedents of philosophical and
ethical considerations; the latter formulations are
compilations of numerous, minute expressions of the
folkways which are "attempts to live well under existing
29
conditions." As folkways become identified with wel
fare, they are held to be right and true as norms (mores) .
It is at this point that the mores become basic to philo
sophical conceptualizations.
Sumner equated the way of life of the masses to a
30
purely instinctive pattern, "just like animals." The
masses form the conservative core of society and respond
instinctively through inertia rather than in response to
interests, as do the more sensitive personalities in the
. 31
upper class.
Here, Sumner is following his organicist bent,
implying that social class differences are rooted in
biological difference. He is indulging in some class
28Ibid., p. 31. 29Ibid., p. 38.
30Ibid., p. 45. 31Ibid., p. 46.
ethnocentrism here in his attempts to dehumanize the
lower class of society. It is of interest to note that
he quoted W. J. McGee of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
who in a discussion of the Seri Indians of Coastal Sonora,
Mexico, also denied human status to these people. These
positions, are of course, preposterous and show the pro
found inadequacy of these two writers on these particular
matters. It is most ironic that Sumner, who formulated
the definition of ethnocentrism, should be led by his
penchant for phrasemaking into such a glaring expression
of class ethnocentrism. It seems likely that he was
identifying personally with the class of his father, who
was an artisan, perhaps the model for Sumner's epithet
for virtuous middle class: "the forgotten man." As for
McGee, his remarks on the infrahuman status of the Seri
have amused four generations of anthropologists and have
served as an outstanding example of the paradox in the
32
"science.of man": a grossly ethnocentric anthropologist.
In a moment of generosity, Sumner noted that it
32
W. J. McGee, "The Seri Indians," Seventeenth
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part 1
(Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1896).
44
is not only lower class people who are limited in their
thought processes, but also many individuals in the other
(middle and upper) classes are limited in their ability
to think except in the area of their special proficiencies.
But the insight is fleeting, for he then refers to
Negroes and Indians as "masses of men who are on substan
tial equality with each other [who] can never be anything
but hopeless savages,"33 This implies an inferiority
attributable to race, an example of racial ethnocentrism,
or to use a neologism, "raciocentrism." That he really
means what he has said is evident from his next comments,
which are the epitome of Social Darwinist thought:
Masses of men who are approximately equal are
in time exterminated or enslaved. Only when
enslaved or subjugated are some of them carried
up with their conquerors by organization and
discipline (Negroes and Indians amongst us).34
This is a very stark statement of "survival of the fit
test" and/or improvement of biological stock by struggle
phenomena.
Sumner was emphatically opposed to popular educa
tion, predicting that such a system would be undemocratic.
33
Sumner, op. cit., p. 48,
34Ibid.
45
35
a desperate and doubtful method. In his day, Sumner
would have had most support on his stand on this issue
from leaders in business and the military because of the
expense and the challenge to the leadership positions
held by the above-mentioned groups and their offspring.
Institutions were defined as conceptualizations
(idea, notion, doctrine, or interest) which are associated
with a social structure. Although institutions and law,
as well, are derived from the mores, Sumner felt the
rational element was so high as to obscure the points of
origin. He was much opposed to popular education, per
haps needlessly, for an important role herein has been
the building of support for folkways and mores, especially
those considered basic to national security. In another
section he recommended the training of the intellect to
enhance critical!ty; this would encourage a critical
attitude toward the folkways. Because he, by turn, advo
cated or deplored such an approach, it is sometimes very
difficult to reconcile his positions.
Sumner held that acts of legislation were derived
from the mores. In simpler societies, all regulations
35Ibid., p. 52.
46
are custom and tabu relationships constituting the body
of common law. However, legal interpretations may increase
but the mores remain the basis for formal legal structure.
It is an oft-repeated adage stemming from Sumner that
legislation, to be effective, must be "consistent with
36
the mores." There is a conflict of viewpoint here, for
the attitude of the mores is one of sentiment, especially
in regard to the so-called "unwritten laws," whereas most
enacted law is rational and practical in character.
Psychological states not in accord with the atti-
tudinal field of the mores are: rationality, intentional
and conscious reflection, authority based on rationality,
conventionalized arrangements, injunctions, prohibitions,
and projects formally adopted by voluntary organizations.
Conscious appeals to mores in advertising, jour
nalism, and political expression are not part of mos
structure, although the ingenuity manifested in these
matters is an application of psychology intended to ex
ploit these sentiments.
Goodness and badness, according to Sumner, are
not concerns in mos practice, for there is no problem in
36Ibid., p. 55
47
this respect. The mores are to promote welfare and are
ipso facto good. Effectiveness is the only test perti
nent to the mores. "Good mores are those which are well
adapted to the situation. 'Bad' mores are those which
37
are not so adapted." Continuing, Sumner said, "Hence
our judgments of the good and evil consequences of folk
ways are to be kept separate from our study of the his
torical phenomena of them, and of their strength and the
reasons for it. The judgments have their place in plans
3 8
and doctrines for the future, not in a retrospect."
Change is possible in mos readjustment, so that
persons at a subsequent time may pass judgment on a given
set of mores, or people in a different culture may so
judge the mores of another way of life with which they
39
are familiar.
Further in this vein, Sumner stated: "They [mores]
are all equally worthy of attention from the fact that
they existed and were used . . . for the men of the time
there were no *bad* mores. What is traditional and
correct is the standard of what ought to be."40
37Ibid., p. 58. 38Ibid., p. 59.
39Ibjd., p. 109. 40Ibid.. p. 59.
48
The uncritical response to mos standards furnishes
a parallel to a wider preoccupation with the uncritical
acceptance of ethos by the carriers of a culture. These
responses may be designated as "mos bondage" and "culture
bondage" respectively. Ethnocentrism is thus akin to
both mos and ethos phenomena, for in the case of ethno
centrism, a complex of mos values is exalted above a like
complex characteristic of another culture system.
When the mores are questioned, this is an indi
cation that the folkways have begun to lose firmness and
are on their way to new adjustment. Sumner stated:
. . . the extreme folly, wickedness and absurd
ity in the mores is with persecutions, but the
best men of the seventeenth century had no
doubt that witches existed and that they ought
to be burned. The religion, statecraft, juris
prudence, philosophy and social system of that
age all contributed to maintain that belief.
Critique of Sumner's Folkways
Sumner had an alert and discerning manner in
making his formulations in social science. His interests
ranged widely over sociology, political science, anthro
pology, and history. He emphasized systematization as
41Xbid., p. 59.
49
exemplified in Folkways, and had even greater aspirations
to draw his extensive knowledge together in his plans for
Science of Society, which was published after his
death. There are contradictory currents in Folkways, and
even more to reconcile in his major four-volume publica
tion which was finished by his follower, A. G. Keller
(1874-1952) ,
Like Spencer, Sumner depended on the observations
of others for much of his data and was thus unable to
control the material in a first-hand manner. Sumner
accepted a few unreliable constructs, but in general he
was very able in making use of the anthropological and
historical material of his day* It is easy to note dis
credited positions in the social science of a past time
when seen from a point seventy to eighty years later, so
in spite of some of the misconceptions, Sumner was one of
the outstanding social scientists of his time, as well as
a pioneer in social organization studies such as folkways,
ethos, and ethnocentrism.
Sumner's descriptive work is masterful; he sensed
the mechanism of formation of cultures in the origin,
42
Sumner and Keller, op. cit.
growth, change, and demise of the folkways. This is
perhaps to be expected from his early organicist back
ground. It is also, a limitation, as he did not truly
sense that psychological interaction, rather than biologi
cally oriented process was crucial to sociocultural evo
lution. We note him thoroughly anchored in the present
with little flexibility in regard to cultural dynamics.
It is true that he speaks of "syncretism," a sort of
culture contact and change process with a dominance-
subordination resultant wherein the folkways of the con-
43
quered group are rendered obsolete. Mostly, however,
he is anchored in the present and feels slight concern
for the effects of the historical past on folkways, and
little interest in the interplay of the mores of different
sectors of the society of his day, or any great concern
with the interactions at the level of the mores of differ
ent cultures in contact (and the New World is an outstand
ing amphitheatre for the contact of many European cul
tures with a multitude of aboriginal American societies).
In fine, Sumner lacked interest in sociocultural dynamics.
Here, his organicism sets the mood of stability with, at
43Ibid., p. 116
51
most, extremely slow adaptational changes as the measure
of validity.
The conflict interest manifested by Sumner was a
later phase of his thinking, but apparently this all too
dynamic leitmotif was insufficient to disturb the set for
stability so pronounced in Sumner's approach. This en
deared him as a philosopher of the status quo to the
business world and to the political and military estab
lishments. Today he would have been regarded as ultra
establishment to honor the catchwords of the 1960's.
Personally, Sumner was not static. His colorful
and crisp phrases, occasionally extreme, pointed up a
personal flair similar to that of Herbert Spencer, his
English Social Darwinist counterpart. Sumner took bold
stands unflinchingly, as for example, his unpopular oppo
sition to the Spanish-American War. While he was not
jingoistic, nevertheless he took for granted the exercise
of power by the strong over the weak. "The strain to
inconsistency," to corrupt one of Sumner's phrases,
shows occasionally, as in this instance when an organicist-
conflict exponent, such as he was, opposed a nationalist
war, but on another occasion could condone conquest
52
44
practices applied to "Negroes and Indians among us."
Regardless of these inconsistencies, Sumner
pioneered with original concepts, valid today, in the
area of sociocultural attitudes, such as folkways, mores,
ethos, and ethnocentrism.
Dr. George P. Murdock has written a general article
on ethnocentrism in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sci-
45
ences. Another useful title on this subject is A. A.
46
Roback's Dictionary of International Slurs. Roback
listed over 3,000 ethnophaulisms, derogatory names, and
allusions to out-group persons and traditions; there are
1,000 such terms in English in this publication.
Lewin and Lippitt made an experimental study of
leadership configurations and noted leadership-follower-
ship interrelations under authoritarian though more per-
47
missive conditions. Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif experi-
^See supra, p. 44.
45
George p. Murdock, "Ethnocentrism," Encyclo
pedia of the Social Sciences (New York: MacMillan Company,
1948), V, 613-614.
46A. A. Roback, Dictionary of International Slurs
(Cambridge, Mass.: Sci-Art Publishers, 1941).
^K. Lewin and R. Lippitt, "An Experimental Ap
proach to the Study of Autocracy and Democracy: A Prelim
inary Note," Sociometry, Vol. I (New York: Beacon House,
1938).
53
mented with building up and breaking down morale patterns
in a study of boys in a summer camp environment observed
by the experimenters disguised as camp administrative
48
personnel. The above experiments indicate that such
authoritarian and also the relatively more permissive
ethnocentric attitude complexes in leadership-followership
are within the area of learned response and can be manip
ulated experimentally from one end of the range to the
opposite.
More specialized treatments of ethnocentrism are
scattered throughout social science and folkloric writ
ings.
Allport's Role in Ethnocentric Theory
Gordon Allport developed a scheme for discussing
the area of prejudice which provides an integrated
49
approach to topical concepts, in his Nature of Prejudice.
A similar approach is followed here in discussing
48
Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif, Groups in Harmony
and Tension (New York: Octagon Books, Inc. [reprint],
1966) .
49
Gordon Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (Garden
City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1958).
54
ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism and prejudice are closely
similar attitudinal systems, for both manifest a tendency
to overgeneralize (stereotype) the attributes of socio
cultural groups other than the group with which the
carriers identify. As well, the group with which one
identifies is held to be superior to all other socio
cultural entities.
After indicating the bipartite division of the
human way of life into biological and sociocultural
phases, it is necessary to emphasize that each phase in
itself affords a basis for ethnocentric sentiments. The
physical type of the reference group is held to be super
ior to that of other groups if this happens to be the
subject of consideration. The appreciation of where the
biological and sociocultural factors interdigitate may
not be clearly appreciated, but the group self-supportive
attitude is present nonetheless.
The Allport approach to the study of prejudice
offers a flexible and holistic way to discuss the closely
similar complex ethnocentrism.
Allport's diagram of theoretical and methodological
55
50
approaches to the study of prejudice outlines an inter
disciplinary approach similar to the one that will be
used in this treatment of ethnocentrism. The Allport
chart illustrates a focusing of theoretical interpreta
tion in terms of external and internal influences which
condition the behavior of social groups in a particular
on-going sociocultural activity. All of the forces in
operation affect the behavioral resultant proportionately
and shape the event in a causal manner.
The historical approach is concerned with the
prior traditionalizing effects that predispose a socio
cultural group to behave according to its customary
usages. Usually there is a functional result that ensues
- from the activity so that the welfare or coherence of
the group is reinforced. Some traditional observances
have survived past previous meaningful associations and
may be in the process of obsolescence. Ethnocentrism
seemingly has a long historical background, especially in
culture contact situations wherein peoples in conflict
have viewed each other as different and probably inferior.
Graeco-Roman downgrading of Britons in antiquity— Britons
5QIbid., Pig. 11, p. 202.
returning the antagonisms and contempt in World War II
confrontations; early Scandinavian and Amerindian peoples
contending for supremacy in Greenland; Christian and
Mohammedan empires in conflict with concurrent mutual
ethnocentric disparagement; South African Boers, British,
and Negroid peoples traditional!zing their antipathies in
racial conflict involvements; and caste attitudes growing
in India and the United States with social distance
practices that reinforce segregation conditions. All of
these are fertile fields for ethnocentrisms.
Ethnocentrism carries strong persuasiveness when
coupled with the feeling that reference group goals are
paramount. Ethnocentrism serves to consolidate uniform
ity and morale, conditions necessary to the continuity of
sociocultural systems. On-going sociocultural traditions
represent partly the momentum from past practices contin
uing into the present operation of social systems in the
manner of a moving equilibrium. Urban developments are
attracting groups with different cultural antecedents so
that ethnocentric attitudes of carriers of the subcultures
make contacts that resemble, in a reduced sense, the
effects of acculturation. On an even more minute scale,
competing reference groups within institutional structures
57
may build up attitudes that express ethnocentrism in such
small group strivings.
Sociocultural and historical factors often fall
together as influences on the social environment.
Ecological considerations provide another back
ground factor that influences the attitudes and actions
of culture carriers. The effects relate more to current
practices rather than to previous conditions. Forces
operative within the physical and sociocultural settings
have a way of eliciting conformal responses from culture
carriers. Expectations of role behavior appropriate for
individuals constitute antecedent conditions as one
learns to express ethnocentric attitudes toward socio
cultural rivals. Often one goes against his own desires
in accepting such roles and may seek to by-pass participa
tion or to change a set of values that are current. The
emphasis in this section of Allport's diagram is on inter
nalizing the stimuli from the situational setting and
responding in this case with ethnocentric attitudes ac
quired in the enculturation process of learning one's
culture. The operetta. South Pacific, lays open the
process in this kind of social situation in the sequence,
"You've Got to Be Taught to Hate":
58
You've got to be taught before it's too late
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate.
You've got to be carefully taught
The next concern in Allport's scheme for discuss
ing prejudice goes farther into depth psychology in search
of alleged basic motivations from which proceed the
antagonisms associated with prejudice and ethnocentric
disparagement. It has been hypothesized that frustrations
over being bested in a conflict situation are displaced
upon groups felt to be of inferior social class. A
similar thesis maintains that only insecure persons
displace their emotional conflicts by ethnocentric scape
goating. If one combines the frustration and displacement
responses, there is still a considerable number of people
who do not become frustrated to the point of displacing
their antagonisms, however great the provocation, so this
theory is incomplete.
Finally, a person's actions are structured from
his perception of the forces operative in the physical
and social situations. Perceptions, values, and judg
ments internalized during the enculturation phase will
^Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein. South
Pacific (New York: Williamson Music Company, Inc., 1949),
59
probably impel action in accord with such value posi
tions. The convergence of the external and internal
factors constitutes the "phenomenological" approach which
assays to account for the combined effects of all of the
aforementioned factors as they come into play, in this
case, in the manifestation of ethnocentric behavior.
In accord with this scheme, the materials bearing
on ethnocentrism will be discussed in the manner followed
by Allport.
Allport mentioned race as a factor in brief, but
had little to say about it as a target for raciocentric
downgrading. An analysis will be offered here to indi
cate that race is credited with far more importance than
it really merits in the functioning of the human way of
life and that reduction of antagonisms could well start
in the area of raciocentrism, as the alleged differences
of biological and psychological function attributed to
subspecific (racial) difference has never been convinc
ingly demonstrated. The objection to the validity of
Negroid-Caucasoid comparisons in particular arises from
two basic inadequacies in the test structures. Where,
for example, does one find "pure" Negroid or Caucasoid
phenotypes for test subjects? If a group of Negroids is
60
brought from Africa on the assumption that their racial
condition is pure, one must remember that Africa north of
the Sahara Desert has been predominantly non-Negroid in
its past. There is no assurance that racial admixture
among many kinds of Africans has not taken place there.
Even though it were to be granted that no racial admixture
had taken place in the African hearth in pre-European
times, the later arrivals, people principally of Caucasoid
stock (including some East Indians) and other racial
variants have been sources of genetic admixture with
Negroid peoples. Even in the African homeland, selection
of "pure" Negroid subjects would be a somewhat dubious
procedure. The cultures of African peoples are different
enough to prejudice the tests so far as equating the
cultural variable is concerned.
If one is to compare a Negroid representative
group from United States Negroes it is even more elusive
racially, for it is estimated that about 85 per cent of
recognizably Negroid types in the United States have
Caucasoid and/or Mongoloid genetic backgrounds as well
as their Negroid racial endowment. From the remaining 15
per cent of supposedly Negroid lineages that have not
interbred with Caucasoids or Mongoloids (via American
Indian admixture) should come the subjects for Caucasoid-
Negroid "race difference tests.” But who could possibly
identify the Negroid phenotypes who belong in the "pure"
category? There are no records and it is impossible to
"eyeball" the pure phenotypes among the United States
Negroes. It is practically impossible to select racially
pure Negroid types validly in order to be sure that
somatic "negritism" is represented* In Africa the racial
variable would be somewhat more identifiable, but it would
be nearly impossible to equalize the cultural variable.
It is not yet possible to obtain culturally comparable
Negro subjects in the United States either because of the
caste biases present everywhere, in varying intensities
in Anglo America. Ironically, before racial and cultural
test comparability can be attained, there will have
occurred so much interplay among both racial and cultural
factors that we may just never know with certainty what
the differences really were* If the factor of hybrid
vigor is in operation (again hard to verify by test), it
will not much matter, as the greater portion of United
States Negroids are Caucasoid-Negroid hybrids, valid types
in their own right if not actually superior to the pure
Negroid or the pure Caucasoid physical types who procreated
62
them. If this were realized generally, the sociocultural
factors would form the only problem area. This is the
way the processes would operate if these matters were
considered from the "existent” viewpoint (that of a candid
and valid appreciation of the processes in their opera
tion) . Because these matters are most often considered
evaluatively (in deference to folklore and special plead
ing) , the results of the tests will not convey valid
information, but will reinforce the evaluative stance of
the caste-conscious and ethnocentric pro-Caucasoid United
States community. If the situation were reversed, and
Negroids were the dominent group with Caucasoids disad
vantaged, the "native ability" tests might find statis
tically that the Caucasoids were less gifted than Negroids.
Again, the same objections could be raised to the tests
because the Caucasoids were not racially pure and the
tests had not controlled for a disadvantaged life exper
ience configuration, thus violating the equal opportunity
caveat.
Arthur R. Jensen, an educational psychologist at
the University of California at Berkeley, has maintained
that intelligence differences are due primarily to genetic
differentials, that the "heritability" of intelligence is
63
of the same order as that of eye color or of stature, and
that whites are genetically superior to Negroes in intel-
52
ligence. He wrote:
I believe such definitive research is entirely
possible but has not yet been done— so we are
left with various lines of evidence, no one of
which alone, but which viewed all together make
a not unreasonable hypothesis that genetic
factors are strongly implicated in the average
Negro-white intelligence differential.55
Jensen*s approach was analyzed as follows in an
article by Gilbert Voyat titled, "IQ: God-given or Man-
54
made?*
. . . first he criticizes and compares the
results of IQ tests? next given differences, he
sorts out the environmental and genetic factors?
then he minimizes the influence of milieu, anal
yzes the remainder in terms of biological impli
cations and finally compares two ethnic groups
and ascribes their difference to genetic fac
tors .55
Jensen offered no meaningful discussion of intel
ligence. Quantification techniques carry the burden of
52
Arthur R. Jensen, "How Much Can We Boost I.Q.
and Scholastic Achievement?1 * Harvard Educational Review,
Winter, 1969, pp. 1-117.
5?Ibid., p. 82.
54Gilbert Voyat, "IQ: God-given or Man-made?"
Saturday Review, May 17, 1969, pp. 73-75, 86-87.
55Ibid., p. 75.
64
his rather declarative argument in favor of the genetic
determination of intelligence. According to Jensen, Negro
intelligence quotients are fifteen points lower than those
56
of whites and Orientals.
Toward the end of his paper, Jensen's argument
changes from dogmatic to persuasive in tone and finally he
shifts the burden of proof to geneticists, as indicated by
the following quotation:
There seems to be little question that racial
differences in genetically conditioned behavioral
characteristics such as mental abilities, should
exist, just as physical differences. The real
question, geneticists tell me, are not whether
there are or are not genuine racial differences
that attach to behavior because there undoubtedly
are. The proper questions are: what is the
direction of the difference and what is the
significance or the difference . .
Jensen dealt with race, but made no effort to
define it. He spoke of Negro in contrast to white as
though there were no in-betweens, whereas extensive inter
breeding has taken place among Anglo-American Negroids,
Caucasoids, and Mongoloids, For purposes of the intelli
gence tests, there is no way to control this uncertainty.
56
Jensen, op. cit., p. 73.
57
Ibid., p. 114.
655
Another consideration affects the validity of the intelli
gence tests referred to by Jenson; they could not be used
for testing Negro-white intelligence comparisons outside
of Anglo-American culture. Any final word on intelligence
differentials between Negroes and whites must be based on
these considerations throughout the whole distribution of
the two races.
Occasionally Jensen recognized the actual complex
ity of heredity and environmental interplay, as noted in
the following quotation:
The preponderance of evidence, is in my opinion,
less consistent with a strictly environmental
hypothesis than with a genetic hypothesis which,
of course, does not exclude the influence of
environment or its interaction with genetic fac
tors.58
Jensen's limited view of racial differences attrib
utable to interbreeding leaves him no way of dealing with
the effects of hybrid vigor. As a notable exception to
his thesis, this factor, as well as the inadequacy of the
controls of the intelligence tests, make the area one of
fluidity rather than one for simplistic determinisms.
The heavy load of statistics in Jensen's paper
makes it seem to be overly exact, for there are many
58Ibid., p. 82
relationships that need qualitative clarification before
quantification is in order. For example, what is the
scope of race, or the nature of intelligence? Assigning
quotients to Negro-white intelligence manifestations and
making rule-of-thumb identifications of racial groups do
not serve the need for more complete understanding in
this area.
Peoples discriminated against often express over
compensation when co-equal opportunity is being realized,
for example in athletic competition. Here, the desire to
excel counteracts the handicaps of discrimination. This
is another intangible that can upset racial comparisons,
indicating what high performance levels can be reached by
groups which have been tantalized and ridiculed. A fair
start from scratch for all racial variants in all activ
ities might reveal unsuspected sensibilities. Not only
is this mandatory in the existent sense for valid inter
racial test procedures, but it is a morale builder and
ethical as well. Our current preoccupation with favorable
social distance privileges for Caucasoids tends to bias
our test procedures at their very base when Negroes (or
any other very dark-skinned peoples) are being compared.
The effect produced is one of a self-fulfilling prophecy
67
in the negative expressed and effected by disadvantaged
groups.
Here it will be noted that ethnocentrists usually
stereotype other groups than their own reference group,
especially when they are down-grading them. However,
there can be a positive prejudice for such other groups
when they are being compared to one another, but not to
one's own reference group; those groups most similar to
one's reference category are generally favored over those
groups which are increasingly different. In the usual
expression of sympathy between similar groups and antago
nism toward different groups, the range of attitude is
very great— too i favorable for similar groups and too
unfavorable for unlike groups.
This favorable ethno-identification on the basis
of group similarity is, however, subject to occasional
intense reversal when sharp conflict of interest separates
peoples who share a similar way of life. North-South
United States Civil War antagonisms and, in another
instance, the struggles between the kindred Klamath-Modoc
Indians exemplify this great range of attitude in ethno
centric expression. In this sort of interrelationship,
the ethnocentrism can be particularly spiteful, as weak
68
and strong points are better appreciated by the contending
groups for purposes of drawing good-bad contrasts when
conflict conditions may generate.
It is well to note from the foregoing examples
that ethnocentrism shows relative values as well as more
absolute expressions. The presence or absence of conflict
also tempers ethnocentrism, especially in cultural and
national alliance interrelationships when the allies in
one conflict become the enemies in the next one with the
appropriate reversals of stereotype of praise and blame
as the changing circumstances require.
Allport noted that biological effects (race) are
often overemphasized or confused with sociocultural
effects in the expression of ethnocentrism."^ Because of
the difficulty of differentiating racial from sociocul
tural factors, it is well to begin the detailed discus
sions of ethnocentrism with a treatment of raciocentrism,
the variety of ethnocentrism associated with folkloric
attitudes about the physical type of the carriers of
cultures. Physical anthropological concepts are pertinent
to this phase of the discussion in order to note the inci
dence of racial differences and to assess their constancy
and significance.
An important methodological distinction to be kept
59
Allport, op. cit., p. 111.
69
in mind is that proposed by Clyde KLuckhohn, who pointed
out that there is a valid operation of natural forces to
which all statements of process must conform. "Existen
tial" is the term used by Kluckhohn to designate the basic
standards, limitations, or laws of nature.^0 In effect,
the basic positions are established by disinterested phil
osophic or experimental procedures so as to achieve as
valid an understanding of forces in operation as possible.
By contrast, normative or evaluative approaches
describe racial factors subjectively and uncritically with
a tendency to ignore the fact that race is predominantly a
biological conceptualization. Racial effects are confused
with those of environmentally determined conditioning.
Evidence is ignored or distorted in order to obtain a
favorable racial image. The approach is folkloric and
generally loaded with culture-bound expressions about how
valid, beautiful, and morally sound the racial type of a
particular people just happens to be.
Kluckhohn's contrast of evaluative to existential
is used often in the following pages. A modification of
"existential" to "existent" is made to separate the social
science usage from the philosophical term "existential."
Cited by Talcott Parsons and E. A. Shils (eds.),-
Toward a General Theory of Action (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1931), p. 392,
CHAPTER III
SOME HUMAN BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS
OF ETHNOCENTRISM
The format for the study of the nature of ethno
centrism, in the manner of Allport's study of prejudice,1
follows. The six approaches used in Allport's study were
(1) historical, (2) sociocultural, (3) situational, (4)
depth psychology, (5) phenomenological, and (6) on-going
events. Allport was incomplete in minimizing the biolog
ical aspects which constitute the first section of this
project. Each area is surveyed from the point of view
of its existent condition in order to obtain an under
standing of the setting. The actions of ethnocentric
persons generally contributing to folkloric positions are
then pointed out.
The first consideration is that of raciocentrism.
Gordon Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (Garden
City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1958), p. 202.
70
71
Ethnocentric attitudes about the somatic type of culture
carriers have been designated raciocentrism. The refer
ents in this type of centrist thinking are predominantly
the organic structuring of the human body and are ipso
facto, predominantly uniform for all members of the human
race in the widest sense, for this classificational
designation. Homo sapiens, indicates that all living men
are massively similar in their morphological expressions
(osteological, myological, histological, neurological, and
reproductive structures). Function as well as structure
is basically similar in the life processes of all the mem
bers of the human species. In one aspect of physiology,
reproduction {and the associated genetic transfer of
bodily form and function), the very close physical simi
larity of all present-day racial types is demonstrated by
the extensive interbreeding with subsequent fertile off
spring from all the participating racial variants, pure
and admixed. The somatic differences noted at the sub
species levels are not stable and bring about genetic
rearrangements with every successful mating. Similarity
of bodily form in conjunction with the ability to repro
duce fertile offspring indicate the basic genetic similar
ity of all men at the species level; this is the most
72
constant aspect of human biology and basic to all other
organic attributes (circulatory, nervous, respiration,
and digestion). By contrast, the differences among human
subgroups are slight and generally of little basic func
tional importance. Racial traits in this sense are super
ficial and confer little or no advantage or disadvantage
upon those who manifest them.
Over and above classificational considerations
regarding human biological types, there is a genetic
mechanism which affects stability of type extensively and
as well may occasion some change of type in the long run
course of human evolution. The dynamic effect of human
somatic development is best approached by means of a dis
cussion of genetic process. However, human heredity is
very complex and only a few factors seem to follow the
Mendelian ratios of dominant and recessive expression.
Dr. Wilton M. Krogman, of the University of Pennsylvania
Medical School, expressed the gene proportions of specific
to subspecific (racial) inheritance as follows: . .
there are ca 30,000 pairs (of genes) in Homo sapiens: of
these only about 500 are specific for racial traits" of
2
Wilton M. Krogman, personal communication of
February 27, 1952.
73
Mongoloids, Negroids, and Caucasoids. This proportion
suggests that at least 98 per cent of human biological
attributes are common to all Homo sapiens types regard
less of their subspecies relationships. This is another
way of pointing out that differences among Homo sapiens
variants are few and unimportant compared to the shared
similarities of all men. Raciocentric claims of super
iority thus rest on but a few manifest physical and
physiological differences and some must be inflated
enormously to be noticed. Cross-fertility of Homo sapiens
somatic types, along with living in a sociocultural envir
onment that minimizes natural selection, defeats the
build-up of highly evolved physical types to which racio
centric concepts might become attached. Actually wider
variation tends to develop within the protective socio
cultural setting with diversification of somatic types
as in the proliferation of domestic dog types. Human
types have gone in this direction somewhat, what with
albinist and melanist color expressions? also hair has
trended toward curly through frizzy, as well as manifest
ing the extremes of black through light colors.
This infinitely small range of subspecies charac
ters is the basis for a localized "consciousness of kind,"
74
"in-group versus out-group," with preferential treatment
backed by ethnocentric enthusiasms. (It seems apparent
that "consciousness of similarity" would have a far firmer
basis in fact, and that potentially a far more "realis
tic" social organization could be built on the similari
ties than on the differences.
The multiplicity of types resulting from human
subspecific interfertility has been a difficult problem
in human systematics. The conflict has led some observ
ers, such as Paul Topinard, to deny the existence of
genetic regularity in humans. His 1885 view maintained
that "there are races no longer ascertainable in the
3
mixture of modern peoples." Another systematist, J.
Deniker, distinguished seventeen races and thirty types.
Deniker stated that, "where the genus Homo is concerned,
one can neither speak of ’species,' 'variety' nor 'race'
in the sense that is usually attributed to these words in
„4
zoology or zootechna.es.
Cited by Walter Scheidt, "The Concept of Race in
Anthropology," in This Is Race, ed. E. W. Count (New
York: Henry Schuman, 1950), pp. 388-399.
4
Cited by Scheidt, ibid., p. 390.
75
Neither the massive similarity at the species
level in Man, nor the bewildering diversity at the sub
species level favors the fixation of raciocentric atti
tudes on an observational basis. There is much uncer
tainty as to which physical type should be associated
with which culture, both because of the often great varia
tions among the carriers, and more understandably, because
any normal Homo sapiens variant can carry any culture if
only he is exposed to that way of life. A few sensitive
and versatile persons can adjust quickly to cultures
different from their original way of life with a minimum
of culture contact, though normally the rate of social-
cultural adaptation is rather slow.
Variation of carriers in appearance and sensitiv
ity facilitates "bridging" by persons between cultures,
thus increasing understandings between ways of life.
Cross-fertility of all reproducing members of
Homo sapiens man affords a constant supply of interracial
hybrids who can constitute carriers bridging between the
cultures of their parents. An additional advantage is
present in interracial breeding, as the offspring are
often expressions of hybrid vigor-superior physically to
both parents. Heterosis, or hybrid vigor, results
76
sometimes when diverse plants or animals cross-breed.
Steggerda described hybrid vigor as follows:
Xt is repeatedly found that when two inbred
varieties are crossed, the-offspring show unusu
ally rapid growth, attain exceptional size, and
display other traits of rapid development, high
resistance and increased fecundity which are
collectively designated hybrid vigor. . . . Such
hybrid vigor, or heterosis, is ordinarily found
in the F2 generation, but it may appear in
individuals of later generations of panmixia
whenever the two causative genes are combined
in the same zygote. Even in later generations
than the first, scattered individuals should be
found who show hybrid vigor and increase in the
size of the body, as a whole, or in its parts.5
Hybrid vigor is one genetic process which leads to
the appearance of superior physical types in spite of
antagonistic social values toward interracial breeding.
Selective breeding is a contrasting approach wherein
great solicitude is manifested in the matching of breeding
partners to achieve a particular somatic type. Selective
breeding has worked well on domestic animals and plants
but in human populations it is predominantly a negative
concern with raciocentric bias present in each group
toward the propagation if its favored somatic image.
There have been many advocates of eugenic approaches, but
none have succeeded in accomplishing what interbreeding
5Ibid., p. 440.
77
does with neither great concern nor high social approval.
Interbreeding is generally a more random and less presti
gious interaction, often disapproved by the value system
of each of the groups involved. The offspring may mani
fest hybrid vigor and at the same time be the objects of
scorn on the part of those who prize "racial purity."
Group ethnocentrism may attach to such racial mixtures,
but usually it is after hybrid vigor, if present, has
enabled its possessors to succeed in spite of handicaps
set against them. In view of the operation of both
selective breeding and interbreeding in a sociocultural
environment which assures large populations, there is
really no serious problem about the occurrence of fine
physical types in any present-day national population. In
view of this, ethnocentrism has, nearly everywhere, many
completely adequate human physical types to glorify.
The existent interplay of forces in human biology
has provided adequate carriers in a standard manner for
sociocultural groups everywhere. Comparative information
will now be reviewed for an appreciation of the working
of raciocentrism. Social values attach to physical type
initially because man-in-culture interactions involve
carriers in association during the period of their
78
enculturation. The sociocultural values and responses of
the older generation mould the reactions of the young,
who, though plastic recipients of tradition, are also
initiators of change; they add their increment of tool
types, techniques and interactional practices to the
cultural base.
The transmission of culture by deliberate prac
tices, both formal and informal is dependent on the action
of groups. A group was previously defined as a plurality
of individuals in communication with an objective toward
which they devote their efforts. Mutual interaction
establishes role interplay and conscious goal-oriented
motivation (cathectic action). Morale, the enthusiastic
cooperation of individuals in a goal-oriented activity,
provides the emotional accord to achieve whatever goals
are set by the group. Leadership and followership reac
tions are structured and traditional usages are carried
out.
There is an accord in human cathectic behavior
analogous to that of some infrahuman animal groups, some
of which, for example the chimpanzees, have recently been
noted to traditionalize group relations in the use of
tools and to pass these practices on to young animals in
79
what turns out to be a rudimentary sociocultural frame
work . ®
As well as the more deliberative structuring of
social actions, random emotional behavior is present
extensively in infrahuman groups and occasionally as
crowd behavior in human societies. Although less struc
tured than highly traditionalized behavior, crowd behavior
is also oriented toward adaptation of way of life consid
erations to problems imposed by environmental circumstances.
A group objective elicits cooperation of group members
toward achieving subsistence, security, and reproduction
in the simpler animal societies as well as in the infinite
ly more complex human social entities. The morale engen
dered in these cathectic group practices facilitates the
on-going action of the group and validates its way of
life. Basically it is in the area of sentiment that
self-oriented ego and ethnocentric expressions start as
relatively unconscious shared sentiments impelling animal
groups to act cooperatively; in human societies the
emotional practices are guided more by cognition and
C
Jane Van Lawick-Goodall, My Friends the Wild
Chimpanzees (Washington: National Geographic Special
Publications Division, 1967), p. 24.
80
rationality implemented by complex communicational prac
tices which enable humans to traditionalize and institu
tionalize the emotional aspects more fully. Ethnocentrism
is an important group manifestation in the area of the
emotions, for it provides a common accord for group coop
erative effort. As a shared sentiment, it binds culture
carriers to their way of life in a dogmatic and absolute
expression of superiority of the group over all other
groups. The self-laudatory effects of ethnocentrism are
dedicated to improving group morale although, as Sumner
says: "wider knowledge always proves they [ethnocentric
sentiments] are not based on facts. That we are good and
7
others are bad is never true."
The following passages illustrate some of the
attitudes of raciocentrists. Concerning Japan, Kawana
said, "Unless you are of the Fujiwara clan, you are not
Q
even human," The Fuj iwara were an important lineage of
Japanese nobles of the Heian Period (866-1160 A.D.).
The Seri Indians live in north coastal Sonora,
^W. G. Sumner, Folkways (New York: Dover Publica
tions, Inc., 1940), p. 15.
Q
Koichi Kawana, lecture, Japanese Architecture
Course X.450.1, University of California, Los Angeles,
May 16, 1967.
81
Mexico. They show strong ethnocentrism in an attitude of
adulation toward their own way of life and in expressing
contempt for peoples they consider to be aliens, in this
case the neighboring Yaqui and Papago Indian tribes.
Mexicans and Anglo-Americans are also treated as outsid
ers. The Seri as a simple hunting and gathering people,
considered themselves superior to all aliens and forbade
r
marriage with them. W. J. McGee, an early Anglo-American
anthropologist, implied that the Seri had subhuman
tendencies, resembling carnivorous animals, in a show of
9
Anglo-American ethnocentrism toward the Seri. It is of
interest to note that McGee used the term "ethnocentrism"
eight years before Sumner offered his definition of the
term in Folkways, published in 1906.^°
Concerning the Fijians, in aboriginal times there
was much warfare and group strife on the island. Cannibal
ism was practiced on the bodies of those killed in battle,
partly as a means of humiliating enemy villages and partly
as a victory ritual. A degrading ethnocentric statement
9
W. J. McGee, "The Seri Indians," Seventeenth
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part I
(Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology, 1898), p. 155.
10Sumner, op. cit., p. 13.
82
made by a Fijian king, Maki ni Valu ("Skilled in Battle")
to two enemy warriors about to attack him was, "You two
11
are worthy only to be cooked as food for me."
In Spain, the ethnocentric locution gente de
raz6n is applied by Spaniards to themselves in contrast
to persons chiefly of aboriginal cultures. The implica
tion is that the Spaniard is ethically right and all
12
other peoples lack such rectitude.
In Mexico, great and affectionate concern over
the interbreeding of Caucasoids, Negroids, and Mongoloids
was shown in colonial Mexico (1520-1820 A.D.) . Complex
terminologies were built in the 1700's to describe the
results of such interbreeding. An elaborate pictorial
chart, divided into sixteen sections illustrated with oil
paintings, is included, bearing the title "Castas del
13
Mexico Colonial" in a book bearing the same title.
11
Buell Quain, Fijian Village (Chicago: Univer
sity of Chicago Press, 1948), p. 39.
12
Fernando de los Rios, Concerning Latin American
Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1940),
p. 58.
^Nicol&s Le6n, Castas del Mexico Colonial (Mex
ico: Talleres Gr&ficos del Museo Nacional de Arquologia,
Historia y Etnografia, 1924), pp. 42-43.
83
The only reversal of nearly universal raciocentric
self-laudation is to be heard in the frequent statements
of the inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha, a small island in
14
the south Atlantic Ocean. The islanders say of them
selves, "We's only low and poor people." The islanders,
descendants of a 19th century British garrison, up-grade
any and all visitors with the title "Sir," and express a
continual inferiority feeling about themselves and their
15
way of life.
Existent Biological Background
to Raciocentrism
External somatic traits seized upon in a folkish
way as diagnostic of adaptational or maladaptational
capacities actually are manifestations of evaluative
thinking by the physical types who manifest these quali
ties. The attitudes are akin to somatomancy (predicting
16
actions or capacities from somatic structural clues).
14Brewton Berry, Race and Ethnic Relations (Bos
ton: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958) , p. 57.
16
W. A. Lessa, "Somatomancy, Precursor of the
Science of Human Behavior," The Scientific Monthly, LXXV,
No. 6 (1952), 36-39.
84
A listing of raciosyncratic features is given
for each subspecies of mankind as the existent aspects
upon which raciocentrists invest superiority attributions.
Those for Negroids are: dark curly to kinky hair, long
forearms and forelegs, short torsos, frontal bosses, dark
skin color, protruding heels, occasional steatopgy.
Caucasoids typically have: light to dark and straight to
wavy hair, much on body but tending to baldness on head,
intermediate between Negroids and Mongoloids in the pro
portion of leg length to torso length, narrow nasal
skeletons, relatively pronounced brow ridges, light color
ation of skin, and dark to light eye color. Mongoloids
display the following physical traits: dark and heavy
head hair, very scant on body, dark low-opening eye,
legs short in proportion to torsos, brow ridges slight,
medium width to nasal skeleton, prognathism of the upper
tooth row with "shovel-shaped" incisor teeth, medium to
light skin color, and "Mongoloid spot" birth mark.
External racial traits provide the somatic visi
bility clues basic to recognizing participating members
of the reference group. In a homogenious population,
racial features have become standardized and occasion
neither excess adultation nor hostility on the basis of
85
overt physical appearance. In societies where racially
diverse phenotypes are present because of such contin
gencies as capture, enslavement, seeking of sanctuary,
trade participation, military relationships, and inter
marriage, for examples, racial differences are noticeable
and can become contributory factors in social structure
associations such as kinship, caste, economic, and politi
cal interaction.
The externals of race (somatic visibilities) are
associated with functional processes wherein intelligent
behavior, cooperative biological and social interaction
and sharing of values are present. The interactional
manifestations are only to be sensed in shared behavior
and depend upon learning processes for their standardiza
tion. It is at this point that the purely external clues
of physical type are augmented by behavioral manifesta
tions that must be learned, as they are culturally pre
scribed actions. In part this is why somatic visibility
is only a small part of one's total configuration of
attributes. (“Personality" is the term used to cover this
consideration.) The total configuration includes for
everyone a somatic aspect as a biological being who, in
his vital manifestations, expresses the behavioral aspect
86
of man-in-culture. Both the somatic and behavioral
expressions constitute the total of visibilities for the
recognition of members of a sociocultural group, large or
small.
The somatic features of the members of a group
provide an elementary basis for social group interaction
and may be the background for an interappreciation that
encourages strong morale (esprit de corps). However, the
somatic manifestations must be accompanied by social
interaction of a behavioral sort, or there is no valid
on-going activity.
A gradation of raciocentric intensity is likely
to be expressed in a "likeness and difference" framework ,
so that overt similarities of physical type of the car
riers of culture as well as similarities in their socio
cultural pattern makes for a bond of sympathy. However,
there are notable exceptions to this tendency when groups
with similar racial and cultural backgrounds come into
direct and open conflict and may become even more bitterly
ethnocentric toward one another than peoples who have had
very different antecedents. For example, Teutonic
peoples, similar in racial and cultural manifestations,
have been on opposite sides in the last two world wars:
87
Germany and Austria versus Britain, Holland, Belgium
(partially Teutonic), Norway and the United States.
Political ambitions with supportive expediency have been
more important than "consciousness of kind” in these
struggles. However, there are curious reversals of
attitude in some of these situations wherein raciocentric
determinisms can run counter to in-group expediency, or
on the other hand raciocentrism can be contravened in
deference to alliance morale as the following two exam
ples illustrate. The first contingency, raciocentrism
cross-cutting national loyalty, is apparent in the content
of a paper by Henry F. Osborn titled "The Fighting Abil
ity of Different Races. A letter from an unidentified
American artillery captain stated:
It is interesting to learn about the relative
fighting ability of the various races in this
game. The Noman and Breton Frenchmen and the
North French generally are the fighting men of
France. Today they compose practically all the
fighting troops left. The Scotchmen are the
top-hole fighters of them all, Boches and Allies,
and that seems to be admitted by all alike, while
the Italians of certain divisions are utterly
unreliable. A fighting Italian is as scarce as
17
Henry F. Osborn, "The Fighting Ability of
Different Races," Journal of Heredity, X, No. 1 (January,
1919), pp. 29-31.
88
the dodo bird, in spite of all the newspaper
bull to the contrary. . . . They are used entire
ly for road building and stevedore work about as
far back of the lines as they can get. Some
French troops told us that the Italians took
over the sector we left between the Vesle and
the Aisne when we pulled out of there, and in
two days they lost practically all that we had
won across the Vesle and were being walloped
soundly by the Boches.
There is not a bit of use denying that the
Boches are brave men and fight like heroes.
Their aviators are the finest fighters of the
lot, with the exception of the British, perhaps.
But how anyone can show greater sand or finer
dash than the Boche aviators, I cannot under
stand. They may be devils, but they are fight
ing devils and have guts through and through.
Between them and the Italians give me the Boches
every time.^®
The captain went on to say that the Americans "are all
equally full of the greatest spirit that any man ever saw
in war."19
Contravening raciocentrism in favor of political
expediency is well illustrated in the Nazi handling of
propagandistic "togetherness” in World War II; their
Mongoloid Japanese allies were hailed as "Yellow Aryan"
comrades in arms. While this move violated whatever logic
one might expect in these racistic formulae, the device
bolstered Axis interests and morale. These contrasting
18 .
Ibid., p. 30 19Ibid.
89
examples illustrate how a racist doctrine (Nordicism) can
maintain its ethnocentric appeal, in the first example,
to the point of undermining Allied morale in World War I.
Presumably the Norman French, the Germans, the British,
and the Anglo-Americans are all great fighters because
they are Nordics; the Italians are woefully poor fighters
because they are Mediterranean subracial types. Italians
should be given more credit than this, for northern Italy
has a considerable proportion of Nordic and Alpine sub-
racial genetic representations which, by the formula,
should make them gifted and willing fighters. By stereo
typing Italians as only Mediterranean in type, the Captain
need not recognize a serious flaw in his cause and effect
structure. Henry Fairfield Osborn, the biological scholar,
also missed this point.
Two exponents of Nordicism who enjoyed some scien
tific standing in the United States were this same Dr.
Osborn and also Madison Grant. Osborn, President of the
American Museum of Natural History from 1908 to 1933, was
a paleontologist who ventured into archeology and eugenics.
Grant was once chairman of the New York Zoological Soci
ety and at one time a trustee of the American Museum of
Natural History. His book. The Passing of the Great
90 '
20
Race, contains the preface by Osborn, so that the views
of each on the subject can be appreciated by consulting
this one volume.
In his 1916 preface to this work, Osborn stated:
European history has been written in terms of
nationality and of language, but never before
in terms of race; yet race has played a far
larger part than either language or nationality
in moulding the destinies of men; race implies
heredity and heredity implies all the moral,
social and intellectual characteristics and
traits which are the springs of politics and
governments.21
In the 1917 preface to the second edition, Osborn
extolled Nordics in particular, referring to them as
"native Americans descendants of the English, Scotch and
north of Ireland men." Further on the same page, Osborn
said that Anglo-Saxons are a "branch of the Nordic race
. . . [who as] in no other human stock which has come to
this country is there displayed the unanimity of heart,
mind and action which is now being displayed by the
descendants of the blue-eyed, fair-haired peoples of the
22
north of Europe." Farther on in this preface, it is
20
Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, various eds. 1916-
1923) .
21Ibid., 1916 ed., p. x. 22Ibid., 1917 ed., p.xi
91
stated that American Democracy can best save itself when
it "discovers its own aristocracy as in the days when our
23
Republic was founded." Again Osborn hands the palm to
the genetically-favored Nordics.
It is fair to say that most present-day human
biologists and physical anthropologists have rejected
this view of the predominance of Nordics in the Anglo-
American population. Hrdlicka's study 2^ indicated that
early American populations of European backgrounds were
only sparingly blond and long-headed, and therefore were
not of the Nordic type. Osborn and Grant were basing
their statements regarding Nordic traits in Anglo-American
populations of false premises, as do racists who postulate
"purity of race" but cannot verify this in the groups they
discuss.2^
The Nazi specious attribution of honorary Nordic
racial type to the Japanese is in line with other aberra
tions they perpetrated as racial policy, such as making
2^Ibid., p. xiii.
2 ^ Ales Hrdlicka, The Old Americans {Baltimore:
Williams and Wilkins, 1925).
25Ibid
92
membership in the Nazi Party the test of Nordicism. This
example of circular reasoning circumvents the existent
effects of valid knowledge, leaving the evaluative fac
tors free to support folklore, a safe practice during
war time.
The letters of Captain J. A. Balsley, a medical
officer serving in France in 1918 reveal strong ethno
centric views, chiefly of a disparaging trend. Balsley
is direct— he attacks the German enemy in the following
phraseology regarding their place in nature: "There
isnft anything could stand in the way of those guns
(American artillery) let alone human beings, although
26
the 'Boshe' [sic] is hardly to be classed as human."
Captain Balsley's letters illustrate the minor
proportion of derogatory remarks directed toward biologi
cal aspects. One cannot be totally certain that the
Captain wrote only in terms of physical anthropological
condition here, although the context in which he down
graded the Germans concerned physical resistance to
cannonfire. In a later section, Balsley*s derogatory
2 6
J. A. Balsley, Captain, U. S. Army Expedition
ary Force via New York, letter to his wife Nell in Santa
Monica, California, 10 October, 1918.
93
sociocultural pronouncements toward all non-American
peoples within the range of his experience will be dis
cussed,
Raciocentrism was expressed in the United States
immigration policy strongly, until July, 1968, Early
immigration was primarily from European sources (over 82
per cent) during the period from 1820 to 1961; negligible
percentages of immigrants arrived from Asia, Oceania,
and Africa (a total of 4 per cent). People from other
areas in the Americas accounted for 14 per cent. Isola
tionist tendencies following World War I brought added
restrictions on the non-Caucasoid populations already so
little represented in the United States initially. The
1921 Johnson Immigration Act limited the annual number of
aliens permitted entry into the United States to no more
than 3 per cent of foreign-born members of that national
ity residing in the United States in 1910. More restric
tive yet, the Immigration Law of 1924 admitted 150,000
persons each year with national quotas fixed at 2 per cent
of the foreign born members of any nationality residing
in the United States in 1890. The quotas favored heavily
the previously strongly represented northern European
94
27
groups and all but excluded other peoples.
Immigration policies between 1921 and 1968 were
preferential toward northern Europeans both racially and
culturally. A likeness and difference framework was
apparent in these practices with favoritism toward what
were envisioned as "Nordic" subracial types carrying
Teutonic cultures. Lapps and Finns, who speak Finno-
Ugric languages, were likely to have been favored by the
high quotas of northern European nations wherein they were
minority groups. Even other Caucasoid types such as
Alpines, Dinarics, Arraenoids, and Mediterraneans from
central, eastern, and southern Europe were disfavored
because they seemed to be too different from the Anglo-
American racial and cultural combination purported to be
"Nordic."
Existent concerns about race emphasize its pre
dominantly biological nature, the massive similarity of
all variants of Homo sapiens man and the cross-fertility
of all present-day representatives of mankind; the latter
consideration is probably the major element in the human
27Peter I. Rose, They and We, Racial and Ethnic
Relations in the United States (New York: Random House,
1964), pp. 29-39.
similarity pattern, for by virtue of this genetic process,
fertile Homo, sapiens offspring always appear as variants
within the limits of the species heredity. Variation is
also served by this process in that the subspecies'
heredity is further proliferated by successful interbreed
ing, an indication of the basic similarity of all men at
the species level. The extensive cross-breeding defeats
any play for "racial purity" claims, as does also the
concept of hybrid vigor which undermines assertions of
racial unicity.
"Ethnocentrism of race," emphasizing physical
type, may spill over and become attached unwarrantedly to
feelings of superiority associated with the sociocultural
components of a way of life; this traditionalizing ex
presses a spurious belief that racial type determines
cultural type. This fallacious and folkloric assumption
lies at the base of racial self-adulation. The assumption
of racial superiority is often made by peoples who have
accomplished relatively little in developing their way of
life, as well as by those who are highly conscious of
their attainments. In the evaluative self-laudatory
approach to racial considerations, sociocultural factors
transmitted through learning processes {sociocultural
96
heredity) are explained away as though they were manifes
tations of biological (genetic) heredity.
Ethnocentrism in its racial and cultural aspects
derives from biased thinking. What is being advanced is
the in-group wish fancy that the alleged superiority
claims will be accepted as true, thereby enhancing the
wealth, power, and prestige of such a group. If the
out-groups accept the claims of an in-group, a self-ful
filling prophecy has been validated. As nearly every
group but the Tristan da Cunha Islanders is making posi
tive raciocentric claims, mostly these statements are
discounted, except, of course, those ethnocentric pro
nouncements of the group to which the speaker belongs.
The ethnocentric attitude merely serves to bolster group
self-confidence in the absence of open conflict. Nor does
disproof of actual sociocultural superiority trouble
members of the in group, for failures can usually be
explained away as exceptions that will be reversed in the
future, more self-fulfilling prophecy thinking.
Raciocentrism is usually masked within a wider
racial and cultural context. Those who claim their own
physical type to be superior do not claim merely for
organic superiority, but have included sociocultural
traditional ways as well in the ethnocentric complex.
Where no ascertainable racial differences exist between
groups, ethnocentrism will be expressed as sociocultural
supremacy. Where race is associated, it is usually as a
stereotyped nomenclatural designation for a sociocultural
group seeking to upgrade its way of life or to downgrade
the ways of life of rival groups. Raciocentric consider
ations bolster the morale of an in group so that they lie
within the evaluative area of human psychology. As folk-
loric phenomena, the claims are motivated by ethnoinvolve-
ment and must be weighed against the existent aspects of
human biology. It is conceivable that some individuals in
some groups would be superb physical types, but probably
entire populations do not manifest superiority over other
similar populations in this respect. Exceptional environ
mental situations might call out great responses for
limited time periods, but some way of equalizing environ
mental settings is necessary before balanced comparisons
can be made. In the absence of parallel conditions,
sweeping claims of biological superiority lie in the
unproven file of social science. Nor is mere survival a
satisfactory criterion, for different peoples face vary
ing environmental conditions. A population that is
98
reaching a cultural peak may be thought of as establishing,
for a short time at least, claims that might justify
racio- or sociocultural-centrism, but these are special
or short-term demonstrations of creativeness or capacity
that may not extend over long vistas of time or space.
Because the massive similarities of human physical
type allow for very little significant contrast, ethno
centrism differentials, if they are to be clear-cut, must
be sought in the more variant behavioral patterns asso
ciated with ways of life, or subdivisions thereof.
Differentiae of behavior thus afford a richer basis for
ethnocentrism. Rapid build up of ethnocentrisms is also
possible here, for behavior patterns can be learned or
unlearned within a lifetime, whereas somatic changes
generally require a very great number of generations to
become stabilized. Learning, on the other hand, is
cumulative in a rapid and direct fashion. Unique, tradi-
tionalized patterns can be made to form matrices for ethno
centric expressions, but, because the patterns can be
learned, they are transferrable directly to any Homo
sapiens population by the processes of enculturation and
acculturation, or indirectly through diffusion of socio
cultural tradition.
99
Historical Aspects of Ethnocentrism
An historical survey of raciocentrism and socio-
cultural-centrism will be presented in order to note the
development of these centrisms and to relate their ef
fects to present-day sociocultural manifestations. The
approach will be more extensive than documentary history,
more on the order of drawing upon human paleontology,
culture history, and documentary history and even includ
ing historical reconstruction to provide interpretive
constructs. A merging of historical and sociocultural
approaches is anticipated, for a most important aspect of
the cultural phases of human ways of life is that they
have depth in time and involve transmission of the social
content of a particular moment in time as a traditional-
ized pattern to be lived by the carriers of cultures in
their on-going present-day existence.
The resultant of these forces constitutes moving
equilibrium in any viable sociocultural tradition wherein
synchronic effects through traditional!zation become dia
chronic ones by means of incorporating current culture
content (objects and behavior) in the cumulative manner
of sociocultural heredity and through the learning
processes.
100
In a general way, the whole range of scientific
thought from the physical through the life and social
sciences has been stimulated by the evolutionary hypoth
esis, now just a few years into its second century since
Charles Darwin published The Origin of the Species in
November, 1859. Historical perspective has been added to
studies of currently functioning forces affording a wider
understanding of developmental sequences as well as of
the action of forces in the past as they continue in
operation in the present sociocultural frameworks. There
have been misapplications of biological viewpoint when
the actions of the physical and sociocultural forces were
different from those causing biological effects, but the
practice of developmental thinking, first derived from
biological approaches, has aided greatly in the under
standing of man-in-culture relations. In particular, the
study of chronologically antecedent forces conditioning
present sociocultural manifestations has been productive
of valuable insights into the life and social sciences
within which man-in-culture phenomena are operative.
Some developmental sequences will be examined for the
light they shed on ethnocentrism as a process.
Allport's approach in his Nature of Prejudice
101
gives weight to preconditioning background factors such
28
as historical and sociocultural effects, both of which
could bring time depth to a treatment- of ethnocentrism as
a traditionalized development. These approaches can also
be designated as diachronic featuring explanations which
involve time depth. The position taken here on the his
torical aspect is that not only relatively recent history
should be considered pertinent, but also the remoter
reaches of culture history, archeology, and human paleon
tology might provide developmental information that would
serve to explain the action of ethnocentrism.
The Allport dichotomy of forces contrasts pre
conditioning historical and sociocultural (diachronic)
with on-going psychological (synchronic) manifestations
in regard to his clarification of the nature of preju-
29
dice. Socialization, acquiring the values and behavior
patterns of the present way of life, takes place as the
parental generation invests the practices on their off
spring, the current generation; this constitutes another
framework for noting the working of ethnocentrism.
2®Allport, op. cit.
29Ibid., Fig. 11, p. 202.
102
The role of race in culture history was felt to be
extremely difficult to ascertain by means of the paleon
tology of the mid-1920's. Paleontological evidence had
been sought to prove the ideas of the evolutionists regard
ing change of biological forms, especially the thinking of
the supporters of Charles Darwin's hypothesis of evolution
by natural selection. The fossil record in 1848, for
instance, included but one example of fossil man, one
that was later identified as a Neanderthal skull from
Gibraltar? the find included a partial cranial vault with
the face well represented. The low vaulted skull-cap
with large brow ridges found in 1856 at Neandertal in
Rhenish Prussia took its generic name from the site? the
find began to justify the ideas of the early evolutionary
thinkers such as Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) and
Jacques Boucher de Perthes (1788-1868). The finding of
Pithecanthropus in Java in 1898 by Dr. Eugen Du Bois for
tified heavily the claims of the evolutionists. In 1926,
teeth were found at Choukoutien, near Peking, which were
later verified as remains of a fossil human designated as
Sinanthropus pekinensis, a form finally equated to the
Pithecanthropus erectus form unearthed by Du Bois in Java.
The associated lithic finds at the Sinanthropus cave
103
occasioned great, surprise that men different from Homo
sapiens were the agents responsible for the making of
tools and fire there. After additional finds of fossil
men were made such as the Australopithecines of South
Africa, the Javanese and Chinese forms were seen to be
intermediate ones, actually somewhat similar to modern
man, Homo sapiens. Sinanthropus and Pithecanthropus were
referred to Homo erectus and there included with several
other intermediate forms from Asia, Africa, and Indonesia.
Homo erectus types walked fully erect, but had oval-shaped,
low-crowned cranial profiles with cranial capacities of
about 1100 c.c. compared to high-crowned Homo sapiens
crania associated with cranial capacities of about 1400
cc. Paleontologist Franz Weidenreich observed that
Sinanthropus showed Mongoloid racial affinities, a very
unusual interpretation, for Mongoloid was a term used for
one of the subspecies of Homo sapiens, a species that then
had not yet appeared in the paleontological record during
the much earlier time range of the Sinanthropines. As
well, soft anatomy was lacking in the fossil types, and
much that is diagnostic for Mongoloid racial designation
lies in hair, skin pigmentation including the Mongoloid
spot, and eye form and color. Without these clues from
104
the soft anatomy, it is difficult and perhaps impossible-
to allocate convincingly a fossil osteological example
to a living population.
Carlton Coon followed Weidenreich's attribution
of Mongoloid facies to Sinanthropus, so that great depth
in time (ca. 320,000 years) was associated with Sinan-
30
thropus as progenitor of the Mongoloids.
The ideas seemed well to Coon who then traced the
five present-day races he postulates from fossil ancestors
in the same manner that Sinanthropus was indicated as
ancestral to the Mongoloids. The other four lineages are
as follows: Australoids from "Meganthropus A," Caucasoids
from Heidelberg, a Homo erectus form via Swanscombe, a
Home sapiens type; Capoids (Bushmen-Hottentot types)
possibly from Ternefine, a Homo erectus form via Tangier
Man, a Homo sapiens type; the Congoid ( F o r e s t Negroes)
are derived from Australopithecus, via Chellian-3 of
Olduvai Gorge and Homo rhodesiensis, both Homo erectus
forms
There are many objections to this playing fast and
30
Carlton Coon, Origin of Races (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1962), p. 429.
31Ibid.
105
loose with "race" as subspecies genetic attributes. A
major objection is the Mongoloid racial traits as well as
being subspecific indicators for Homo sapiens are also the
same for the Homo erectus type Pithecanthropus and
Sinanthropus. This makes for persistence through time for
minor variations, while more basic species complexes,
such as Homo erectus. have become extinct. Similar con
structs are formed for the other groups which Coon men
tions as subspecies.
All of the forms begin from different early types,
pass through a Homo erectus phase and then have a Homo
sapiens type as an immediate predecessor. It is not
clear which Homo sapiens predecessor, if any, gave rise
to the Congoid (medium statured Forest Negro). All forms
are Homo sapiens in species as they co-exist at the present
time. This view implies very close morphological and
genetic similarity in the five-fold parallel, but ulti
mately convergent evolutionistic scheme. Convergent
evolution leading to the formation of one species from
the juncture of two previously specifically different
forms is difficult to demonstrate, especially if osteolog-
ical remains are all that is present to represent the
preceding forms. To ask for this process of convergence
106
for five lineages, all drifting into a potential inter
breeding population puts an excessive strain on credulity.
There seems to be a sort of orthogenetic predetermined
action implied in this theorizing in order to arrive at
such a neat outcome; it savors more of a telic structure
than a random genetic development under environmental
selection. The pageant seems prestructured rather than
developmental.
Coon showed a mechanical, perhaps naxve, approach
in his comparative and behavioral discussions. Brain
size is taken to indicate mental "giftedness" in spite of
the known null relationships between ability and brain
mass in individual carriers of modern cultures. Homo
neanderthalensis and Homo capensis, both extinct forms,
had cranial capacities of 1700cc, some 250 to 300 cc. in
excess of present-day Homo sapiens forms. Logically this
seems to cast doubt on the survival value of large brains,
a proposition that seems absurd. There are probably
structural differences that may explain the contingency,
but Coon in his emphasis primarily on size does not help
clear up the involvements.
Coon found the Congoid lineage to consist of new
comers to Homo sapiens status; he maintained that their
lineage "stood still for half a million years after which
32
Negroes and Pygmies appeared as if out of nowhere."
Coon then made biological evolutionary tempo comparisons
among the five subspecies. Those reaching the Homo sapiens
stage earliest are gifted and have had more time to build
competent cultures. The Congoids have been in Homo
sapiens condition an infinitely short time, so African
Negro cultures have been underdeveloped. Strangely enough,
Australoids have had more time as Homo sapiens variants,
so they should have reached higher levels of culture than
they actually have done by Coon's culturogenic criterion
of time spent in Homo sapiens rank. As Australoids have
not done so, this "time in sapient condition" breaks down
as a causal factor in this example. Actually, Coon's
differential formula is an irrelevant way of determining
cultural development. Brain size above the minimum for
species is not as important as brain function, nor is
cultural evolution dependent upon somatic condition or
the minor changes in this condition. Learning is the
significant process in the development and transmission of
culture. Application of any Homa sapiens nervous system
32Ibid., p. 658.
108
response to any culture is likely to produce standardized
results within the sociocultural environment if there are
none of the prejudices and xenophobias present to bias the
results. Cultural content is cumulative and is acquired;
racial heredity, however, is not altered by accumulation
of acquired bodily characteristics, at least in the short
run, so the Congoid culture carriers may start from scratch
alongside the Mongoloids and Caucasoids and achieve as
high culturally in each case as their individual abilities
warrant; the same native abilities are probably possessed
by the Australoids and Capoids to do likewise. The bio
logical potential is merely transmitted genetically; its
activation is rather through the sociocultural setting
which ranges from stimulating to apathetic in its effects
on the carriers of cultures.
Whatever the probabilities may be, Coon projected
the effects of racial (subspecies) dynamics far into the
past and across subfamily, generic, and species biological
categories. Also he established psychological conflict
manifestations such as dominance and subordination and
33
xenophobia as operative, and projected their workings
33Ibid*, p. 661.
into the past. Here are emotional states similar to
ethnocentrism set up for as far back as Coon's time
counts are said to apply in these interactions, namely
34
950,000 years before present. This is of interest, but
it is evaluative on the part of Coon rather than anything
existent which might add valid data for interpretations.
While Coon himself played down his own personal interest
in political or racial controversies, his extremely con
servative change estimates (especially for the Congoid
lineage) have been espoused by anti-Negro racists).
Carleton Putnam, a relative of Coon, has seized upon these
differentials to accord the Caucasoids a "200,000 year
35
lead" over the Negroids in advancing culture. Somehow
this formula is supposed to down-grade the Negro both in
the United States and abroad. The flaw lies in confusing
tempos of biological evolutionary change with those of
sociocultural change. Co-equality of function in humans
is based upon possession of similar somatic attributes.
Recently evolved Homo sapiens types with small brains
^ Ibid., Fig. LXIV, opposite p. 334.
35
Carleton Putnam, Evolution and Race; New Evi
dence (New York: National Putnam Letters Committee, 1962),
pp. 3-7.
110
starting from scratch can probably acquire and advance
any culture as well as members of older lineages with
larger brains, providing the expression of xenophobia is
eliminated, as it must be if any subjects are ever going
to be convened for tests (at this time they are merely
suggested as a means of gaining insights into this mat
ter) . Also, equally important for any such hypothesized
tests would be a common cultural matrix within which a
test population composed of representatives of all five
of Coon's subspecies groups could be exposed in order to
probe their relative ability at least to carry culture,
subequally or otherwise, as the future study might indi
cate. Such a preconditioning for the testees foreshadows
a genuine pancultural environment perhaps most closely
though still inadequately approached in the United States.
However, in the United States Australoids and Capoids are
not sufficiently represented and the strong anti-Congoid
attitude would probably bias the results in the order in
the following advantage-disadvantage listing:
Caucasoid
Mongoloid
Capoid
Australoid
1X1
Congoid
The Union of South Africa is another sociocultural
environment wherein Caucasoids, Capoids, and Congoids co
exist. Mongoloids and Australoids are lacking in the
population, and the extreme bias against Congoids as well
as the strong bias against Capoids would, because of such
biases, distort if not vitiate any such projected tests
purporting to show differentiae in the ability to carry
or advance culture.
Regardless of such overmeticulous concern with
testing, in cultures wherein the various subspecies groups
do interact, an operative culture ensues, though it is
far from a genuine one because the conflicts and biases
prevent the disadvantaged carriers from realizing their
greatest potential.in carrying and/or advancing the cul
ture, and this is what the test is supposed to test.
Coon's evaluation down-grades the Congoids whose
lineage allegedly began from Australopithecine ancestry,
in favor particularly of the Caucasoids, with early
sapiens ancestry going back to Swanscomb and Steinheim
forms, Coon also includes the Caucasoid accomplishment
of inventing agriculture in the Near East as evidence of
112
36
their cultural and racial superiority. Mongoloids
likewise outdistance the Congoids with a cluster of early
Homo sapiens ancestral types, such as Mapa, Ushikawa,
Ting tsun, and Chen yang. (All are listed with question
marks in Coon's Chart LXIV, but the array is formidable
compared to the absence of such ancestral figures for the
37
Congoids. )
With his evaluative approach, Coon has provided
scientific sanction to Anglo-American ethnocentrists who
strive to elevate Caucasoids over Negroids in particular,
and over other identifiably non-Caucasoid variants to a
lesser degree. This raciocentric approach presents a
false picture in an area where it is difficult to obtain
a valid one in the presence of emotionalized special
pleading. This is perhaps why Dr. Sherwood L. Washburn,
physical anthropologist at the University of California
at Berkeley, is alleged to have exclaimed that Coon had
"set American anthropology back 100 years" with his
interpretation in the Origin of Races. In addition, Coon
may have taken the lead in reconstructing paleoethnocen-
3®Coon, op. cit., p. 587.
37Ibid., p. 335.
113
trism in his remarks about prejudice and xenophobia as
they were drawn into his discussion.
A passage from Kroeber's "Handbook of the Indians
of California" pinpoints the error in Coon's viewpoint as
well as in the position of racial determinists in general:
It is a truism that physical type and cul
ture have only the slightest, if any relation in
human history? and one of the earliest maxims
impressed on the student of anthropology, al
though one of the most frequently violated, is
the fallacy of inferring from one to the other.
A far more sensitive analysis of human racial
variability than that of Carleton Coon was offered by
39
Loren Eiseley, in the Immense Journey.
Homo capensis, Boskop Man, is an extremely large
brained form, perhaps ancestral to present-day Bushmen-
Hottentot peoples (Capoid in Coon's racial nomenclature).
Homo capensis, associated with Negroid in other classi
fications, showed at 10,000 years before present, a high
degree of pedomorphy, infantile appearance occasioned by
expansion of the cranial portion of the skull associated
^®A. L. Kroeber, "Handbook of the Indians of
California," Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 78
(Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1925),
p. vii.
39
Loren Eiseley, Immense Journey (New York:
Kandom House, 1957), pp. 127-144.
114
with a reduction and retrocession of the jaws. An ad
vanced structure in man, this tendency has been in opera
tion throughout the long view of human evolution. One
can sense that expanding cranial capacities caused this
doming and the relative dwarfing of the jaws in recalling
the cranial features of the great apes and human types in
the present-day African faunae. Chimpanzees and gorillas
retain heavy protrusive jaws as chewing structures asso
ciated with heavy bony ridges above the eyes. The heavy
jaws are also effective in defense. Their cranial capa
cities are low at about 500 cc. (not so low, however, as
to prevent, in the chimpanzee at least, the development of
rudimentary culture as the Jane Van Lawick-Goodall1s
40
studies demonstrated. The more massive Negroids of
Africa show a prognathism of the jaws that is away from
the established infantilism of Homo capensis and the
Bushman-Hottentot group.
In conjunction with the trend toward increase of
cranial capacity and foreshortening of the jaws in all
present-day mankind, the even occlusion of the tooth rows
in human skulls of late Paleolithic and early Neolithic
4*Van Lawick-Goodall, op. cit.
115
times has been replaced by a tendency to "overbite,"
wherein the upper tooth row (maxillary) projects forward
making the incisors and canine teeth of the lower jaw
(mandible) fall inside the line of the upper dental arch.
The retrocession of the jaws is also associated with the
reduction in size of the teeth and the increasing tendency
for atrophy or loss of the third molar teeth in present-
day mankind.
The high expression of cranial pedomorphy indica
tive of expansion of the brain case occurred in an area
of South Africa marginal to higher aboriginal sociocul
tural developments there and associated with a hunting
and gathering people. Had the configuration developed in
an area of higher sociocultural attainments, the pedomor-
phic expression would probably have provided a standard
for down-grading all types falling short in this physical
attribute. Instead, the seemingly advanced type manifest
ing these traits. Homo capensis, became extinct.
The existent condition of pedomorphy, however
advanced it seemed physically, fell together with a time
and place setting that lacked depth in a sociocultural
sense, without which somatic configurations alone were of
little advantage. In the same general area of South
116
Africa at a more recent date in history, early 1800's,
Boer pioneers and Bushman-Hottentots amalgamated to pro
duce hybrids displaying heterosis (hybrid vigor). In
the restrictive racist power structure that was established
in the mid-1940's with the growth of apartheid (segrega
tion) neither the heterosis nor the pedomorphy attributes
of the Capoid peoples (Bushman-Hottentots) conferred much
advantage on them in the face of Boer raciocentrism, for
apartheid is probably the strongest expression of racism
in the modern world. There is a conflict of prophecies
in this kind of racial and cultural contact situation.
If the self-fulfilling raciocentric prophecy prevails,
the wider possibilities for human somatic and sociocul
tural development may be defeated, particularly in the
present when truculent racio- or sociocultural centricity
patterns implemented by atomic weapons of massive destruc
tive power may be brought into play to validate ethno
centric sentiments.
CHAPTER IV
HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF ETHNOCENTRISM
Ethnocentrism in Teutonic Cultures
Thorstein Veblen traced some Teutonic ethos pat
terns basic to ethnocentric manifestations in his Imper
ial Germany and the Industrial RevolutionHe used a
culture historical approach with some historical recon
struction to trace racial and cultural developments in
northwestern Europe (Baltic North Sea tract) from Neolithic
times to the First World War. Veblen mentioned that this
2
area was known as "cradle of nations" in early writings.
The racial aspect of the Baltic is one of interbreeding
of Caucasoid subgroups with hybridization as the principal
resultant. The hybridization has included the Ural-Altaic
speaking Lapps and Finns who often resemble the Indo-
1Thorstein Veblen, Imperial Germany and the Indus
trial Revolution (New York: The Viking Press, 1939).
2Ibid., p. 42.
117
118
European speaking peoples who were probably the earlier
populations of this area. Russian peoples are similar
physically to the Baltic populations but are Slavic cul
turally in contrast to the majority groupings who are
Teutonic culturally, namely Scandinavians, British,
Dutch, and Germans. The area has been one of admixture
of both races and cultures from other parts of western
Europe. A north to south distribution of Caucasoid sub
races is noted for western Europe with Nordics in the
northwest, Alpines centrally, and Mediterraneans to the
south. Veblen was emphatic that there was no "blond1 1
race in northwestern Europe:
One may even go further and assert that there
is not by any chance an individual to be found
in the population of Europe who in point of
pedigree, is of unmixed blond extraction. Nor
is there any reasonable chance, nor any evidence
available, that a community of pure-bred blonds
has ever existed in any part of Europe. And the
like assertion may be made with but a slightly
less degree of assurance as regards pure-bred
specimens of other main European races.3
Veblen placed Baltic culture, the "Old Order" of
northwestern Europe, in Neolithic times with areal extent
from Norway to Russia. The settlement pattern was in
town or village units with little concern for community
3
Ibid., pp. 8-9
119
social controls; kinship groups fulfilled this function
by supporting their members in conflict situations. Local
self-interest in setting of neighborhood autonomy ("neigh
borhood surveillance," in Velben's terminology) was in
effect under a sort of
. . . anarchy qualified by the common sense of
a deliberative assembly that exercises no coer
cive control; or it might, if one's bias leads
that way, be called a democratic government,
the executive power of which is in abeyance.^
There were benevolent relations within the community, but
contrastingly, outside communities were eagerly exploited
with high prestige accorded to in-group members successful
in such pursuits. The social order conveyed for the in
group, a "live and let live" ethos with laissez-faire
democratic leanings allowing considerable leeway in the
direction of insubordinate behavior.
A tendency to cultural borrowing was postulated
by Veblen for this early northern European Old Order.
Veblen associates this reconstructed culture with a
Neolithic date which is probably too early for it.
Northwestern Europe was retarded in cultural development
at this time compared to southern Europe, north Africa,
4Ibid., p. 46
120
and the Near East, where Neolithic culture centers were
thriving and radiating their influences outwardly to mar
ginal peoples. The archeological work of Sophus Muller
in the early 1900's indicates that northern and western
Russia and Scandinavia may have been uninhabited between
8000 and 5000 B.C., dates which apply, however, to full
Neolithic cultures in the Mediterranean and the Near
East. The Germanic peoples were lagging in a late
Paleolithic cultural phase, perhaps becoming Neolithic
by 2000 B.C. and reaching Metal Ages by early Christian
times.^ Populations living in what was later known as
The Fatherland were mostly Alpine racially, with some
7
Nordic and Mediterranean types also present.
Christianity and kingship mark the shift from
simple village life to a social order under the direction
of divinely sanctioned rulers. Coercive power structures
and warlike activity replace the Old Baltic Order live-
and-let-live way of life, as feudal times are instituted
5
A. L. Kroeber, Anthropology (New York: Harcourt,
Brace and Company, 1948), Fig. XL, p. 703.
6Ibid.
7
Veblen, op. cit., p. 52.
121
in northern Europe. Correlated with these cultural
changes is the wider distribution of broad-headed physical
types in the north.
In post-Medieval times, strongly centralized
power structures dominate northwestern Europe with the
appearance of paternally oriented dynastic states or
Fatherlands. Strong discipline from the hands of person
alized leaders who are ascribed with a mystical and
spiritualized aura become characteristic and continue to
develop intensively in the principalities of pre-imperial
Germany.
The successful unification of Germany in the 1870's
was in great part due to Prussian authoritarian purpose
fulness implemented by military virtuosity. Feudalistic
traditions that had been strongly developed in pre-Imperial
Germany underlay the dynastic enthusiasms of the Prussian
leadership. The preferred political system was Cameral
ism (from Kammer, "treasury") featuring the use of finan-
g
cial resources to conduct warfare. Internal security and
the funding of warfare were primary values that brought
Cameralism very close to the concept of the present-day
g
E. g. Bogardus, The Development of Social Thought
(New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1955), p. 210.
totalitarian state.
Distrust of foreign trade relations and a reluc
tance to engage in this activity was a policy followed by
Frederick the Great (1712-1786), King of Prussia.
Dynastic ideals were advanced under statesman
Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), the leading figure in the
unification of Germany under the Junkers, conservative
Prussian aristocrats. In 1871, the German Empire was
established under Hohenzollern Prince William I, with
Bismarck as Chancellor; he was elevated to virtually com
plete control of Germany and to great influence in Euro
pean political affairs. Military and diplomatic policies
developed by Bismarck brought Germany colonial possessions
and an effective military organization under the direction
of dynastic rulers of strong authoritarian stamp. A
highly productive industrial system was developed in con
junction with a rather medieval political structure.
Great Britain, somewhat isolated from the nation
alist antagonisms of continental Europe, was less involved
with maintenance of military facilities. British interest
in economic production and trade ran ahead during the
middle 1700*s as a consequence of the Industrial Revolu
tion. Freer social control patterns came into effect as
123
the entrepreneurial class drew away from the political
control of the English kingship quite in contrast to the
Germanic trend of reinforcing political dominance over
economic affairs in the interest of corporate state organ
ization. British political loyalties retained the Old
Baltic common sense flavor with a bias toward individual
expression and laissez-faire sentiments. Veblen would
call this a leaning toward insubordination in contrast to
German compulsiveness to revere and obey top leadership in
a mystical manner. This contrast may be put in another
way: the British tend to be mechanistic and depersonalized
while the Germans, though gifted mechanically, often sub
ordinate the industrial processes to the wishes of lead
ership which is often charismatic in its manner and eager
for military conquest.
The British settlers of North America who came to
a very different physical and sociocultural environment
in the 16th and 17th centuries retained their character
istic English way of life in a tenacious manner. As the
British settlements in North America prospered, ill feel
ing arose over the British mercantilist policies which
were felt by most Americans to be exploitative. A strong
case of insubordination by the colonists led to the
124
Revolutionary War, indicating that the colonists in ex
pressing insubordination were nevertheless sharing a value
orientation with their countrymen in Britain. The Amer
ican contingent had come to express a contempt for ascribed
royal status that might have still had a lingering aura of
feudalism. In this respect, antagonisms with British
royalty and life in the rudimentary American setting
resulted in the emergence of a "democratic” American tradi
tion which resembled somewhat, in its village life, the
Old Baltic culture with town assembly political forum,
laissez-faire outlook, and probably neighborhood surveil
lance.
According to Veblen, ethnocentric notes were
sounded among the three Teutonic cultural variants in
the 1770's. British contempt for the American way of
life was expressed in a patronizing manner which empha
sized the "raw, immature, unbalanced, crude, and under
bred condition in the colonies," while Anglo-Americans
saw themselves as "youthful, sturdy, unspoiled and in the
full prime of manhood." These consistency attitudes of
British and American peoples are excellent examples of
g
Veblen, op. cit., p. 88.
125
10
W. I. Thomas' definition of the situation.
While the American colonists were damning the
British for their repressiveness in political and economic
matters, the Germans shuddered at British political per
missiveness toward their insubordinates, equating it to a
concession toward anarchy.'*'1 These examples are of inter
est as each nation sets up its own image as the standard
for judging any and all other similar groups.
The above attitudes are reminders of the position
enunciated by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who stated that
the natural state of man was originally egoistic and
motivated by the desire to use others for purposes of
personal gain in a "warre of every one against every
12
one." Hobbes derived social conflict from individual
self-centeredness and postulated a social pact mechanism
to restrain total conflict. The egocentric, and by
extension, ethnocentric impulses are such that if the
carriers of several cultures were engaged in downgrading
any nation being discussed, that group might be said to
10See G. Duncan Mitchell (ed.) , A Dictionary of
Sociology (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1968),
p. 212.
11Veblen, op. cit. , p. 230.
12Bogardus, op. cit., p. 200.
126
be guilty of manifesting diametrically opposite faults
relative to a composite of the viewpoints of the ethno
centric evaluators.
In this instance, British policy and values were in
a cross-fire of antagonisms from Germany on the east and
American colonials on the west. Each of the three vari
ants of Teutonic culture, in adapting to physical and
sociocultural settings demonstrated a resultant way of
life that was defended and justified by the respective
carriers as the only way to live well. The Germans,
closest to the Baltic homeland, had moved into an accul-
turated accommodation with Christianity after disturbing
the Mediterranean hearth of Roman culture in the early
centuries of the first millenium. Germans retained much
of the feudalistic spirit of monarch-to-subject relation
ships in the conflict-ridden setting of small principali
ties of pre-imperial Germany. These political values were
expressed by German national policy in both World Wars.
Veblen's discussion covered this phase of Teutonic culture
history to World War I.
The insular location of Britain obviated a pro
tracted feudalistic period. Access to the seas enabled
the British (and other west coastal European peoples) to
127
engage in seafaring, an advantageous experience potential
for trade and colonial expansion programs of post-Renais-
sance times. British social organization tended to be
less hierarchical than that of Germany as the two cultures
developed their national autonomies. The British retained
more of the loosely structured Old Baltic cultural pat
tern, or re-expressed this approach in their political
traditions.
The early American colonial environment resembled,
in its village way of life, the Old Baltic cultural set
ting and expressed this even more than did the British
until the disappearance of the United States frontier
conditions in the 1880's.
After World War I the eastern margins of the area
of the Central Powers fell under Communist domination.
The Fatherland was occupied by Allied forces and the
German empire holdings were reassigned to the victorious
Allied Powers.
In Germany retrenchment set in with the rise of
the National Socialists under the leadership of Adolf
Hitler, originally an Austrian. Leadership traditions
followed previous German preferences for a mystical figure
who had messianic and charismatic attributes. Political
128
development in postwar Germany was an intensification of
cameralist tradition of dedication of national resources
to the military institutions felt necessary for defense
and for retaliation for defeats suffered in World War I.
As before, Germany was bordered by potentially antagonis
tic states, made more so by the aggressive behavior of
the Nazis. National states are all ethnocentric, defensive
of their autonomy, and jealously watchful in varying
degrees of intrusion on their homelands.
With French and British interests to the west,
Russian to the east, and Scandinavian to the north, the
south was the only outlet left for German maneuvering.
Actually, the only active support was received from Italy
as an ally in this direction. Japan was an axis power in
the Far East, but was too preoccupied with the Pacific
phase of World War II to be of much assistance to the
Germans. The Axis homeland was practically surrounded by
enemy territory.
The morale of the Axis centered around leadership-
followership interplay, perhaps the focal point of ethno
centric sentiments. There were also other foci for
ethnocentric expressions of a magico-religious nature
included within the action of acculturation phenomena,
129
namely those "which result when groups of individuals
having different cultures come into continuous first hand
contact. " • ' * 3
Most of the phenomena which have continuous first
hand contact as a prerequisite can be grouped under one
of the following: (1) directed cultural change and (2)
social-cultural fusion. Directed cultural change refers
to those situations in which one of the groups in contact
interferes actively and purposefully with the culture of
the other. This interference may take the form of stimu
lating the acceptance of new culture elements, inhibiting
the exercise of pre-existing culture patterns or, as
seems to be most frequently the case, doing both simul
taneously. Social-cultural fusion refers to those situa
tions in which two originally distinct cultures and
societies fuse to produce a single homogeneous culture and
society. Genuine fusion always involves not only the
disappearance of the two original cultures but also the
amalgamation of the two original societies through the
biological process of interbreeding. Practically all
13
R. Linton Redfield and M. Herskovits, "Memorandum
for the Study of Acculturation," American Anthropologist,
XXXVIII, No. 1 (1936), 146-152.
130
cases of assimilation of one group by another could be
more accurately classed as examples of social-cultural
fusion, since the culture of the assimilating group is
usually modified by the introduction of elements from
that of the assimilated.
Among the phenomena which are very much more
frequent under acculturation conditions than under any
others, the most obvious are those associated with nativ-
istic movements, those instances wherein a society not
only glorifies past or present phases of its culture, but
also makes a conscious attempt to reestablish them.
The processes of directed cultural change seem to
be most active and their results most obvious during the
early period of continuous first-hand contact. Nativis-
tic movements apparently tend to appear somewhat later.
In contrast, the processes of fusion usually begin at the
moment of contact and continue over a long period.
Ralph Linton has discussed nativistic movements
specifically. He has defined such behavior as "any con
scious organized attempt on the part of societies* members
to revive or perpetuate selected aspects of its culture.
•^Ralph Linton, American Anthropologist, Vol. XLV
(Menasha, Wisconsin: American Antropologist, 1943), p.
230.
Linton distinguishes two kinds of nativism, magical and
rational. The magical expression leans heavily on super
naturalism; it is usually the result of visionary or
prophetic announcements regarding reestablishing previous
cultural conditions. Another practice is through mimicry
of past cultural behavior, for it is felt that in some
undefined manner a past way of life can be revived thereby.
Messianism, the efforts of a charismatic leader to bring
about a new, unique, and more favorable way of life for
his followers, "the millenial condition," is an example
of magicoreligious nativism; these are characterized by
15
irrational flights from reality according to Linton.
Rational nativistic movements are also conscious attempts
to bolster self-respect of the carriers of a culture
functioning under repressive conditions. Symbolic repre
sentations of a way of life that was free, great, and
emotionally satisfying are made the means of reestablish
ing the behavior patterns of that culture. The approach
is psychological and the elements are chosen realistically
to perpetuate or revive the culture. The function of the
perpetuative type of nativistic movement is to bolster
15Ibid., p. 232.
132
social solidarity. Nativistic movements arise because of
inequalities between the social groups in contact. Such
movements may not take place in culture contact situations
wherein the carriers of both cultures are satisfied with
the association, or if the dominating practices are being
reduced so that the submissive group can anticipate more
favorable relationships in the near future. In the domi-
nance-submission relationship, two conditions are present:
(1) both groups feel superior, and (2) one group is
superior and the other is inferior.
There are no known situations where both groups
in a contact situation feel inferior, although mixed
inferiority-superiority associations may exist. Under
these conditions are the best opportunities for cultural
exchange and assimilation. Nativistic movements generally
do not develop in these circumstances.
Under conditions of mutual superiority feelings,
an impasse develops with neither group willing to engage
in social-cultural fusion. Cultural coexistence can
continue under such an arrangement.
Where it is conceded that one culture is superior
to another but there is no actual political domination,
magical nativistic movements do not occur. Great stress
133
must be present before magical nativistic movements
develop in unrealistic directions. According to Linton,
nativistic movements tend to arise only when the members
of the subject society find that their assumption of the
culture of the dominant group is being effectively opposed
by it, or that it is not improving their social position.
. . . such movements are practically always
rational with a combination of revivalistic and
perpetuative elements. . . . These movements are
a response to frustration rather than hardship
and would not arise if the higher group were
willing to assimilate the lower one,-*-®
Linton listed the factors causing tensions in
social situations as (1) exploitation, subject to neutral
ization in coequal economic settings, and (2) frustration,
attitudinal, hence more difficult to neutralize, perhaps
by minimization of superiority-inferiority attitudes.
Without these factors, Linton said, "there would be no
bar to the assimilation of societies in contact or to the
17
final creation of a world society."
Linton also listed an alternative to such a high
degree of integration in the following words:
Failing assimilation, the happiest situation
which can arise out of the contact of two
16Ibid., p. 23. 17Ibid., p. 240
134
cultures seems to be that in which each society
is convinced of its own superiority. Rational
revivalistic or perpetuative nativistic move
ments are the best mechanisms which have so far
been developed for establishing these attitudes
in groups whose members suffer from feelings of
inferiority.18
German practices will be discussed further regard- .
ing ethnocentric expressions apparent in their behavior
in World War II involvements. If it is considered that
the Nazis were expressing nativistic values at this time
by responding in a frustrated and stressful way to what
they felt was threat to their way of life, many of their
ethnocentric responses can be clarified by use of this
nativistic framework. Extreme measures to bolster social
solidarity were formulated with the justification that
these were necessary to perpetuate their way of life.
This places their nativistic reactions in the class of
rational perpetuative expressions. Adulation of the
persons of the leaders was a constant theme. Hitler was
equated to Christ, a double gain, for a home-grown messiah
replaced one associated with Jewry. Christianity had
availed the Germans little in World War I, although they
had expected divine sanction for their cause. In World
18Ibid.t p. 239
135
War II times the change was easily made in favor of the
Norse pantheon, symbolically more Teutonic than the
Christian deities whose origins were Hebraic, whereas the
Norse gods seemed more congenial to a Teutonic stance.
Actually there was little genuine Nazi concern with
religious support for their way of life; they felt that
they could make their own way by exerting physical and
psychological pressures.
A Nietzschean superman enthusiasm interwoven with
Nordic racism provided a secular religious cultist object
of reverence— their own ethnocentric image. Hitler and
his top hierarchical associates embodied this ethnocentric
group self-idealization. This is not only a German prac
tice; morale and ethnocentrism fall together positively
in all sociocultural organizations as evaluative phenomena.
There were previous manifestations of Nordic
ethnocentrism in the writings of Count Joseph Arthur de
Gobineau (1816-1882), a French nobleman, man of letters,
diplomat, exponent of Nordic supremacy and amateur
Orientalist. Gobineau had pronounced antidemocratic and
anti-Semitic biases. His principal work, Essai sur l'in-
egalit£ des races humaines, published in 1853, has
influenced many minds in favor of Nordic virtues and
136
19
accomplishments.
Gobineau wrote his essay around white, Aryan, and
German superiority. Only the first term has any racial
significance, but it is especially the last, German (a
nationality designation), that engages Gobineau's literary
efforts in four volumes. "Aryan" is the term used by
Gobineau to describe his favored people. According to
Jonassen, it would seem likely that Gobineau had read
the Rigsthula, a poem "which describes the racial make-up,
the functions and relationships in Viking society and
explains the origin of these classes and their function
on
on a mythological basis."
According to this poem it was the god Rig who
created the different classes of society. Thrael, of the
lowest (laboring) class is described as black-haired with
wrinkled skin, rough hands, and knotted knuckles, thick
fingers, ugly face, twisted back, and big heels. Thrael's
wife was not attractive either for, according to this
IQ
J. A. de Gobineau, The Inequality of Human
Races, trans* Adrian Collins (Book I only; London:
Heineman, 1853).
20
Christen T. Jonassen, "Some Historical and
Theoretical Bases of Racism in Northwestern Europe,"
Social Forces, XXX (1951), 157.
137
account, she had crooked legs, stained feet, sunburned
arms, and a flat nose. Their functions as described in
this work were to carry burdens all day, to dig turf, to
spread dung, and to herd swine and goats.
Karl, the yeoman, however, is pictured as sturdy,
strong, and with a ruddy face and flashing eyes. It was
his duty to manage the farm, build houses, and to fashion
artifacts.
Mothir, the woman of the noble class, is described
as having bright brows, a shining breast, and a neck
"whiter than the new-fallen snow"; her son, Jarl, by the
god Rig, is portrayed in these words: "blond was he, and
bright his cheeks, grim as a snake's were his glowing
eyes. Jarl's function as a warrior and ruler is described
in detail; he, unlike either Thrael or Karl, is taught
runes.
The following personal data on Gobineau indicate
that he was probably equating "Aryan" and "german" with
the "Nordic" type of the Rigsthula. Blondism alone does
not assure Nordic physical type, as East Baltics charac
teristically, and some Lapps occasionally, show this
21
Ibid.. p. 158.
138
feature, but this has never troubled Nordic supremacists,
some of whom are willing to constitute the whole popula
tion of "Greater Scandinavia" as Nordic when confronted
with demands for the physical criteria and the distribu
tion of their favored population. At any rate, the title
of another of Gobineau's works is revealing: Histoire
d'Ottar Jarl, pirate Norv&gien conquerant du pays de Bray
22
en Normandie et sa descendance (1879).
Gobineau stated in a letter to the wife of Wilhelm
Richard Wagner that his Essai sur l'inegalit£ des races
humaines was written in part to prove "scientifically"
the superiority of his own race. "He believed he was a
direct descendant through Norman stock of Ottar Jarl, a
23
Viking hero of ancient Norway." This concern with the
romanticist themes brought Gobineau close to Wagner, who
dramatized old Norse mythology in his opera. Ring of the
Niebelungs. . Houston Stewart Chamberlain married Wagner's
daughter, thus bringing into the circle of Norse admirers
another popular German writer who had much influence on
22
Ibid., p. 159,
23Ibid.
139
24
the Aryan supremacy cult of Adolf Hitler.
All of the foregoing examples were in accord with
Gobineau's aristocratic orientation. By associating him
self with the Norwegian pirate, Ottar Jarl, he gained
status by ascription through divine right of kings. (He
was, perhaps, in his own mind, a distant relative of the
Norse god Rig who procreated Jarl in the womb of the
noble Mothir. As well, Gobineau is as Aryan (equals
Nordic) as Ottar Jarl, another ascription effect, this
time via race.
The central themes that race and aristocracy are
the most important aspects of civilization is apparent in
both the writings and the actions of Gobineau: "the hope
of the world has always been the fair-haired Aryan or
Nordic . . ,"25
A few paragraphs from the Essai illustrate the
Nordic directions in Gobineau's thinking; "Of the three
great races the whites are superior for 'these are fitted
with reflective energy, or rather with an energetic
24
See E. T. Thompson, Race Relations and the Race
Problem (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press,
1939).
25
Gobineau, op. cit.
140
intelligence. ' ”28
The yellow races can maintain civilization, but
cannot create it (an interesting understatement from a
writer who facied himself an Orientalist) and are superior
to the black races who are accorded the lowest position in
Gobineau's scale of capacity to create and carry civiliza
tion (racial determinims).
I convinced myself at last that everything
great, noble and fruitful in the works of man on
this earth in science, art, and civilization,
derives from a single starting point, is the
development of a single germ and the result of a
single thought; it belongs to one family [Aryan]
alone, the different branches of which have re
appeared in all the civilized countries of the
universe.2^
Gobineau listed ten civilizations of which the
seventh is Germanic corresponding to the "Germanic”
races
... which in the fifth century transformed the
western mind— these were the Aryans— there is no
true civilization among the European people when
the Aryan branch is not predominant. Similarly
no spontaneous civilization is to be found among
the yellow races and when Aryan blood is exhausted,
stagnation supervenes. 8
"Aryan" is derived from the Sanskrit arya,
26Ibid. 2^Ibid., pp. xiv-xv.
28Ibid., p. 212.
"excellent, honorable." The word is akin to that of the
name of the country, Iran. The term is used very loosely
in a racial sense to designate Caucasoid peoples who
occupied the Iranian plateau. Another related group
entered India, amalgamating with the previous inhabitants
there as early as 1400 B.C., thus giving rise to the term
"superior white invader," an attribute fondly prized by
Gobineau, Hitler, and others who regard military conquest
as an index of racial superiority. Actually the term has
lost any racial particularity it might once have had
because of admixture. It is not certain what racial back
ground was present in the original "Aryans," who invaded
the Near and Middle East if utmost credence is given to
the existence of this group whose origins are embedded
in mythology and folklore. If present-day racial indica
tions are significant in the Iranian area, the Aryans
were probably more Mediterranean than Nordic. At any
rate, the term Aryan is now used to designate language
relationship and is equivalent to "Indo-European." Anyone
speaking languages falling into Hindic, Slavic, Teutonic,
Romance, Armenian, and other such smaller groups as
Tocharian or Lithuanian is an Aryan regardless of his
racial affinities. Many Jews now speak Aryan languages
142
and are, therefore, in this respect Aryans. Gobineau's
views are based on the incorrect assumption that Germans
were the original Aryans, or in the 1850's were the
essence of Aryanism (whatever that is). It is apparent
that he used the term improperly, for "German race,"
thereby showing himself to be completely inadequate both
as a biologist and an Orientalist.
While the Nordicist viewpoint is now regarded as
utter nonsense by nearly all social scientists, the
graphically penned superstitions of Gobineau still influ
ence mores and stateways in much of the Europeanized
world. Hence, it is very important to know the bases of
these beliefs.
Houston S. Chamberlain stated a strong racist
position as follows:
... I have already said at the beginning of
this introduction that science does not unite
but dissects. That statement has not contra
dicted itself here. Scientific anatomy has
furnished such conclusive proofs of the existence
of physical characteristics distinguishing the
races from each other that they can no longer be
denied . . . [and] the so-called unity of the
human race is indeed still honoured as a hypoth
esis, but only as a personal, subjective convic
tion lacking every material foundation . . .
. . . The Teuton is the soul of our culture.
Europe of today, with its many branches over the
whole world, represents the chequered result of
an infinitely manifold mingling of races: what
143
binds us all together and makes an organic unity
of us is "Teutonic" blood. If we look around we
see that the importance of each nation as a liv
ing power today is dependent upon the proportion
of genuinely Teutonic blood in its population.
... A mongrel is frequently clever, but never
reliable; morally he is always a weed. Continual
promiscuity between two pre-eminent animal races
leads without exception to the destruction of the
pre-eminent characteristics of both ... In
spite of the broad common foundation, the human
races are as different from one another in
character qualities and above all in the degree
of their individual capacities as greyhound,
bulldog, poodle and Newfoundland dog ...
Has not every genuine race its own glorious,
incomparable physiognomy? How could Hellenic
art have arisen without Hellenes?
Chamberlain further indicated his thinking on
race in the following:
... When in the fifties [1850's] Count Gobineau
published his brilliant work on the inequality
of the races of mankind, it passed unnoticed.
• • •
Race lifts a man above himself; it endows
him with extraordinary--I might almost say super
natural— powers , so entirely does it distinguish
him from the individual who springs from the
chaotic jumble of peoples drawn from all parts
of the world.30
This thinking which was basic to Nazi racism, though still
tolerant to Hebraism, continued:
29
See Thompson, op. cit., pp. 252-253.
3°Ibid., p. 253.
X44
... In days when so much nonsense is talked,
let Disraeli teach us that the whole significance
of Judaism lies in its purity of race, that this
alone gives it power and duration . . .
and finally, the philosophy of action so typical of
authoritarians of all times:
. . . What is the use of detailed scientific
investigations as to whether there are distin
guishable races? Whether race has a worth? How
is this possible? and so on. We turn the tables
and say: It is evident that there are such races;
it is a fact of direct experience that the qual
ity of the race is of vital importance; your
province is to find out the how and the where
fore, not to deny the facts themselves in order
to indulge your ignorance.32
These Chamberlain passages show graphically the
confusion resulting from assuming that racial (subspecific)
heredity is identical with species (specific) heredity.
The further confusion of race with the cultural and
environmental matrix (wherein the carriers learn to ex
press culture) is also apparent. Fallaciously, genetic
aspects are thought to be directly causational to cultural
expression. Chamberlain does not take into account that
"blood" on the physiological side and "soul" on the socio
cultural side are associated, but only incidentally asso
ciated with human structure and function. In other words,
3llbid., p. 255. 32lbid.
145
this is a prime example wherein the evaluational asser
tion of Teutonic (Nordic) superiority is made, but not
proved. Instead, such superiority is speciously derived
by assuming that slight and barely ascertainable subracial
differences provide a valid basis for differential moral
and social attributes. It is further assumed, of course,
that these superior attributes are locked within the com
plex of a pure, easily identifiable, and never changing
subspecific expression. None of these assumptions is
valid.
In particular, Chamberlain is mistaken in singling
out "racial purity" as the source of power in the Judaic
way of life. The Jews are not a special race, but they
do have a cultural cohesion that enables them to cooperate
readily. Ironically, the cultural cohesion is very much
strengthened by just such persecutions as those the Nazis
(and other peoples) have inflicted upon the Jews.
Another glaring error in Chamberlain's thesis is
that "continual promiscuity" between two animal races
leads to their destruction. If hybrid vigor occurs, as it
often does, this promiscuity may lead to objectively
verifiable superiority in the cross-bred populations.
Chamberlain's interpretations distort the biology
146
of race, but he would probably insist that this did not
matter. It is true that the biological existent basis is
not the only background effect, and is assuredly not the
most important influence in the human life pattern, but
it is most important to understand the influences of
biology on culture in order to prevent the normative or
evaluational aspects of the sociocultural phase from dis
torting the biological aspects and making them subservient
to spurious "natural superiority” philosophies which, in
turn, cause interminable conflict and misery among rival
factions, all of which may be varyingly misguided as to
the role of race. The resulting conflicts are just as
spurious as the racist beliefs which engender such
antagonisms.
The sociologist, R. E. Park, may have missed some
of the niceties of racial and cultural interplay, but he
was aware of the major role of the cultural factors in
human ways of life. The racial determinists (racists) on
the other hand, make heredity overpower all of the environ
mental factors. This is a thoroughly mistaken view, yet
quite in accord with what one would expect from power-
wielding authorians whose policy is to dominate other
cultures and to make their own wilfulness to power come
true.
Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists of
Germany later appropriated the ethnocentric structure
that Gobineau had built around himself and his lineage as
the pivot of divinely sanctioned Nordic racial expression.
Hitler was also influenced by the views of the philosopher,
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) regarding the latter's
"superman" lore, so that an explosive human relations
situation developed when these Nazi conceits collided
with Allied national interests during World War II. The
confusion of race, language, nationality, and religion
inherent in this thinking is all too apparent to anyone
who searches for the referents and the interaction pat
terns among these factors in this maze of subjectivism.
The whole Nordic structure falls apart, even if
defined rigidly as a biological phenomenon, when it is
realized that there are very few tall, spare, blond,
light-eyed, light-skinned, long-faced, narrow-headed types
with prominent noses and slightly receding chins in
Scandinavia, the alleged hearth area of Nordic develop
ment. Estimates vary from 12 to 33 per cent of Nordics
or near-Nordics there, seemingly hardly enough of them to
control the 67 per cent of non-Nordics. There has been
148
no report of a caste system in Scandinavia wherein
Nordicism and cultural leadership are directly associated.
33
There is Jonassen's mythical statement, but Nordic
values have never been taken as seriously in their own
"hearth area" as elsewhere* for example in Nazi Germany
and in the United States. The French aristocrat, Gobineau,
the Englishman turned German, Houston Chamberlain, the
Austrian Adolf Hitler, and American writers such as
Henry Fairfield Osborn, Madison Grant, and Lothrop Stoddard
all joined the cult of Nordicism and were all instrumental
in stating the spurious claims in behalf of Nordic super
iority.
Adolf Hitler was.operating somewhat like a magician
in the attempt to make his Aryan-Nordic-Nazi-German com
plex become powerful enough to dominate all opposing
groups. This need not be a matter of. too great surprise,
as all current power structures operate from belief
patterns which are basically irrational. The Nazi human
relations viewpoint was based on evaluatively-structured
mythological and magical premises. The basic ingredient
in the Nazi racist magical formula was lacking, namely
33
Jonassen, op. cit., p. 159.
149
Nordics, for only a few are present in Germany, mostly in
areas adjacent to Scandinavia. So the architects of Nazist
Nordicism were deficient in Nordics. The only near-Nordic
in Hitler's top leadership coterie was perhaps Hjalmar
Schacht.
The major load of German cultural roles was in the
hands of Baltics, Alpines, Dinarics, Atlanto-Mediter-
raneans, and a few Mediterraneans; not that this is of
any pragmatic significance, for the Third Reich fell
because its cultural achievements in social organization,
technology, and morale were inadequate to the task of
subjugating the opposition offered by the Allied Powers.
Had the Nazis won World War II, it would have been no
credit to the few Nordics in the German population or in
the populations of the German allies, namely, Austria,
Italy, and Japan, where Nordic populations are even less
well represented. So the magic and the mythology which
were being used to bolster the Nazi ideology are seen as
merely evaluative ethnocentric phenomena concerned with
formulating and validating policy. The basic Nazi racist
view was so erroneous that even had the pragmatic situation
resulted in a Nazi victory, it would have been because of
the efforts of the predominantly non-Nordic populations
150
of Germany.
The conative aspects of Nazism shared some ele
ments with the magic often present in nativistic move
ments. Ironically, this was not within the framework of
a dominant culture exploiting a simpler one, but within
that of a struggle-for-empire status among prospective
dominating cultures wherein Germany was a loser in World
War I. A rough analogue in subcultural situations would
be that of "pecking order of barnyard fowl," wherein
Germany was seeking to reach a higher position among
European ampires chiefly by direct aggression, but also
through magical and supernatural approaches.
Racist views everywhere are devices to bolster
the self-esteem of a sociocultural group and are also
used to overawe magically opponents in conflict situations.
There was an element of sorcery in the Nazi views as well
as both auto- and altero-suggestion, all of which served
to aid the Nazis in developing morale, if in no other way.
The nativistic flavor is apparent in their return
to Norse religious views to sanction Nazi policy, perhaps
with Thor in the role of a protective deity analogous to
Jehovah. Thor was the most widely worshipped god of the
Norse pantheon. He was a thunder god, an aid in warfare,
151
a defender, one who gave strength to contracts and one
who warded off demonic influences. Thor was depicted as
young and vigorous with red hair and beard {symbolic of
the color of lightning). Thor rode through the heavens
on a goat-drawn chariot whose rolling caused thunder; his
hammer, Mjollner, returned after having been thrown to
give the effect of a thunderbolt.
When Christianity "failed" the Germans in World
War I, they were desirous of identifying with other more
effective tutelary supernatural powers in their cultural
base and seized upon the pre-Christian Norse pantheon as
a means for engendering morale for their cause. This is
a technique apparent in nativistic return to the values
of a previous culture in order to throw off the effects
of current domination of a foreign rival group. The major
interest here lies in the correlation of Nordicism as a
racist dogma and appeal to the Norse gods for supernatural
aid in the Nazi orientation. Another oblique direction
here consists of the fact that Scandinavian peoples, Danes
and Norwegians, more truly Norse, were being oppressed by
means of supernatural elements from their own cultural
base resurrected and reshaped by the Nazis in behalf of
National Socialism.
Norse-Eskimo Ethnocentrism
152
Iceland and Greenland were areas of Norse explora
tion and colonization. Icelandic records and literature
describe the way of life of these last survivors of the
Baltic pagan world. The information, of great historic
utility, concerns the piratical voyages of restless, war-
faring parties of the time of the Vikings, who were trad
ing and raiding in Iceland, Greenland, and northeastern
North America. The piratical adventurers sailed from the
Norwegian coast between 799 and 1000 A.D. The Old Baltic
*
culture complex with its village life, neighborhood auton
omy, and informal social control practices was transferred
to the new lands. The democratic tenor of the way of
life, however, was undermined by the concentration of
wealth and influence in the hands of a few families. The
effects of feudalism made themselves felt here through
the agency of Norwegian Harald Fairhair, who established
a feudalistic power structure in a series of raids which
subjected the Icelandic villagers to his domination.34
The Old Baltic order as it survived in Iceland
was first contravened by the accumulation of wealth which
34Veblen, op. cit.. p. 331.
153
put an end to the common-sensical and permissive neighbor
hood social control mechanisms. Later still, the intro
duction of industrial techniques further undermined the
handicraft system of the Old Order, making it completely
outmoded.
Class differentials in economic power lend an
assurance to the ego of those who possess wealth and its
associated socioeconomic status, power, and prestige. It
is an exceptional person in any culture who would be able
to resist the delusions of grandeur insinuated by his
possession of legitimated power. As a member of a group
likewise powerful in monetary potential, he would look
upon his own socioeconomic group as more valid than less
advantaged groups, thus expressing a sort of social class
ethnocentr ism.
A culture contact setting is mentioned for Norse-
Skraeling interaction in Greenland in the early years of
the eleventh century. "Skraeling" is a Danish term for
American Indian or Eskimo aboriginal peoples. In the
Greenland interplay, it is the Eskimo who represent the
American aborigines.
Greenland was discovered by Norseman Eric the Red
about 980 A.D.; his son, Lief Eriksson, sailed west dis
154
covering the North American coast in 1003. A bishopric
was established in Greenland in 1000 A.D. as church ruins
from this date testify. The colony came under Norwegian
control in 1216, then the colonization was abandoned
between the years 1300 and 1500.
Henri Beuchat, in his Manuelle d1archeologie
Americanine, presents documentary information on Norse-
Eskimo contacts between 1003 and the early 1200's. Much
of the information in this work is drawn from Rafn's
Antiguitates Americanae, which in turn draws upon two
Icelandic manuscripts. In 1003 trade was established
with the Skraeling (Eskimo), then described as people of
savage disposition who wore fur clothing. Physical fea
tures of the Eskimo were dark skin, large eyes, and promi
nent cheeks. A quarrel took place, causing the Scandi-
•3 C
navians to take to their boats.
In another conflict situation with the Skraeling,
Beuchat noted that Thorveld Eriksson, brother of Lief
Eriksson died of arrow wounds inflicted by the Eskimo and
was buried at Cape Krossanes as related in the Lief
^Henri Beuchat, Manuelle dfarcheologie America-
nine (Paris: Libraire Alphonse Picard et Fils, 1912),
pp. 12-36.
155
Eriksson saga (legendary account). A similar occurrence
was noted in the Skalholt saga of 1051, wherein a Norse
woman was killed by an arrow and buried with a stela
marking her grave.36
The Greenland colonies prospered for about two
centuries, especially at Vestribygdh (Western Settlement)
which had a population of 10,000 and to a lesser degree
at Estribygdh (Eastern Settlement) with a population of
90. According to Beuchat, the historians J. Fischer and
F. N. U. Brynj&Lfson felt that the population estimates
37
should be reduced by about half.
The Scandinavian colonists remained for three
centuries in Greenland, finally leaving because of Eskimo
aggression and lack of support from their own homeland.
In 1379, the Eskimos attacked Vestribygdh, killing
eighteen men and capturing two children. Additional
attacks left the whole area of Vestribygdh in Eskimo
hands.
Scandinavian settlements in Greenland dwindled
and contacts with Iceland fell away. Papal bulls of
Nicolas V (1448) and Alexander II (1492-93) were the last
36Ibid., pp. 19-20 37Ibid., p. 32.
156
texts referring to Greenland. A bishop was assigned to
continue with the Christianization of Greenland, but it
3 8
is not known whether or not the activity was undertaken.
After a lapse of two centuries Greenland was re
discovered in 1721, but there were no traces of Norsemen
to be found. Presently there are 41,000 people living in
Greenland (as of 1968) located mostly on the western shore
of the island; five hundred are Europeans and the rest are
Eskimos and admixtures of Eskimo and Caucasoid physical
types. Eskimo handicrafts retain their traditional expres
sion, for their culture is still a successful adaptation
to this climatically unfavorable area.
In his book titled Alaskan Eskimos, Oswaldt dis
cussed the northwestern Eskimo as follows:
The word Eskimo, meaning "eaters of raw
flesh," is from the language of the Algonkin
Indians of eastern Canada, but the people to
whom it referred did not use the term. They
called themselves by a variety of words which
usually meant "real people." Eskimos regarded
themselves literally as real people, as a class
apart from all other human beings. In a sense
Americans, Canadians, and Europeans have come to
agree with the Eskimos' self, image . . . Green-
landic anthropologist Knud Rasmussen contributed
more than any other writer to the propitious
image of the Eskimo, but more importantly, he
38Ibid., p. 35.
157
allowed them to speak for themselves by record
ing their ideas and attitudes verbatim. Prom
these texts Eskimos emerge as sensitive poets,
as mystics, and yet practical men of the north.
Those characteristics which are most admired are
their ability to suffer adversity without com
plaint and to laugh at themselves or others on
nearly any occasion.^9
Eskimos can be purposeful and ethnocentric; there
was conflict among the bands occasionally over the seizure
of women or intrusion on hunting territories. Their daily
hunting routines were dangerous in a harsh environment
with temperatures in the ninety degrees below zero range.
It is no surprise that they were able to make an effective
showing against the highly-rated Scandinavian peoples who
sought to displace them in Greenland. To the Eskimo the
invaders must have seemed an inferior lot.
If the Eskimo rated the Norseman down, the same
sort of evaluation was being returned in kind by the early
Norse voyagers who called American aborigines, Eskimo and
non-Eskimo alike, "Skraeling," a Danish term which also
means "poor wretch." The mutual ethnocentric implications
are still in effect as Euro-American and Eskimo cultures
continue to coexist all the way across arctic North
^9Wendell H. Qswaldt, Alaskan Eskimos (San Fran
cisco: Chandler Publishing Company, 1967), p. ix.
158
America, each borrowing considerable in the way of culture
content from the other in the process.
CHAPTER V
SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS AND ETHNOCENTRISM
The sociocultural matrix to which attitudes of
sociocultural centrality apply are the concern of this
section of the discussion.
Linton defined cultures as "a configuration of
the learned behavior and results of behavior whose compo
nent elements are shared and transmitted by members of a
l
particular society.” This is the cultural aspect of the
sociocultural complex. This definition can be extended to
culture in general as an aggregate of such particular
cultural manifestations.
The individual humans who carry a particular
culture are present as a result of the operation of human
reproductive and genetic forces. The ultimate expression
of personality is the resultant of social conditioning of
Ralph Linton, Cultural Background of Personality
(New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1945), p. 32.
159
160
the population coming under the direction of their way of
life; this is the "social" aspect of the "sociocultural"
complex. Together the social and the cultural comprise
the current expression of way of life; the on-going activ
ities are the end products of a moving equilibrium that
has past (diachronic) influences as well as present
(synchronic) expressions combined in a viable complex of
traditionalized practices. The sociocultural effects
discussed in this section are also historical, but within
the on-going functioning of any society, perhaps "histor
ical influences in the cultural base" would be a figure of
speech that would clarify the relations of the diachronic
to the synchronic factors in culture.
The content of culture is developed and apprehended
by cognitive functions of the carriers as well as put
into effect by the emotive and energizing potential of
the carriers which are here designated cathetic functions.
Traditionalization at conscious levels is depend
ent upon communication of ideas. Symbolic systems of
speech are the basic elements in such communication; these
speech systems are additionally objectified by systems of
writing developed in the literate cultures. Esthetic
expression also affords a means of symbolic representation
161
in the expression of a way of life. All of these commu-
nicational aspects are vehicles for the establishment of
values, standards, and accords among the carriers of a
particular culture. The culture pattern in its widest
sense standardizes the responses of its carriers by means
of observed norms of behavior based upon sociocultural
values.
Linton observed that social norms are expressed
by individuals carrying out their roles in deference to a
consensus of opinion and behavior which action is desig
nated as the essential structure of a cultural pattern.
As a whole, a culture is "a more or less organized aggre-
2
gate of culture patterns." Linton's view here was
cautious; Sapir has suggested that the totality of pos
sible responses within a cultural system is far more than
the simple aggregate of responses; rather it is the
3
product of such possible responses. Likewise, Kluckhohn
indicated the complexity of sociocultural interaction by
noting that culture patterns are constituents of cultural
^Ibid., p. 19.
^Edward Sapir, "Culture Genuine and Spurious," in
Selected Writings of Edward Sapir, ed. David G. Mandel-
baum (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951).
162
configurations which are abstractions at a higher level
of conceptualization. Configuration is noted as "a
technical term in psychology [which] carries the implica-
4
tion that 'the whole is more than the sum of the parts.'"
Ethnocentric expressions in their maximum extent
can attach to such cultural configurations. Actually,
the sociocultural organization does not make use of all
of the possible interrelationships, but rather those
expressions which meet with group favor at a particular
time; these become the object of ethnocentric concern.
Linton noted the dual importance of individuals
in culture; they are "little more than incidents in the
5
life history of societies to which they belong," yet
they are basic to cultural change which must be initiated
by individuals and must be subsequently shared by other
individuals if the changes are to be effective aspects of
a cultural continuity. The following excerpt clarifies
this relationship:
4
Clyde Kluckhohn, "Patterning as Exemplified in
Navaho Culture," in Language, Culture and Personality:
Essays in Memory of Edward Sapir, ed. Leslie Spier, et
al. (Menasha, Wisconsin, 1941), pp. 126-127.
5
Linton, op. cit., p. 12.
163
However, societies have to exist and function in
an ever-changing world. The unparalleled ability
of our species to adjust to changing conditions
and to develop ever more effective responses to
familiar ones, rests upon the residue of indi
viduality which survives in every one of us after
society and culture have done their utmost to
conformalize us.6
In similar manner, Linton noted that "New social
inventions are made by those who suffer from current
n
conditions, not by those who benefit from them."
Linton summarized deliberate learning procedures
as follows, observing that all societies must fulfill
through means of purposeful instructional techniques the
following conditions, if their ways of life are to achieve
continuity:
1. Indoctrination of new individuals in the
value system of the society.
2. Rewarding of socially approved behavior and
inhibition of socially disapproved behavior.
3. Minimization of social conflict.8
Another condition Linton failed to mention was the imple
menting of social change, although he had previously men
tioned the need for providing enough stimulus to change
so that cultures could meet changing conditions rather
. 9
than become static or actually dysgenic.
g
Ibid., pp. 22-23.
8Ibid., p. 23.
^Ibid., p. 23.
9Ibid., pp. 12-13.
164
Linton analyzed the composition of culture into
three aspects:
1. Material: tangible and concrete aspects,
objects, "material culture."
2. Kinetic: action aspects, overt behavior-
3. Values, attitudes, psychological states:
covert behavior.10
According to Linton, status and role are related
as follows: status is the position a person is accorded
in a social structure at a particular time. Ascription
of status is by age and/or sex attributes; it may be
inherited conventionally within the framework of biolog
ical lineage. Role "is the dynamic aspect of status;
what the individual has to do to validate his occupation
of status."11 Role activities are learned and may be
either arbitrarily ascribed in a preconceived manner or
achieved by individual effort.
The function of personality seems to be to aid
its possessor to adapt primarily to the demands of his
sociocultural environment. The most effective adaptation
is that in which habitual response has become nearly
effortless through frequent repetition. Intelligent
response to environmental stimuli, however, requires
1QIbid.. p. 38. i:LIbid., p. 77
165
generalizing ability, application of conceptualized frame
works to particular instances and such situations are
never simple. Humans have both foresight and hindsight
which are brought to bear on the multiple problems of the
present, problems which involve combinations of human
needs and motivations. Or, as another anthropologist,
J. J. Greenberg, has stated, such human mental processes
of rapid analysis and synthesis of on-going situations
12
can be labelled "multiple abstraction."
Linton discussed a concept called the "social
component"; this concerns the favorable attitude accorded
those who achieve in the valued areas of the culture. It
is easy for individuals to do well in this field as even
poor work meets with approval and reward. Activities
outside the range of the social component go unnoticed
no matter how well carried out they may be. This exem
plifies ethnocentrism.
Allied to this concept is Linton's discussion of
established versus emergent psychological responses.
Established responses are those so strongly organized and
12
Cited in Betty J. Meggers (ed.), Evolution and
Anthropology; A Centennial Appraisal (Washington; The
Anthropological Society of Washington, 1959) , p. 75.
166
reinforced by constant repetition that they take place
automatically. Conditioned, or secondary, responses are
those of more tentative and experimental sort. These
responses are rationally and intellectually directed
rather than grooved by habit.
Generalized responses are of interest as they
bear on values; a step above habitualized responses.
Linton defined value as "any element common to a series
of situations which is capable of evoking a covert
response in the individual." An attitude is a covert
response evoked by such an element. Value-attitude sys
tems determine one's overt responses, pleasurable or
antagonistic. The covert responses are systematized to a
much greater degree than are the overt responses because
of attitudinal systems such as those resulting in optimist-
pessimist, trusting-suspicious, or extravert-introvert
dichotomies. Attitudinal value systems are very useful
to group purposes in directing individual behavior. Also,
such systems aid the individual in adapting to his social
environment. In cross-cultural contacts it is necessary
to recast one's experience and value-attitude systems to
the requirements of a different social environment by
means of reducing quickly a great number of emergent
167
responses to automatized ones suitable to the new cul
tural situations one is attempting to meet.
Such attitude-value systems exhibit a separate
existence over and above the actual events with which
they are associated— a sort of "socially approved myth
ology." Linton remarked: "No society ever taught its
13
younger generation the truth about its own history."
The conventionalized patterns of culture set the limits
of any changes which are to be made. The limits are wide
enough to afford satisfactory adjustment to all but mark
edly abnormal persons. In the reduction to efficient
behavior through automatization, random associations
sometimes persist. There is no certain way to account
for either for what will remain in association, or what
possible associations will be ignored in a final associa
tion. An individual will adjust his own responses to
what others expect of him within the range of his own
value-attitude system, balancing his desire for social
approval on one hand against inner consistency within his
own conscience on the other.
Automatized responses can be extinguished when
13
Linton, op. cit., p. 101.
they are detrimental or in competition with other con
flicting responses. The more limited and specific a
response is, the easier it is to extinguish it. General
ized responses with value-attitude content are much more
difficult to change. Overt expressions associated with
such value-attitude systems can be suppressed, although
the covert expression may be merely hidden or "under
ground, " ready for reassertion under more favorable con
ditions. Because the generalized value-attitude systems
are so wide-ranging, there must be considerable time
allotted to their acquisition and they are difficult to
change subsequently.
Areas for intracultural ethnocentric expression
appear in several places in Linton's discussion of the
cultural background of personality. Culture bondage, the
biasing effect of having recourse to one's value system
in the formation of comparative judgments, is a background
factor in exalting one's own cultural system over others,
the essence of ethnocentric behavior. Another area in
which ethnocentrism is implied is in the comment that the
beneficiaries of social stability tend to ignore new
social inventions as the work of malcontents, groups which
are felt to be beneath the dignity of notice and of;little
169
or no social importance.^4
In the ascription-achievement context of personal
ity, those with ascribed status will often be apprehen
sive, if not contemptuous, of the upward mobility threats
of ambitious but relatively disadvantaged persons who
seek coequality. An ethnocentrism of socioeconomic class
and prestige is in operation in this kind of situation.
Ethnocentrism in action is exemplified in the
concept of the social component, favoritism toward all
that is in accord with the norms of the dominant cultural
consensus, and rejection of aspects that differ from
dominant norms.
Linton's comments regarding "socially approved
mythology" and the lack of candid treatments of the his
torical past of all sociocultural groups illustrate the
tendency to sanctify the past and to avoid candid discus
sion of historical events and personages. Both of these
postures elevate the ethnocentric image of a people's
past and minimize or ignore present-day shortcomings.
Rival cultures are disparaged or disregarded to the point
of indicating that ethnocentric thinking is in effect at
14Ibid., p. 23.
170
at nearly all times to bolster the sociocultural images
of these entities.
In another of Linton's books, The Study of Man,
there are some suggestive leads for appreciation of ethno-
15
centrism. For example, he described a basic component
of ethnocentrism, namely esprit de corps, as follows:
. . . culture and society are mutually dependent.
Neither can exist as functioning entity without
the other. It is the possession of a common
culture which gives a society its esprit de
corps and makes it possible for its members to
live and work together with a minimum of confusion
and mutual interference . . . ^
Esprit de corps, or morale, is the positive as
pect of ethnocentric feeling, a sort of enthusiastic
self-esteem. Often there is the added enthusiasm asso
ciated with primary group relationships which intensify
ethnocentric expression. Engler described the highest
expression of institutional morale as that manifested
under conditions wherein wherein privileges and respon
sibilities have been so well balanced that individuals
are very deeply committed to the particular social group
^Ralph Linton, The Study of Man (New York: D.
Appleton-Century Company, 1936).
16Ibid., p. 271.
171
and feel that its action is an extension of their own
17
personalities.
By contrast, low morale is characterized by situ
ations wherein mass response is typical. When members of
a group do not receive a proper share of the rewards of a
culture, their participation in group activities may be
of an irresponsible kind. Under such conditions, deviant
groups may emerge to oppose, subvert, or exploit the
18
cultural activity of which they are a component.
Linton discussed the degree of carrier participa
tion in a particular culture within the following cate
gories: (!) universals "are those ideas, habits, and
conditioned emotional responses which are common to all
sane adult members of the society." (2) Specialties con
stitute a more limited number of elements or activities
shared "by members of certain socially recognized cate
gories of individuals but which are not shared by the
total population." (3) Alternatives comprise
a . considerable number of traits which are shared
by certain individuals but which are not common
-^Richard E. Engler, Jr., "A Systematic Approach
to the Study of Morale in an Organization" (unpublished
Ph.D. dissertation. University of California, Department
of Sociology, 1957), p. 178.
18Ibid.. p. 12.
172
to all members of the society or even to all
members of any one of the socially recognized
categories ... varying from the special and
often quite atypical ideas and habits of a par
ticular family to such things as different schools
of painting or sculpture. . . . Beyond the
limits of culture there lies still a fourth cate
gory of habits and ideas and conditioned emotion
al responses; that of Individual Peculiarities."^
The structure of a culture at a particular time
consists of the
. . . Universals and Specialties Ewhich] normally
form a fairly consistent and well integrated
unit, the Alternatives necessarily lack such con
sistency and integration. Many of them are in
opposition to each other and some of them may
even be at variances with elements in the first
two parts, a solid well-integrated and fairly
stable core, consisting of mutually adapted
Universals and Specialties and a fluid, largely
unintegrated and constantly changing zone of
Alternatives which surrounds this core. It is
the core which gives a culture its form and
basic patterns at each point in its history,
while the presence of the fluid zone gives it
capacity for growth and adaptation . . . New
traits, beginning as Individual Peculiarities
gain adherents, rise to the status of Alterna
tives and finally pass into the core as they
achieve general recognition. Old ones, as soon
as they are brought into competition with new
ones, are drawn into the zone of Alternatives
and, if they are inferior, finally drop out of
the culture.2®
In general, ethnocentrism strongly supports the
19Linton, Study of Man, pp. 272-274.
20Ibid., pp. 278-282.
173
cultural core as its point of reference, as Linton ob
served :
It is the common adherence of a society's mem
bers to the elements which form the core of their
culture which makes it possible for them to
function as a society. Without a wide community
of ideas and habits the members of the group
will not react to particular stimuli as a unit,
nor will they be able to cooperate effectively.
. . . When there are very few elements of cul
ture in which all the members of a society par
ticipate; i.e., when the proportional size of
the culture core has been greatly reduced, the
group tends to revert to conditions of an aggre
gate. The society is no longer able to feel or
act as a unit. Its members may continue to live
together, but many forms of social intercourse
will be hampered by the impossibility of predict
ing behavior of individuals on any other than
that of their known personalities.^
As well as the solid attachment of ethnocentrism
to the core of a culture, the alternatives may afford an
effective base for ethnocentric sentiments. Because of
the unicity of such variable traits, the culture is given
a particularistic stamp. Other cultures lacking this
particularity can be identified easily and devaluated by
those making ethnocentric comparisons. This is a double
anchorage for ethnocentric values in both the core of the
culture as well as in its alternative aspects.
21Ibid., p. 283.
174
Each society will have one or more norms serving
as standards for the identification of carriers of the
culture. An aggregate of norms that can be considered as
typical for the society elicits the behavior resulting
in "basic personality" for that culture in Linton's view:
Upon this basic personality pattern there will
be superposed "status personality," differences
in response to role assignments which are in
turn associated with biological differences
including the secondary sexual aspects. There
is a physiological basis to this sort of status
assignment; how far this is hereditarily trans
mitted needs additional clarification. It should
be recalled, however, that even the innate
factors in personality will condition a person
to respond to environment selectively, so envir
onment has a reflexive effect on the action of
hereditary factors.22
In view of this involvement, he felt that neither innate
abilities nor environment can be regarded as constantly
dominant in personality formation. Different combinations
23
of the two will produce closely similar results. ^
A fuller discussion of basic personality structure
is offered in a subsequent section on personality dynam
ics. Actually the effects of basic personality are
relativistic and tend to contravene the dogmatic and
^^Linton, The Cultural Background of Personality,
p. 133
23Ibid.
175
absolute tendencies of ethnocentrism. Awareness of socio
cultural differences and respect for them are more akin
to allocentric sentiments and positions wherein interest
in ways of life and in the carriers of those ways is
paramount. At least, the whole range of attitude is
brought into focus by the mentioning of allocentrism and
a contrast point is established to afford a complete pic
ture.
Another area of importance to social structural
considerations lies under the rubric "consciousness of
kind," a concept often asserted to be basic to ethnocen
tric phenomena. The writings of Otto Klineberg and
William Trotter are contrasted to bring out some of the
involvements of ethnocentrism in this area.
Dr. William Trotter, a British physician, compared
in an evolutionistic way the behavior of animals to that
of humans in the area of cathectic (drive oriented)
24
activity. He asserted that the herd social environment
24William Trotter, "The Herd Instinct and Its
Bearing on the Psychology of Civilized Man," The Socio
logical Review (Manchester, England), I (1908), 224-248;
and "Sociological Applications of the Psychology of the
Herd Instinct," Sociological Review (Manchester, England),
II (1908), 36-54.
176
is the only one in which man's mind can function satis
factorily. The profound effects of fellow-feeling gener
ates certainty in herd animal behavior and dominates both
the experiential and altruistic factors in such groups.
The action of herd unity of feeling is equated to sugges
tion in human society as the mechanism for establishing a
25
high degree of social solidarity. The instinctual bias
(gregariousness) of this type of explanation is found in
Trotter's statement: "to believe must be an ineradical
2 G
natural bias of man."
Robinson reviewed Trotter's article on the herd
instinct in "Instinct of the Herd in Peace and War," and
noted that the function of gregariousness was to keep
individual animals within the herd and thus free from
27
harm. Trotter maintained that gregariousness is not
too effective for human societies, as it limits the
action of conscience of members who are not in accord with
herd values. He advocated using suggestibility to direct
^Trotter, "Sociological Applications . . ."p. 45.
26Ibid., p. 37.
27m . E. Robinson, "Instinct of the Herd in Peace
and War," Sociological Review (Manchester, England), IX
(1916), 60.
177
learning processes rather than to allow human rationality
and self-centeredness to disrupt social organization.
Trotter listed types of gregariousness as follows;
1. Aggressive as in wolf packs.
2. Protective as in flocks of sheep.
3. Socialized as in bee colonies.^®
Trotter's comparisons shifted irresponsibly from
animal to human societies, but he has called attention to
the motivations of herd emotional solidarity which stand
in contrast to variations of behavior attributable to
learning and/or altruistic sentiments. The cathectic
factors are somewhat comparable between herd animals and
human social groups, but the modulating effects of ration
ality in human societies are lacking in those outside the
range of human and chimpanzee ways of life.
An idea advanced by Trotter concerning human
societies is of great interest to current social problems?
he said that suggestibility in the human way of life
should not be reduced, for man's unreason was more man
ageable than his self-centeredness directed by
28
Ibid.
178
99
rationality.
P. H. Giddings (1885-1931) initiator of graduate
studies in sociology at Columbia University, emphasized
like-mindedness (homophily) as the basis of society. "The
rise of consciousness marks a distinct phase in the
evolution of the mind of the many ... it converts mere
30
gregariousness into society ...1 1
Klineberg discussed "consciousness of kind,"
noting that it is an incomplete explanation of social
group sentiment:
This hostility against the stranger has
sometimes been regarded as evidence for the bio
logical nature of the "consciousness of kind,"
or the "ethnocentrism" or "dislike of the
unlike," which is alleged to exist among human
beings. It is important to note, therefore,
that the in-group among animals is not necessar
ily made up of members of the same species. It
has been pointed out that in a great many in
stances a herd may be made up of very hetero
geneous elements. Wild zebras may follow domes
tic horses and graze among them, or they may
accompany various species of gazelles and
ostriches. Wild buffaloes may be found with
elephants, and horses with antelopes of different
types. If there is an "urge for company" among
29
Robinson, op. cit., p. 60.
30
See Don Martindale, The Nature and Types of
Sociological Theory (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company,
1960) , p. 319.
179
animals it is not necessarily for company of
their own biological kind.31
Allport commented on both gregariousness and
consciousness of kind:
The principle of the ground in human learn
ing is important. We do not need to postulate a
"gregarious instinct" to explain why people like
to be with people; they have simply found people
lockstitched into the very fabric of their
existence. Since they affirm their own existence
as good, they will affirm social living as good.
Nor do we need to postulate "consciousness of
kind" to explain why people adhere to their own
families, clans, ethnic groups. The self could
not be itself without them.
The foregoing passages reduce the deterministic
intensities often associated with mechanistic interpreta
tions, especially in human interaction, these formulations
must be examined critically, for variability of response
among human social groups is wide and subject to fixation
by tradition. As well, conceptual thought once activated
is capable of initiating varied and change-oriented
behavior. Alternatives are always to be expected along
with the uniformities stabilized by tradition.
O " I
- ’ ■'■otto Klineberg, Social Psychology (New York:
Henry Holt and Company, 1940), pp. 20-21.
32
Gordon Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (New
York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1958), p. 29.
180
Ethnocentrism is closely associated with operation
of social distance phenomena. Bogardus noted a precursor
to social distance conceptualizations in Georg Simmel's
33
discussion of the "stranger." Park explored the area
and gave it empirical significance in his article, "The
34
Concept of Social Distance."
A widely used social distance scale was con
structed by Bogardus titled the "Measuring of Social
Distance." The subject is asked whether or not he would
be willing to admit members of a particular ethnic group
to each of the following classifications:
To close kinship by marriage.
To my club as personal chums.
To my street as neighbors.
To employment in my occupation in my country.
To citizenship in my country.
As visitors only to my country.
35
Would exclude from my country.
It is of interest to note that the high place on the
33
E. S. Bogardus, The Development of Social
Thought (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1955), p. 467.
34
R. E. Park, "The Concept of Social Distance,"
Journal of Applied Psychology, VIII (1924), 339-344.
35
Bogardus, op. cit. See also Gardiner Lindzey,
181
Bogardus scale is also an extreme point in ethnocentric
attitude.
Mitchell stated:
Bogardus asked a series of questions of his 1725
American informants about forty different nation
alities . . . His social distance scale produced
remarkably consistent results in America, both
geographically and over a period of time. One
curious feature is the lowly place the Turks
occupy in the American view, but it would seem
that there is a general distaste for foreigners.
Bogardus noted that:
Social distance results from the maintenance of
social status, that is, of the status quo rela-
tionships. By keeping others at a distance a
person maintains his standing among his friends.
One can more easily bear the loss of anything in
life than loss of social status, hence, the raison
9 * 3 7 1
d1etre for maintaining social distance. *
He also mentioned that causes of social distance
. . . are found in unfavorable personal experi
ences. These generate what are relatively last
ing negative sentiments. Nearness originates in
favorable experiences. . . . Fear is the most
dynamic and predominant factor . . . Derivative
experiences, hearsay reports, traditions are also
(ed.), Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. II (Cambridge,
Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1954),
p. 1027.
36
G. Duncan Mitchell, A Dictionary of Sociology
(Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1968), pp. 168-169.
37
Bogardus, op. cit., p. 471.
182
causes of social farness. In fact derivative
experiences may be as effective as direct ones,
especially if the sources are closely identi
fied with one's own personal life.38
An interesting confirmation of the strength of
Indirect fears in the formation of ethnocentric attitudes
is to be noted in the following excerpt about the work
of Eugene Hartley in this area. Berry wrote:
Hartley a few years ago undertook an inves
tigation of the prejudices of college students.
He asked them to express their attitudes toward
thirty-two nations and races, using the Bogardus
Social Distance Scale. However, he included
with his thirty-two familiar nationalities and
ethnic groups three nonexistent groups— the
"Daniereans," the "Pireneans," and the "Wallon-
ians." It so happened that the students who
proved themselves prejudiced against the familiar
groups were also prejudiced against these imagi
nary ones, while the tolerant students indicated
an open-mindedness toward these fictitious ones.89
Bogardus summarized on a practical note regarding
social distance effects: "Social distance is a measure
of actual or potential social conflict. It reveals the
40
location of actual or incipient social problems.1 1
Social distance phenomena seem eminently suited
38Ibid., pp. 469-470.
39
Brewton Berry, Race and Ethnic Relations
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958), p. 374.
^^Bogardus, op. cit., p. 469.
183
to reinforce ethnocentric expression. Strong social
distance feelings are associated with autocratic social
orders. These groups also show a preference for leader
ship positions ascriptively derived via supernaturalistic
manifestations.
Raciocentric groups elevate their own physical
type above those of other peoples in their intercultural
environment and emphasize endogamic practices to assure
"purity of type." As very few populations are "unmixed"
genetically, the claims are seldom, if ever, convincing
to rival groups.
If cultural superiority is being claimed by a
people, there will be resistance to culture contacts for
fear of debasement of their way of life. Such fears of
debasement are usually unrealistic, as most cultures, and
especially the more complex examples, have been enriched
by diffusion of culture and by acculturation contacts.
Social distance considerations and ethnocentrism both
heighten the narcissistic self-image of a culture, be it
simple or complex, affluent or impoverished, in an active
state of change, in a static condition, or actually under
going social disorganization. The animus of ethnocentrism
stems from the self-laudatory tendencies present in nearly
184
all cultures and is accentuated by self-fulfilling proph-
ecy proclivities regarding aspirations of preeminence,
even in the face of apparent social disorganization.
The work of Carolyn and Muzafer Sherif affords
a perspective for ethnocentrism from in-group out-group
41
behavior patterns (inter-group behavior).
As the initial part of a comprehensive study of
groups in harmony and tension, the Sherifs chose a small
group experimental approach to structure tension in a
deliberate manner in order to obtain a clearer understand
ing of processes in this area of emotionality. The struc
turing of the experiment was carried out in a most graphic
way by setting up a competitive situation between two
groups of adolescent boys in a secluded summer camp in
Connecticut during an eighteen-day period in the summer
of 1949. The project was under the auspices of the Depart
ment of Psychology of Yale University. The subjects of
the experiment were twenty-four boys from middle-class
families of New Haven, Connecticut. The boys were not
informed of the objective of the project; rather, they
41Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif, Groups in Harmony
and Tension (reprinted; New York: Octagon Books, Inc.,
1966).
185
were told the activity was a study of camping procedures.
The director of the experiment, Dr* Muzafer Sherif, as
sumed the role of a maintenance man, "Mr. Mussee," ena
bling him to function as a participant observer. There
was a counselor for each of two groups of boys; other
staff personnel recorded information as fully as possible
short of revealing their identity as experimenting psy-
42
chologists.
Intergroup behavior, the focus of this experiment,
"is the outcome of internal functions (motives, attitudes,
complexes and the like) and external factors (situational,
configurational, socioeconomic and material) which jointly
determine the unique properties of psychological struc
turing.
The Sherifs noted "that reactions of the individ
ual take place within reference frames to which both
internal and external factors contribute in a functionally
interrelated fashion," and further that "intergroup
behavior, like any other behavior, can be understood only
within its appropriate framework.1,44
42 43
Ibid., p. 241. Ibid., p. 297.
44
Ibid., pp. 288, 297.
186
Of great importance in this study were reference
groups, "which are the groups to which the individual
relates himself as a part, or aspires to relate himself
45
psychologically." Intergroup behavior within the frame
work of reference group phenomena was the primary inter
est of the experimenters.
In regard to reference group structure, Sherif
stated:
... it was found that when groups experimental
ly formed were placed in situations and engaged
in activities calling for group cooperation
toward common goals, unmistakable in-group
structures developed with heirarchical posi
tions and roles within it.46
[As well] it becomes a reference group for indi
vidual members . . . and . . . one of the prod
ucts of group formation is a delineation of "we"
and "they"— the "we" including members of the
in-group or reference group. The "we" thus
delineated comes to embody a host of qualities
and values to be upheld, defended and cherished.
Offenses from without or deviations from within
are reacted to with appropriate corrective,
defensive and at times offensive measures. A
set of values, "traits" or stereotypes are
attributed to all those groups of individuals
who comprise the "they" groups from the point of
view of the "we" group. 7
45 46
Ibid., p. 161. Ibid., p. 269
47Ibid., p. 233.
187
The direction of the stereotype is outlined by
the Sherifs as follows:
If the interests, directions, or goals of the
groups involved in functional contact with one
another are integrated or harmonious (or are
made to appear so), the "they" group is pic
tured in a positive or favorable light. However,
if the activities and functional views of the
interacting groups clash, then the characteris
tics attributed to the out-group are negative
and derogatory. If one group takes the position
that another group is in its way, that for some
reason the other group interferes with the goals
or interests of the "we" group, or that it should
be working in the interest of "we" group, all
sorts of stereotypes develop to justify this
position.^8
At the camp a bivalence was to be noted in the
fostering of a democratic spirit within the in-group in
contrast to hostility and contempt toward out-groups as
the Sherifs indicate in the following passage: "In fact
the group which had the greater democratic in-group organ
ization (The Bull Dogs) was the more concerted in expres-
49
sions of out-group antagonism."
The experimental aspect consisted of three
stages. During Stage I there was informal association
for three days, featuring spontaneous groupings with
interviews eliciting preferences for camp activities and
48
Ibid., p. 234
49
Ibid., p. 284.
a study of the informal friendships formed by the boys.
This latter information was compiled into sociograms
used to assign the boys to two experimental groups, each
with twelve members. Stage II, of five days duration,
began with the division into the above-mentioned groups,
assigning them separate quarters and recreational facili
ties. In-group organizational details including choice
of names for each group— Bull Dogs and Red Devils--and
selecting of leaders were accomplished; in-group struc
tures and social norms were developing during this per
iod. Relationships were friendly, quite in contrast to
the attitudes developed in the next stage when the groups
were brought into functional contact in competitive,
frustrating situations.5®
In Stage III, of ten days duration, points were
awarded in competitive events such as baseball, swimming,
football, tug of war, as well as for camp maintenance. A
prize of twelve jackknives was established for the win
ning group. At this time intense in-group out-group
antagonisms were developed deliberately by the experi
menters in some instances in order to assure a strong
50Ibid., p. 270
189
expression of in-group out-group hostility. Hostile ac
tions included name-calling, derogatory drawings posted,
raids on opponents' quarters, gathering of apples to be
thrown as missiles, vandalism of dining areas and one
threat with a knife to a Red Devil by a Bull Dog member.
A confrontation in the dining hall marked the high point
of the violence. The intensity of the interaction was
then scaled down purposefully by the staff by means of
fostering total group participation and activities empha
sizing individual expression. The summer camp activity
had to come to an anticlimax stage so that the partici
pants could resume their urban occupations.
This type of experiment was graphically like a
real life situation in its dramatic intensity. The
Sherifs were thinking in holistic and pragmatic terras as
they remarked:
The group setting constitutes not merely the in
group, its relationships and norms governing in
group activity, but the in-group in its relation
ship to out-groups and the norms which arise on
the basis of these group relationships.^
Shortcomings in previous approaches were sounded
as the Sherifs noted:
51
Ibid., p. 288
190
It is for this reason that attempts to
explain group prejudice, social distance and
antagonism, or attitudes of harmony or admira
tion between groups in terms of the needs or
motives of the individual alone are so inadequate
in meeting the known facts concerning intergroup
attitudes and behavior, and rather unrewarding
in pointing ways to alter or even reduce inter
group tensions in a consequential way.^
While the Sherifs selected a primary group frame
work for their initial experiment, they anticipated that
the emotional behaviors they so clearly illustrated were
also to be found in secondary groups implemented by
"indirect communication including the powerful mass media
. . . which . . . may reflect a picture promulgated by
powerful interests and interested parties within the in-
53
groups or from functionally related groups."
The book ended on a constructive note as the
Sherifs looked beyond narrower in-group expressions, and
reminded the reader that:
. . . the introduction of conditions of inter
dependency and common goals among groups and the
trends implied by them should not be pulled and
pushed asunder by practices and norms in con
flicting direction within the respective in
groups. This will go a long way to insure us an
ever-enlarging experience of "we-ness" in which
the individual's particular in-group, as well as
53Ibid., p. 300
191
54
the self are perceived as autonomous and free.
The course of events in the Bull Dog-Red Devil
interaction clearly outlines many processes that are
typical of ethnocentric behavior in both primary and
secondary group functioning. Most apparent is the favor
able stereotypy expressed by the in-group about their own
abilities and about their organization, these attitudes
standing in sharp contrast to similar manifestations of
the out-groups. Over and above merely holding the stere
otypic views was the purposeful action which resulted
under the stressful competitive situation structured by
the experimenters. While there were a few individuals
who deviated from an ethnocentric stance, the majority of
both groups eagerly carried out group policies generally.
The most dedicated to in-group objectives were the leaders
at the top and the strivers for mobility at the lower
levels in each group.
The experiment underlines the thoroughness of the
socialization processes in implanting in-group attitudes
so deeply in adolescent carriers of Anglo-American cul
ture. Modulations might be expected if lower or upper
54
Ibid., p. 307
192
class subjects had been used in similar experiments, but
a pronounced reading for average value positions in
regard to competition, in-group loyalties, and antagonism
toward out-groups was certainly high-lighted in this
cogent experiment in small-group ethnocentrism.
The relation of ' personality to leadership has
been stated by Dr. Erie F. Young in a typology of leader-
55
ship categories. Young's sequence postulates differing
leadership types for the several phases of a social move
ment. In the initial phase, a movement will originate in
a small group led by one or a few leaders at the most.
Young sees such leaders as "prophetic," those personali
ties who are felt to have special insight for what is
going on in the world. Social situations change as do
social movements, so leaders must be versatile, or direc
tion of the movement may fall into the hands of others who
can guide the group toward particular objectives in par
ticular sets of circumstances. Once a movement is
stabilized in its postprophetic phase, administrative
problems come to the fore and the organizer is better
55
Cited by E. W. Bogardus, Leaders and Leadership
(New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1934), pp.
278-279.
suited to officiate because of his technical abilities
as trainer, disciplinarian or practitioner. As a move
ment attains a solid status in the community, legal and
political affairs become important considerations and the
leaders are involved in parliamentary and statecraft
matters, making skills of this type advisable in the
leadership. Presumably change continues so that eventu
ally the tradition as it was might lose relevance and be
replaced by a more viable expression. Ultimately what
was once an important activity in a way of life becomes
of "historic interest only." As noted previously, Linton
treated social change from the institutional point of
view in a typology paralleling that of E. F. Young.
Linton's stages began with individual peculiarities, which,
if they gain adherents, become alternative expressions of
culture and finally pass into the core of a culture as
the traits receive general recognition. Older traits may
be discarded if newer alternatives are found to be more
suitable. A practice might survive long after it was no
longer generally in effect until all who observe it in
practice have passed on. Young emphasized leadership and
Linton pointed to participation in culture in their
respective social change explanations.
194
Examples of ethnocentric expression in Mexico are
of interest in regard to the range of the cultural condi
tion of such entities as set forth in Chapter III. The
Seri Indians, described by the nineteenth century American
anthropologist, W. J. McGee, have already been mentioned
as being extremely hostile toward foreigners, which
includes any and all people who do not belong in their
56
culture. It would seem that the Seri were seriously
lacking in friendly contacts in those times. There was a
tendency on the part of the Mexican nationals to make
scapegoats of both the Seri and the Yagui because of the
resistance both of these peoples offered to Spain and
Mexico in early contact times and on into the Mexican
period. The Seri, who were asserted to be only dubiously
human by McGee, were, nevertheless, highly ethnocentric.
McGee at least used the term "ethnocentric” in 1896 to
describe the Seri,^7 ten years prior to Sumner who popu-
C Q
larized the concept in 1906. If the Seri had understood
56W. J. McGee, "The Seri Indians," Seventeenth
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part I
(Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology, 1898).
57Ibid.
5®W. G. Sumner, Folkways (New York: Dover Publi
cations, Inc., 1940), p. 13.
195
McGee's jargonistic anthropological parlance, which seems
unlikely, this might have made them even more hostile
toward outsiders like McGee, who can be said to have been
a thoroughgoing ethnocentrist himself in his degrading
observations on the Seri and their way of life. The impu
tation of subhuman status to Indians was, and still is,
a Ladino stereotype that developed as the Indian and the
acculturated versions of Mexican civilization began to
become differentiated from one another in post-European
times. Race-crossing and acculturation ushered in an
amalgamated physical type of Caucasoid and Amerindian
genetic backgrounds with a fused Ladino Spanish-Indian
way of life side-by-side with Indian sociocultural groups
which continued to identify with the aboriginal tradi
tions .
Mexican nationals, mestizo in race and Ladino in
culture, most often sharply differentiate their way of
life from that of the Indian. Generally the Ladino con
figuration emphasizes Caucasoid genetic background, al
though there is admixture with Amerindian stock, itself a
Caucasoid-Mongoloid genetic combination. Ladino cultural
identification is with the European way of life; speci
fically, Spanish is the preferred language and dress is
196
predominantly European. Ladinos practice Catholicism.
There is usually a tendency for Ladinos to look upon them
selves as arrazonados, sharing the self-laudatory term
gente de raz6n used by Spaniards to set themselves apart
from Indians as persons possessed of "rectitude" which is
an attribute supposedly unattainable by the aboriginal
populations. It is very common, for instance, for Ladinos
59
to impute animalistic qualities to Indians. It is
apparent, therefore, that McGee was influenced by Ladino
values and applied their ethnocentric expletives to the
Seri along with his own evolutionistic preconceptions
wherein European and Euro-American cultures were placed
invariably on a higher plane than the aboriginal ways of
life. This tendency to downgrade Indian ways of life by
Ladinos can be viewed as a stereotypy of disparagement
consequent to Ladino-Indian conflict situations. Quite
evaluatively, Ladinos have attributed to themselves a
laudatory self-image while concurrently they have down
graded the Indian ways.
59
Julio de la Fuente, "Ethnic and Cultural Rela
tions," in Heritage of Conquest, ed. Sol Tax, et al.
(Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1952), pp. 76-96.
197
The self-conferred encomium gente de raz6n,
"people of rectitude," was used originally by Old World
Spaniards to differentiate themselves from New World
aboriginal populations; it was retained in the passage of
time by criollo elements in Mexico. (Criollo indicates
first generation offspring of Old World, usually Spanish,
parentage.) Although criollos lacked the high status of
their Old World parents, they shared their prestige by
virtue of family relationship and thus outranked the
Indians. Even Spanish-Indian criollo mestizos of the
earliest admixed matings had one parent entitled to the
exalted gente de raz6n designation. Through the biolog
ical ties, mestizos appropriated this attribute; and
became arrazonado compared to the Indians who, if they
remained identifiably aboriginal, could not aspire to de
raz6n status. After the 1810-1820 revolution freeing
Mexico from Spain the status and prestige prerogatives of
the Old World Spaniards remained with the criollo-mestizo
element as its numbers and power increased. Indians and
Negroes were coequal in terms of constitutional pronounce
ments, but socioeconomic and prestige advantages were
acquired by default by the criollo-mestizo element after
the expulsion of continental Spanish officialdom and its
198
New World sympathizers {the latter were the equivalent of
the Tories in Anglo-American-British conflicts of the
period 1776-1781).
Here are noted some of the complexities in the
ethnocentrism of gente de razon applications. The con
cept gente de razdn was losing ground toward the end of
Spanish Colonial times. A population which was predom
inantly admixed will develop mores in favor of its own
physical type. It was a losing battle for whites
(blancos), Peninsular Spaniards, and their descendents,
to try to maintain social distance from Indians and
Mestizos.
A personalized instance of gente de razdn Usage
is to be noted in the case of Ignacio Altimirano (1834-
1893), of Indian parentage, who achieved great renown as
a statesman, literary figure, and educator in the Recon
struction period after the 1865 debacle of Emperor Maxi-
millian. Ignacio's father had become mayor of Tixtla,
Guerrero. In order to placate the mayor, the school
teacher declared Ignacio to be gente de raz6n and trans
ferred him to a class of white children; these students
quickly told Ignacio to leave, saying: "Vete, tu no eres
de razdn" (“Go away, thou dost not belong among the
199
f i A
righteous people"). Altimirano more than demonstrated
his rectitude and importance as Mexico passed through her
Revolution and opened social roles more and more to per
sons of ability of either Indian or mestizo backgrounds.
The schoolteacher was caught in an evaluational dilemma
-ss»
in seeking to play up to the mayor as a power figure.
The conflict lay in the mayor's being an Indian who had
achieved a position previously reserved for a member of a
Spanish lineage through ascription. The prestige acquired
by Altimirano's father was transferred to Ignacio, helping
him to push aside Mexican subcultural ethnocentric barriers.
In Colonial Mexico, scions of Spanish lineages
were studiously ignored in filling positions in church and
governmental institutions. Early Franciscan and Domini
can friars promulgated the viewpoint that white persons
born in the New World were inferior to their Spanish-born
parents. Indians, Mestizos, and criollos were declared
unqualified for religious orders. For instance, informa
tion was sent to King Charles III by Archbishop Alonso
Nunez de Haro y Peralta on the condition of such persons:
fin
Gegorio Torres Quintero, Mexico Hacla el Fines
del Virreinato Espanol (M&xico: Libreria de la Viuda de
Charles Bouret, 1921), p. 49, fn.
200
They were submissive and suited only for degra
dation; when given opportunity in employment,
they commit grave errors. They should be kept
in the medial range of occupations and directed
by Europeans who so nobly place the interests
of King and Country above all else.^
The Mexico City criollo government sent a state
ment to the King in 1771 urging coequality of rights for
Mexican-born persons with those of the "foreigners," as
European-born Spaniards were then designated. The
Spanish mercantilist monopoly on commerce had been extended
to governmental positions in a much resented ascription
policy of which the European-born took full advantage.
The criollo complaints were ignored in Spain, but they
became strong motivation for the 1810 movement for Mexican
independence.
Derogatory stereotypes were developed and expressed
between Spanish-born upper-class persons and criollos.
Expressions of antagonism were exchanged by inscribing
derogatory verses on the walls of public buildings, a
practice known as pasguin (lampooning). The ethnophau-
lisms enunciated arose over the political antagonisms
between the mother country (Spain) and the colony (Mexico).
6^Ibid., p. 51.
201
The use of derisive folkloric verses is a Spanish
means of releasing tensions. Peninsular Spaniards made
use of pasquinar to deride the Mexican-born by inscribing
these broadsides on the walls of buildings. Criollos,
in turn, answered almost immediately with similar verses
written on the walls of nearby buildings. The insults
conveyed in these ten line verses (d^cimas) were con
structed by use of a cross-language system of punning as
can be seen in the following peninsular accusation and
criollo reply:
Peninsular insult
In the Portuguese language
The eye is called cri
And those who so pronounce it
Are professing that language
In the usage of the Dutch nation
Olio is the word for anus
And thus with great wit
Joining the cri with olio
Is the same as saying criollo
Which means “opening of the anus"!
Criollo reply
Gachu in Arabic speech
Means mula in Spanish
Pin, the Guinean people say
And in their language this mean dar
From this I conclude that this name
Gachu pin (“Spaniard in the Americas")
Is and endless muladar ("manure pile")
Whereon the criollo, being the anus
Can defecate without restraint
On a thing so degraded!*^
The development of in-group stereotypes between
criollo and peninsular toward one another in pre-Revolu
tionary Mexico is closely paralleled by similar stereotyp
ing that was expressed between the Bull Dogs and the Red
Devils in the classic 1949 experiments of the Sherifs.
The mechanism of forming stereotypes is basic to expres
sions of prejudice and also to ethnocentrism which is a
form of prejudice.
Ethnocentric Stereotyping in the
Southern California Mission
Indian Program
Perfecto Hugo Reid, a Scot who lived under both
the Mexican and the Anglo-American regimes in Southern
California, wrote a series of letters on Indian matters
for the Los Angeles Star, a newspaper, in the early
1850's.63
Among other matters, Reid discussed the concept
62 *
Ibid., pp. 60-61 (translation by this writer).
6 * 3
Perfecto Hugo Reid, The Indians of Los Angeles
County (Los Angeles: Privately printed, 1926) .
203
gente de raz6nf brought to AXta California at the time of
the Spanish entry in 1769. The designation even received
a Gabrielino Indian name, chichinabro, of unknown etymol
ogy. Although Southern California Indian peoples were
relatively peaceable in their acceptance of Spanish
authority, covertly they expressed continually a low order
of antagonism against the directed cultural change pro-
64
grams of Spain and Mexico, as Reid's account indicates.
Reid married a Gabrielino Indian woman, Dona
Victoria Comicrabit, who was the recipient of two land
65
grants under Mexican title.
The subject of Reid's letters concerned the way
of life of his wife's people, the Gabrielino Indians of
Comicrangna village in the environs of the Plaza of the
1781 Spanish settlement.®®
Reid described the first arrival of the Spaniards,
an impressive event for the Gabrielino, who at first
believed the newcomers to be gods. This impression was
®^Susanna B. Dakin, A Scotch Paisano (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1939), p. 51.
66
B. E. Johnston, California's Gabrielino Indians
(Los Angeles: The Southwest Museum, 1962), p. 123.
204
soon abandoned when a Spaniard shot a bird with his
musket. To the Gabrielinos, the act of killing was that
of a mortal, so
. . . they consequently put them down as human
beings of a nasty white color, and having ugly
blue eyes! They gave them the name of Chichi-
nabros, or reasonable beings. It is a fact worthy
of notice that, on becoming acquainted with the
tools and instruments of steel used by the
Spaniards, they were likewise called Chichinabros,
which shows the estimation in which they held
them.6^
Hostilities developed after the Spanish demanded
Indian women. After consorting with the Spaniards, the
women were cleansed ritually by sweat baths and by taking
herb medicine. Reid said, "they necessarily became
accustomed to these things, but their disgust and abhor
rence never left them till many years after. In fact
every white child born among them was secretly strangled
and buried."6®
Bivalence is to be noted in the Gabrielino atti
tude toward the Spaniards. Chichinabro, a Gabrielino
equivalent for gente de razdn appears in\Gabrielino
speech; the word is phonetically suggestive of Spanish
6 7
Reid, op. cit., p. 44.
68Ibid., p. 45. 6^Ibid., p. 46.
205
and the concept is certainly a borrowed one from the same
source. The verbal concession to the gente de raz6n
conceits of the "chichinabros" was in sharp contrast to
70
the initial rejection of Spanish foodstuffs and the even
more severe covert destruction of Spanish-Gabrielino
offspring, expressing mingled Indian fear, contempt and
degradation toward the Euro-American invaders.
The hesitant ethnocentrism of the Gabrielino
toward the Spanish was emphatically reciprocated by the
Spanish soldiery and lay population. Especially antagonis
tic toward Gabrielino ways was the gifted, but insensate
missionary, Fray Jose Maria Zalvidea of San Gabriel Mis
sion, who mastered the Shoshonean idiom of the Gabrielinos
for purposes of religious indoctrination. San Gabriel
Mission reached its peak of development (1820-1825) under
Zalvidea's direction, but the Indians were definitely
exploited for the reputation of the Missionary and for
his guests who were lavishly entertained.
70
According to Reid (ibid., pp. 46, 57), Gabri
elinos buried com and beans given them by the Spanish.
Later at the site of the interrment, plants unknown to
the Indians grew. The Gabrielino attributed this to
Spanish sorcery. The Indians generally refused to eat
hogs, "... alleging the whole family to be transformed
Spaniards."
206
Under Zalvidea, vineyards, orchards, and gardens
were extended; an irrigation system was built. Organiza
tion was effected and enforced by the whiplash of the
Indian overseers. There was no tolerance for Indian
shortcomings from Padre Zalvidea. Drunkenness was pun
ished by flogging and confining to the stocks. Zalvidea
learned of the practice of killing Indian-Spanish progeny,
so he attributed all still-births to murder and punished
such mothers severely. Sorcerers and curing ceremonial-
ists were condemned to labor in the saw pits. Zalvidea
was not only severe; he was sadistic in his zeal to impose
Catholicism and to build a well-ordered mission. Zal-
videa's harshness was tempered by the sympathetic under
standing of his superintendent, Claudio Lopez, an Old World
Spaniard, who carried out the ambitious program of Padre
Zalvidea with such tact and affection (he never used the
whip) that the Gabrielinos regarded him as their culture
hero who taught them all they knew of Spanish Mexican
71
culture. The range of mutual ethnocentric feelings
between Indian and Spanish-Mexican was considerable at
the San Gabriel Mission; nevertheless a successful
71
Reid, op. cit., p. 55.
207
directed cultural change program went on there in favor
of the latter culture until the secularization of the
missions by the Mexican government ended that program
between 1834 and 1836.
Anglo-American dominance of the Indian and
Spanish-Mexican ways of life after 1847 led to the ex
tinction of Gabrielino culture. W. W. Robinson described
some of the practices which undermined the health of
Indians; included was a combination of deliberately
instituted hard work and exposure to alcohol:
It was an old Spanish custom in the Pueblo
of Los Angeles to arrest drunken Indians and
put them to work on the main water ditch, or
zanja madre, upon which the Pueblo was dependent,
or upon the Church, when it needed repairs. The
Americans added a refinement to this custom—
the auction block— and in doing so helped to
destroy the first people of Los Angeles.
To facilitate the carrying out of sentences for
drunkenness, an ordinance was framed by the Anglo-American
Los Angeles town council on August 16, 1850, for auction
of the services of Indian prisoners so that ”in that man
ner they shall be disposed of for a sum which shall not
72w. W. Robinson, Liquidation of a People, VIII:
Early Travel Series (Los Angeles: Glen Dawson, 1952),
p. 1.
208
be less than the amount of their fine for double the time
73
they were to serve at hard labor."
The actual sequence of events under conditions of
the ordinance were as follows:
About sundown on Sunday the town marshall and his
special Indian deputies would visit the streets
called Los Angeles, Commercial, and Nigger Alley—
especially Nigger Alley— and round up the drunks.
The deputies were sober because they had been
kept in jail all day for that very purpose. The
Indians picked up were those whom the vineyard-
ists had paid off the day before in aguardiente.
On Saturday night and all day Sunday the streets
were crowded with these people— men, women, and
children, gambling and fighting. Arrested, they
were driven or dragged to a nearby corral, said
to be on land now covered by the City Hall, to
sleep off their liquor. Monday morning they
were put up for sale, for one week, to the
highest bidder. Vineyardists and others wanting
workers were on hand. Prices paid averaged one
dollar to three dollars per Indian. One third
of this sum went to the Indian at the end of the
week— in the form of aguardiente— two thirds in
money to the City of Los Angeles. The next
week-end was spent again in debauchery, with the
victims up at the Monday morning slave market.
The process was repeated weekly. The effect on
the individual Indian was to destroy him in one
year, or two, or three years.74
For about four generations of Indian-Spanish-
Mexican culture contact, 1769 to 1847, the attitude of the
dominant culture was one of tutelage. In Mission times,
the Indians, judged to be a people of lower order, were
73Ibid., p. 2. 74lbid.
209
trained in roles useful for achieving the objectives of
dominant culture, namely the establishing of an outpost
to protect the hearth area of the culture which was cen
tral Mexico. Prior to 1820, the cultural position of the
Old World Spaniard was paramount in all areas controlled
by Spain. The attitude expressed by Spanish-Mexicans
after 1820 was that of the Ladino, a presumption of placid
superiority over Indians. Anglo-Americans considered
both Spanish-Mexican and Indian peoples as their infer
iors, the Indians the more so and therefore expendable;
this value is reflected in the auction block practices
of the 1850's in Los Angeles. In this interplay of ethno-
centrisms, both Euro-American dominant groups in Califor
nia down-graded the Indians, the Indians, weak politically,
were forced to accept the consequences of their low
status.
Mission Indians were exploited by the Anglo-
American settlers who were not much restrained by consid
erations of Indian prior occupancy of the land. Spanish-
Mexican land titles, however, were of advantage to both
Spanish-Mexicans and Indians in retaining their holdings.
Helen Hunt Jackson, in her book A Century of Dishonor,
summarized these relationships of the United States
210
Government to Indians in a survey dealing with many
Indian peoples including the Mission Indians of Califor-
75
nia. More tellingly, Jackson emphasized the plight of
Southern California Indian peoples in her novel, Ramona,
which aroused Anglo-Americans to deep sympathy and some
76
action in behalf of the Indians.
An example of Anglo-American attitude toward
Southern California Indian peoples is seen in Hufford's
booklet. The Real Ramona, wherein he stated that for
tourist information,
. . . we concluded to get out this little book
let giving the truthful side of Mrs. Jackson's
famed fictitious narrative of Ramona . . . she
[Ramona] lives today about the same as she did
sixteen years ago, with the exception, of course,
that she is older and not so trim and spruce
like a young Indian maiden would like to be— in
other words, she is now like all other Indian
women become as they grow older, greasy and
slovenly with no thought of cleanliness or tidi
ness. She was and is only an Indian, but was
fortunate enough to be raised by one of the
loveliest and most hospitable Spanish ladies77
75
Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor
(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1903) .
76
Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona (Boston: Little,
Brown and Company, 1905).
77
Senora Ysidora Bandini de Couts, daughter of
Juan Bandini; the latter came to Southern California in
1834 with the Hijar-Padr£s party.
211
78
that Southern California ever knew.
Hufford was attributing "Spanish" nationality to Senora
de Couts, a way of raising the prestige of Mexicans in
Anglo-American eyes. This attribution of "Spanish" back
ground to Mexicans often has a reverse effect of angering
them; Mexicans tend to resent such attribution because of
unresolved conflicts dating from the Spanish Colonial Era
when Peninsular Spaniards appropriated to themselves the
highest occupations and privileges in pre-Revolutionary
Mexico.
Anglo-Americans in Los Angeles County can no
longer look down on the indigenous inhabitants, for the
Gabrielinos are extinct. Robinson summarized this event:
So passed from the scene the descendants of those
friendly, brown-skinned people who had come
timidly out of their villages in the Los Angeles
and surrounding areas to greet the first Spanish
explorers with offers of seeds and shell beads.^9
Hearty expressions of ethnocentrism are still to
be noted from the Los Angeles area. On May 20, 1919,
Captain j. A. Balsley, Medical Corps of the United States
^8D. A. Hufford, The Real Ramona (Los Angeles:
n.n., 1900), pp. 3-4.
79
Robinson, Op. cit., p. 2.
212
Army, whose residence was Santa Monica, California, wrote
the following to his wife, Nell, in a letter posted in
Oran, Algeria. Balsley was angry because a ship he was
aboard had gone to Algiers to receive a cargo of coal. He
complained of French ways:
They come over here to Africa— lay here
perfectly idle two whole days then let the
"natives" coal up the ship in the crudest most
primitive possible manner that envelopes every
thing and everybody in clouds of coal dust— and
what could easily and perfectly be done in a few
hours— at most— requires days and days and
everybody's nerves besides. Impractical. They
certainly have not the American or Anglo-Saxon
pragmatism— guess its the old Greek and Roman
Beauty-utility ideals over again. No wonder the
pragmatists win out in a world where the practi
cal is an every day— yes, hourly necessity. In
dreamland the fancy is a great faculty— the fan
tastic at a premium, Not so in this world of
Commerce and Industry.
Take it in the merest trifles— this paper
for example— they begin it backwards. You are
compelled to begin your letter where it should
end, on the last page. And the very same thing
at table, they feed you mostly on bread coarse
dark European bread without butter at that—
unless you insist— and only unsalted (sweet)
butter at that— and most likely rancid— and you
regret you insisted, except that you have had
your own way— the coffee is simply unspeakable.
Black as ink and not as good— they are simply
shocked at the American demand for de 11eau,
simple plain pure water for drinking purposes—
they drink wine instead of water— lucky I guess
for the alcohol the bacteria. No wonder they
have cholera— typhus— typhoid etcetera etcetera,
skin diseases and social diseases— the vermin and
flies and fleas, and other human parasites— the
humans themselves seem only parasites. And the
213
way they abuse poor beasts of burden— it's awful
to be an ass or a horse in this country.
They simply have no conception of moral
standards, or any other kind of standards— they
must have their "personality" stuck into all they
do— even table ware— knives— forks— spoons— are
entirely without simplicity, efficiency, or
mechanical perfection. Plane [sic] straight
lines— are lost to the fancy for curves and
ornament. The love of personality and ornamenta
tion dominates them. Beds the same— perfectly
abominable beds— but quite beautifulI
They simply will not serve two vegetables at
the same time and the "service" is mostly dishes—
a change for every course— and each course con
sists of only one thing— meat (viande) and the
meat is likely to be anything imaginable— from
your neighbor's cat to his goat— pig— dog—
horse. Domestic animals are considered very
choice— this is a little exaggerated— I am sure—
how much I cannot say— in Germany and Russia
they are said to have eaten their own babies in
cases of necessity— well— I'm not criticizing— I
am simply seeing how great a privilege it is to
be an American— and to live in America— and to
hope that the whole world will some day be Amer
icanized. We are the greatest, morally greatest
nation in the world today. Our standards will
save the world from war from death (disease)
from poverty from crime. It is our mission in
the earth. It is the "Kingdom of God" and it
will it must come. The I am spiritual master
of this world will bring it to perfection! Fear
not, all things are possible (potential).
Well dearie, it's 9 o'clock and now I must
close and get out of this awful coal dust or
I'll be having "Anthracosis Pulmonalis" ha ha.
Also the bugle is blowing for officers' call—
so good by [sic] and good luck to you my perfect
smile my perfect spirit of love.
80
A curvilineal pen stroke was made below the
word "smile."
214
Kisses and oceans of love from
Daddy81
Balsley was something of a cultist. At the high
point of his ethnocentric exposition, moral superiority
was claimed in a parallel manner to the view of the Old
World Spaniard and the Ladino who spoke of themselves as
gentes de raz6n in contrast to aboriginal people who were
felt to lack this quality.
81
J. A. Balsley, letter to his wife. May 20,
1919 (Los Angeles County Museum Collection, Document
A.4339.38).
CHAPTER VI
SYNCHRONIC FACTORS IN THE EXPRESSION
OF ETHNOCENTRISM
The next section of the discussion of ethnocen-
trism will relate to contemporary aspects, namely situa
tional, personality structural, and phenomenological
considerations.
Situational Factors in Ethnocentrism
The historical and sociocultural treatments of
ethnocentrism bring to bear upon it historical influences
from the remote past in case of the former, and in the
case of the latter, influences more recently traditional-
ized. Korzybsky (1879-1950), the general semanticist,
has been drawn attention to this with his aphoristic
designation of man as a "time-binding animal"; he said:
Civilization as a process is the process of
binding time; progress is made by the fact that
each generation adds to the material and spirit
ual wealth which it inherits. Past achievements—
215
216
the fruit of bygone times— thus live in the pres
ent and are augmented in the present, and
transmitted to the future; the process goes on;
time the essential element, is so involved that,
though it increases arithmetically, its fruit,
civilization, advances geometrically.1
The current environmental setting, the background
against which sociocultural events take place, is the
concern of situational analysis. In the sociocultural
sense, situational emphasis can be associated with ecology,
especially that of the social environment which influences
the interactions of culture carriers in on-going social
interplay. Allport mentioned the ground effect wherein
normal culture carriers find themselves sharing ways of
2
life chiefly by being born into the group. Linton has
observed that the environment offers many alternatives to
particular hereditary configurations so that
. . . individual differences and environmental
differences can enter into an almost infinite
series of permutations and combinations and the
experience which different individuals may
derive from these is equally varied. This fact
Alfred H. Korzybsky, Manhood of Humanity (Lake
ville, Conn.: International Non-Aristotelian Library
Publishing Company, 1950), 2nd ed.; p. 106.
2
Gordon Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (Garden
City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1958),
p. 29.
217
is quite sufficient for the differences in per
sonality content which are to be found among the
members of any society."*
Thomas stressed the importance of studying
phenomena in their total cultural context and advocated
close attention to the total situational aspect which he
held to be "composed of three elements: (1) objective
conditions, (2) pre-existing attitudes of individuals and
groups and (3) the definition of the situation.1,4
Ethnocentrism has a close and strong tie to geo
graphic area. Insofar as the areal factor is concerned,
however, the place or places within which a group carries
on its way of life is actually an incidental rather than
a basic consideration for the functioning of a culture;
the carriers of a culture can leave one area and re
establish their traditions in another if they are able to
maintain their autonomy. If the carriers of a culture
cannot interact to validate their way of life after
migrating, because of the presence of stronger competing
3
Ralph Linton, The Cultural Background of Per
sonality (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1945),
p. 96.
4
See G. Duncan Mitchell, A Dictionary of Sociol
ogy (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1968), p. 212.
218
groups, they may have to accommodate, assuming new roles
as captives, slaves, or aliens.
Basic Personality and Ethnocentrism
Linton observed that there are personality con
figurations that identify the carriers of culture with
their distinctive ways of life. He stated:
These common personality elements together form
a fairly well-integrated configuration which may
be called Basic Personality Type for the society
as a whole. The existence of this configuration
provides the members of the society with common
understanding and values and makes possible the
unified emotional response of the society's
members to situations in which their common
values are involved.^
Individual members are conscious of their cul
tural particularities and tend to exaggerate them; this is
an important factor in the ethnocentric distinctions that
are usually made when ways of life are being compared.
Early child training instills both specific
behavior tendencies as well as the generalized attitudes
that underlie a great number of specific responses in the
individual. Such training is likely to be made use of in
the upbringing of children of the next generation; however,
^Linton, op. cit., p. 83.
219
the most important effects are the deeper value orienta
tions established in the personality configuration.
Basic personality, the common background shared
by all carriers of a particular culture, is augmented by
status personality which relates to the specific role
expressions of individuals in their cultural participation.
By the time status personality formation is underway, the
carriers are generally committed to their way of life
through positive ego-involvement and in a negative sense
through inertias which make new adjustments to other
cultures difficult, even were the opportunities present to
change to another culture. This is the essence of being
"culture bound," both physically and in regard to social
values. Most participants in culture take the attitude
that all has been for the best, that their roles in their
way of life are probably satisfactory and therefore bet
ter than similar cultural limitations of the members of
other societies— that which is familiar and which has
been attained by considerable effort is felt to be best
for them. This is the routine variety of ethnocentric
sentiment so widely held by the carriers of diverse
cultures in the present-day intercultural setting.
The process of enculturation (learning one’s
culture) provide the basic culture content and motivation
for ethnocentric manifestations. The ground effect,
along with the dependency of Homo sapiens infants who
lack instinctively-guided responses suitable for unaided
survival, are conditions which fall together to make a
learned way of life characteristic for all human socio
cultural systems. Learning is through contact of the
current generation with the parental generation with
techniques, practices, and role performance learned by
direct observation implemented by informal teaching in
the simpler societies. Formal education is present in
the more highly organized cultures with preliminary in
structions on practices, standards, and norms. Primary
group contacts tend to instill a high degree of morale,
but communicational systems must be developed in addition
to face-to-face contacts to attain similar morale in
secondary groups.
Communication through speech has provided the
commonest method in primary group settings. Refinements
of verbal communication, first writing then mechanical
transmission, have provided the basis for ever-widening
secondary group formation.
The values instilled by each culture into its
221
carriers provide a motivation for cooperation through
role activity. At a minimum each culture must provide
for the subsistence, shelter, and reproduction of person
nel to continue the way of life. The associations gener
ate morale essential to active action, as noted by Cooley:
"Where there is a little common interest and activity,
kindness grows like weeds by the roadside."*’
The feelings of affection and certitude provide
strong support for group projects and personnel. Indoc
trination of attitudes in support of social practices
leads to positive group identification and of conviction
of superiority in advancing group objectives. Ethnocen-
trism is latent in reference group interaction and stimu
lates cooperative action toward the objectives of such
groups. The Sherifs structured an intense cooperative
drive in the inwjroups they were developing experimentally.
Democratic feeling in the in-groups was developed to a
high degree, but when the group conflict was introduced
great rivalry was the dominant note with no democratic
feeling shown between the in and the out-group. Ethno
centric feelings tend to be heightened when group conflict
®C. H. Cooley, Social Organization (Glencoe, 111.:
The Free Press, 1950), p. 26.
222
is imminent.7
Besides the deep positive conviction achieved by
way of indoctrination that one's way of life is correct,
morally valid, and beautiful, there are the negative and
defensive attitudes that come - to the fore when groups
striving for the same objectives thwart one another.
Another psychological consideration that relates
to ethnocentrism centers around aggression in man. Sig
mund Freud first described the psychological mechanism
of displacement of antagonisms built up in a person or a
group by frustrating circumstances.
Dollard and Doob and their associates proposed
the frustration-aggression hypothesis, which assumes that
g
aggression is a consequence of frustration.
The Sherifs were experimenting with frustration-
aggression relationships and evoked a strong expression
of group hostility that shared many aspects with ethno
centrism. ^
■ 7
'Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif, Groups in Harmony
and Tension (reprint; New York: Octagon Books, Inc.,
1966).
O
J. Dollard, L. w. Doob, et al, Frustration and
Aggression (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937).
Q
Sherif, op. cit.
223
Similarly, studies of individual character deal
ing with authoritarian tendencies describe personality
configurations which, in their insecurity feelings, have
recourse to authoritarian and ethnocentric behavior.
The character structure and the frustration-
aggression theories have a psychoanalytic orientation;
they explain many aspects of aggressive behavior, but fail
to account for cases where no displacement of aggression
is present under conditions of frustration.
The Phenomenological Approach
and Ethnocentrism
The phenomenological approach posits that a per
son's overt behavior is derived from his interpretation
of events as he perceives them. Allport summarized the
phenomenological approach as one in which all historical,
cultural, and character structural approaches are consid
ered to converge to provide evidence for the understanding
of the nature of prejudice, an area which shares much
structuring with that of ethnocentrism. According to
Allport, the phenomenological viewpoint focuses upon the
factors at play in events at the immediate level of
224
causation.
The Whittier Institute on
Human Relations
The Los Angeles County Conference on Community
Relations, a private agency, presented an institute at
the Whittier College campus from June 17 to June 22, 1956.
The objective of the institute was the understanding of
human relations processes in a multicultural environment
as a preliminary to improving such relationships. The
following five cultural groups, Negro, Mexican-American,
American Indian, Japanese-American, and American-Jewry,
in the Los Angeles community exchanged information by
panel discussions, which all members of the institute
attended, followed by discussion sessions and general
sessions to discuss and formulate intergroup problems and
11
solutions in the Los Angeles area.
The problems common to minority groups were first
discussed, followed by a review of historical and cultural
influences affecting each minority group. Modes of
effecting group interaction and integration were explored
10Allport, op. cit., p. 211.
11
See Appendix
225
with attention given to the potential conflict situations.
Conditions favoring sharing cultural values for the bene
fit of the minority groups and the general community were
considered.
Some of the values expressed at the Whittier
Institute for Negro-Americans, Mexican-American, and
American Indians bear on the activities of these groups
as they now (1969) express ethnocentric behavior and
values in the current interplay within the university
culture orientations. The attitudes expressed at the
Whittier Institute in 1956 are consistent with the values
and behavior of these groups now as manifested by the
survey conducted by the writer in March-April of 1969
and which is being analyzed for presentation here.
The Negro,Mexican-American, and American Indian
minority groups appear in the university culture survey as
the major interacting sociocultural groups in their deal
ings with one another and with the dominant Anglo-American
group. The Jewish group registers only slightly in the
questionnaire on campus cultural expressions, and the
Japanese-Americans are seemingly absent as a contending
group in the current university cultural interactions.
Negro-Americans at the Whittier Institute valued
226
sociocultural assimilation primarily and were impatient
with the slow pace at which they were being brought into
the sociocultural framework of Anglo-American culture. It
had been noted in the historical survey of the Negro way
of life at the Whittier Institute that African peoples,
mostly as slaves, had been divested of their aboriginal
way of life as they were brought to the British North
American colonies, an area which was to become later the
United States.
Negro aspirations were for coequal job opportuni
ties, as indicated by migrations from southeastern rural
areas to the more favorable economic areas of northern
and western United States. Housing, voting rights, and
educational prerogatives were other things Negroes desired
and expected as members of Anglo-American society.
A spontaneous expression of impatience with the
blocks against Negro assimilation into Anglo-American
society came at the American Indian discussion session
on June 19, 1956, as the Indians were airing their griev
ances about the difficulty of maintaining their native
ways in Anglo-American culture which seemed intent on
assimilating them against their wishes. Indians regis
tered a feeling for cultural pluralism in contrast to the
227
Negro enthusiasm for sociocultural assimilation. A Negro
group leader asked very pointedly why the Indians wanted
to seclude themselves in their communities and on their
reservations so as to proliferate Anglo-American cultural
diversity. The remarks were taken with a show of shock
and anger by the Indian panel members who rose to their
feet as though to fight. There was high tension in the
room for a short time until laughter by all present
brought the contending groups back to conference decorum.
For a short while a strong value conflict flared between
Negroes, eager for assimilation, and American Indians,
mistrustful of close ties with Anglo-Americans. This
unstaged scene brought values and attitudes into sharper
contrast than an hour of additional discussion could have
done. The current behavior in the university civil rights
interplay continues to express this Negro impatience
versus Indian hesitancy in regard to relations with the
dominant Anglo-American sociocultural group.
Indians, too, wanted some of the benefits of the
Anglo-American culture, chiefly economic facilities, but
they wished to fit cultural elements into their many
separate ways of life at their own pleasure and at their
own pace in ways appropriate to the diverse patterns of
228
the several cultures included under the rubric "Indian."
Mexican-Americans, like the Indians, sought cul
tural pluralism rather than outright assimilation. The
economic advantages of Anglo-American culture were desired,
but the strong family ties, the esthetic expression, and
the enjoyment of the present moment were values Mexican-
Americans preferred to retain rather than to engage in
the more pragmatic and matter-of-fact everyday existence
of Anglo-Americans. Mexican-Americans also expressed a
desire for cultural pluralism in contrast to the Negro
desire to assimilate into Anglo-American culture.
The Japanese-American experience in Anglo-American
culture, with restrictive land ownership and immigration
laws, was such that they also favored cultural pluralism,
retaining much of their Japanese cultural background. The
segregation of the Japanese in World War II also made
them cautious about complete integration; also their
strong family ties were reinforced by such indications of
Anglo-American social distance. A tendency toward self-
segregation and self-sufficiency is present, putting them
into the subcultural groups preferring pluralistic rela
tions with the Anglo-American dominant culture.
The firm position of American Jewry was brought
out at the Whittier Institute by their own humorous allu
sion to themselves as "chaotically over-organized." Jews
also prefer self-segregation to assimilation, but have
made the most satisfactory accommodation to Anglo-American
culture of any of the minority groups who met at the
Whittier Institute.
It is felt that values in this minority group
self-analysis session at the Whittier Institute carry
through to the current confrontations of minority group
persons with the carriers of Anglo-American culture.
CHAPTER VII
CONTEMPORARY GLIMPSE OP ETHNOCENTRISM
AND THE UNIVERSITY CULTURE
A questionnaire was circulated by the writer
regarding the practices of activist minority groups on
university campuses in the United States from the start
of the current civil rights manifestations in the middle
1960's. The questionnaire was sent to one hundred insti
tutions of higher learning in the United StatesResponses
were received from fifty-six campuses between March and
April of 1969, The educational institutions were chosen
from the Los Angeles Public Library university catalog
section and from the American Anthropological Association
listing of Graduate Departments offering advanced degrees
in Anthropology.
Questions in the first section of the inquiry
1
See Appendix B.
230
231
concerned special demands made for educational considera
tions by the following groups:
Black Americans
Latin Americans
American Indians
Japanese Americans
Chinese Americans
Other
An open classification was included for special minority
groups which might also have made demands.
The second section of the questionnaire concerned
the objectives of the demands made by the minority group
activists.
Section three concerned university programs set
up prior to the civil rights activist expressions of the
middle 1960's and solicited information on programs that
had been put in effect by colleges in anticipation of
minority group wants in higher education.
Section four requested listings of formal demands
made by militant minority groups. Such listings as were
received are included in Appendix C.
Section five requested attitudes of academic pol
icy makers regarding campus minority group activities.
232
Section six was a request (optional answer) for
an expression of personal attitude on the part of the
academic respondent.
The results of sections one through six can be
summarized as follows:
Black Americans made special educational demands
upon fifty-six higher educational institutions in forty-
nine instances, over four times as often as the next
minority group, the Latin American, which made a total of
eleven demands. (The replies in this section originated
from Mexican-American sources.) American Indians made
five demands as the minority group ranking third in this
category. In two instances, Jews made two demands and
there was one demand each from Chinese (Taiwan) and one
from an Anglo-American minority group designated "Appa
lachian." No Japanese-American demands were listed by
any of the educational institutions.
The high number of Black American educational
demands in the survey reflects a similar feeling to that
expressed at the 1956 Whittier Institute on Human Rela
tions on the part of Negroes— an impatience to assume
their place in Anglo-American society.
Mexican-Americans, with a count of eleven
233
instances of demand, are not so concerned about assimila
tion as are the Negro-Americans, but they have made more
than twice as many demands as have the American Indians
with a count of five instances of such educational demands
in the survey. Mexican-Americans belong to a cultural
tradition which was the dominant one in what were the
northernmost outposts of Mexico before the westward
expansion of Anglo-Americans overran their territory.
Mexican-Americans do not feel quite as deprived as Negro-
Americans, nor either so anxious to identify completely
with Anglo-American culture? they react bivalently to
assimilation? part of the time submissively and part of
the time antagonistically.
American Indians made only half as many demands
as Mexican-Americans. A long-standing disillusionment
has made most Indians mistrustful and skeptical of Euro-
American power structures and their representatives. Up
to this point, Indians have tended to avoid demonstrations
against "the establishment." It is felt, however, that
cultural pluralism would usually be their preference
rather than close identification with Anglo-American
culture.
There were two instances of demands made by Jews
234
in the 1969 survey. In accord with the Whittier Institute
information, American Jews adjust well to the Anglo-
American cultural environment and retain considerable of
their original sociocultural orientation, usually adjust
ing their relational problems with the Anglo-American
dominant group by means of routine legal and traditional
measures.
In the last item of Section two of the 1969 survey,
there were included one demand from each of three minority
groups: (1) a Basque, (2) a Chinese from Taiwan, and (3)
an Appalachian.
Section two of the questionnaire concerning the
objectives of the minority group demands was scored as
follows: on the basis of the return of fifty-six question
naires, there were twenty-six demands for relaxed univer
sity admission standards for the members of minority
groups. Forty-five demands were made for additions to
curricula pertaining to minority group cultural tradi
tions. For financial assistance to minority group mem
bers, there were thirty-seven demands. The predominant
interest in regard to objectives is concern and respect
for the minority group sociocultural image; this category
surpassed considerations of financial assistance in study
235
programs, the second highest scoring contingency. Final
ly, considerations of gaining entry to educational pro
grams trailed the other two objectives set up in this
section of the questionnaire. Considerations of minority
group morale thus are of greater concern than individual
preoccupations of entering an institution of higher learn
ing for a course of study.
In general, Negro-Americans led all other minority
groups in making demands.
A scoring by region shows Black-Americans active
in the northern and eastern states with twenty-one tal
lies; in the southern states Negro-Americans registered
demands at fourteen educational institutions, while in
the western states thirteen demands were ledged. As might
be expected, Mexican-Americans were twice as demanding
in the west as in the north and south. American Indians
also out-scored the other two areas in making demands.
There were four instances in the west, none in the south,
and one recorded for the north and east. In the south
there were four instances wherein no demands were made
compared to one such instance in the north and west.
In section two of the questionnaire (objectives
sought by civil rights activists), an areal breakdown
236
still indicates that additions to curriculum dealing with
minority group cultural traditions was that which was
most often demanded. The comparative scoring shows seven
teen such demands in the north and east, twelve in the
south, and eleven in the west. The demands for financial
aid programs are only slightly less than those for courses
treating minority cultural group orientation. The compar
ative scoring for the three regional subdivisions runs
north and east, fourteen instances, south, twelve in
stances, and west, ten instances. Also rather close,
although actually last in number of demands, was lowered
admission standards for socioeconomically disadvantaged
groups. The comparative scoring regionally was: north
and east, ten; south, ten; and west, eleven. Again
regionally, concern of minority group members was for
achieving respect for their several group images. On a
more personal level, individual funding of educational
programs ran slightly ahead of attaining consideration for
minority groups in regard to lowered university entrance
requirements.
Ten listings of activist demands were obtained
from respondents. The following institutions are repre
sented: Boston University; Cornell University, Ithaca,
237
New York; New York State University, Albany; New York
University, New York City; Duke University, Durham, North
Carolina; Michigan State University, East Lansing; Indi
ana University, Bloomington; University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee; Colorado State University, Port Collins; and
University of California at Santa Barbara.
The demands were chiefly from Black Americans in
the ten lists previously mentioned. Mexican-Americans,
“Chicanes,1 1 were represented in one list, that of the Uni
versity of California at Santa Barbara.
The largest number of demands concerned univer
sity course structure in the direction of cultural back
ground studies of minority groups. Eight of the ten
listings demanded such educational programs. Fair employ
ment practices for minority group members in regard to
university jobs was the second demand with six of the ten
universities receiving this as a Negro desideratum. The
third ranking demand was for counseling; four of the ten
lists reviewed had this as a requirement. There were
three categories each with three demands scored to them:
(1) relaxed entrance requirements, (2) recruitment of
minority group students, and (3) the establishment of
minority group culture centers. Various other
238
contingencies, such as minority group housing facilities,
tutoring, or minority group fellowships, received one or
two demands.
The formal listings of demands of minority groups
coincide with the returns on the 1969 survey in placing
the highest priority on developing curriculum to present
the cultural traditions of minority groups in a dignifying
manner.
Several questionnaires were returned with the
notation that no demands had been made at those campuses.
There were three of this category from the southern
states and one questionnaire each of this type from the
north and the west.
Section three of the spring of 1969 questionnaire
inquired of programs in behalf of minority groups initi
ated prior to the civil rights movement in the mid-1960's.
In the north and east there were ten such programs, of
which six programs were of medium scope and intensity
while four others, as described, seem to have been strong
programs. Three universities in the northern and eastern
area lacked such programs. In the south there was one
very strong program of this sort, and three programs each
in the medium and in the strong categories. In the south
there were seven universities that had no programs for
minority group members. In the western part of the
United States there were three campuses having a strongly
developed minority group program and three with a medium
program. Seven western colleges had no program for minor
ity group students.
CHAPTER VIII
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Ethnocentrism, judging the ways of life of other
societies against the structure and practices of one's
own group as the standard, is a nearly universal manifes
tation of human sociocultural organization. Of a score
of societies studied, only one sociocultural group, the
islanders of Tristan da Cunha, in the south Atlantic
Ocean, lacked self-attributed superiority attitudes.
Ethnocentrism is a means of identifying affirma
tively with one's sociocultural group. Persons who do
not identify readily with their groups will probably lack
ethnocentric enthusiasm. There is a term which indicates
the opposite of ethnocentrism, namely, allocentrism,
identifying with persons or groups outside of one's socio
cultural group.
Ethnocentrism serves to create an accord among
the members of a group and serves as a morale-building
240
241
mechanism. However, the morale is built at the expense
of other groups which may retaliate in kind at some future
time, making ethnocentrism a conflict-oriented concept.
The manifest function of ethnocentrism is to
enhance cohesiveness, morale, and security in the perpetu
ation of a way of life or subdivision thereof. The self-
laudatory effects of ethnocentrism are evaluative
expressions which are promulgated as desiderata by a
sociocultural group, idealized ethno-images traditional-
ized by the proponent carriers of the culture. When such
constructs are accepted by the carriers of other ways of
life, a self-fulfilling prophecy has been realized; this
is the principal mechanism hypothesized in this study,
namely, that ethnocentrism is a manifestation of self-
fulfilling prophetic thought.
Human behavior sets the problems for philosophical
and scientific methodology to explain. The basic element
expressed in ethnocentrism is one of individuals developing
personal identity by means of psychological interaction
with other like beings through the standardizing effects
of learned responses.
By genetic processes human somatic types move
through a physiological growth cycle as the basic
242
expression of personality. Functioning somatic types are
the basic units for human and animal societies, the
"ground" factor in Gordon Allport's social psychology.
A series of self-oriented behavioral expressions
associate with a particular somatic type in the minds of
individuals comprising such a social group. In humans,
biological ties become invested with complex psychological
manifestations resident in a complex nervous system which
enables sensitive appreciation of forces in operation in
the natural environment as well as in the minds of other
animals including the most complex being of all, Mankind.
The awareness developed in humans through intro
spection, sympathy and empathy are basic to social inter
action. Complex symbolic communication is typical of all
present-day human groups. On these social interactions,
accords are built as shared understandings (cognitive
factors) motivated by emotional responses (conative and
affective factors).
Accords among higher mammals and birds underlie
the formation of lasting social groups of individuals
passing through the successive phases of their growth
cycles. Humans form much more complex groups through
conceptualization, the cognitive process which enriches
243
the emotional ties which bind human individuals into basic
social units.
A social group is a plurality of persons in com
munication who have an objective or objectives to fulfill.
Primary groups are those in immediate contact; in the
distant past the only groups existing. Later, as well as
basic groups, they became components in larger and more
complex social orders. Early groups were probably like
surviving Australian aboriginal or South African Bushmen
bands living in marginal and isolated areas wherein the
band organization has been suitable as a way of life for
the last two million years. These simple social groups
manifest deep self-appreciation and exalt their own phys
ical type and the psychological interactions, which make
them basically very similar to the carriers of the more
complex ways of life in the modern world who are also
self-appreciative regarding their own physical appearance
and their own extremely complex ways of life.
Raciocentrism, judging other peoples by the somatic
standards of one's own population, along with the exalta
tion of the traditionalized practices which are standard
ized by learning, comprise the essence of the self-appre
ciative emotional attitude that most people display
244
toward their associates. This attitude can be expressed
about groups of two individuals to present-day national
populations who share sociocultural patterns.
There is little justification for the assumption
of superior or inferior variants among the somatic varia
tions of Homo sapiens man. There is no existent basis
for such viewpoints or attitudes, for all variants of
present-day mankind must be rather similar genetically,
at least within the limits of the species, for all are
able to reproduce fertile hybrids in any breeding combina
tion. Prom this, it would seem that humans have far more
in common than they have in contrast, especially at the
somatic level. The positions taken on the alleged virtues
and shortcomings are not justified in an existent sense,
so the values are for the most part, spurious.
Raciocentrism, the disparagement of somatic types
different from those of the evaluators is even more
insidious than disparagement over cultural difference, for
racial type changes more slowly than culture, so these
attitudes can be most difficult to change once they are
established.
Historical factors can condition the expression of
ethnocentrism in groups competing for objects or prestige,
245
tending to bring about a mutual disparagement. With such
antagonistic attitudes being expressed there is a likeli
hood of an open conflict as a result.
Ethnocentrism is a widespread attitude in human
societies. Nearly every sociocultural group expresses it.
Perhaps this is an indication of how old the attitude is
judged by the age-area concept of anthropology wherein
extremely widely distributed traits are considered of
ancient origin.
Ethnocentrism is expressed throughout the whole
range of human social organization. Simply organized
peoples such as the Seri of northern Mexico display strong
ethnocentric attitudes, but the more complex national
state ways of life in Europe, the Americas, and the Far
East display a more sophisticated variety of ethnocentrism.
Ethnocentrism is an evaluative concept formulated
in behalf of the interests of a sociocultural group.
Sumner, who elaborated the concept, also declared emphati-
ically that ethnocentrism was not "true." The thinking
is self-centered as are other concepts of centrality which
tend to set up limited categories as absolute standards.
The shortcomings of such categories are apparent when they
are made relative by comparisons to other like phenomena,
246
for example, to different ways of life in the case of
ethnocentrism. It is doubtful that any people in its way
of life exceeds other peoples in every way, but this is
the claim implicit in ethnocentrism. It is possible that
cultures approaching a peak expression would be superior
in their specialized achievement areas; comparisons are
difficult in this respect, as the cultural activities
compared are seldom strictly similar. Ways of life exhibit
both strong and weak points, thus invalidating any cate
gorical statement of superiority.
A primary concern in this study was to separate
biased thinking (evaluative concepts) from those derived
from critical examinations of evidence and statements of
process (existent concepts).
The positive aspects of ethnocentrism reinforce
social solidarity, but it is the solidarity of the in-group
that is so bolstered; throughout the range of sociocul
tural group from dyads to intercultural alliances, the
presence of counter groups (out^groups) must be recog
nized. In conflict situations the dysgenic effects of
ethnocentrism are apparent. In this area, ethnocentrism
resembles prejudice in that negative stereotypes are
drawn expressing overgeneralized and derogatory attitudes
247
toward sociocultural groups.
In severe conflict situations, overt aggressive
behavior is evoked in an on-going situation so that val
ues established in the biological, culture-historical,
and sociocultural phases of competing cultures become
antecedents for behavioral resultants in the phenomenolog
ical sense. Stereotypes of ethno-hate or xenophobia can
be built effectively, sometimes in a very short time
span. Chauvinism is the common term for this expression
of the intense ethnocentrism of the national state. Such
expressions of hatred give rise to ethnophaulisms (deroga
tory epithets) and may lead to open conflict.
The Erie Young typology of leadership types ap
plies to the development of ethnocentric enclaves. A
prophetic leader and a small group of followers begin a
cultural tradition. The movement is then organized by
more matter-of-fact leaders. Legalization follows organ
izational consolidation and ultimately the tradition may
be replaced by more adaptive expressions.
The present maximum expression of ethnocentrism
is at political alliance levels, such as those of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Russian-Chinese-
Communist accord or the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
248
Ethnocentric tendencies among militant minority
groups on present college campuses find their highest
expression in demands for augmented curricula regarding
the cultural traditions of each group. In the survey
portion of this study, Black-Americanswere four times
higher in demands than were Mexican-Americans and ten times
higher than American Indians. Demands for financial
assistance for disadvantaged groups was the next expressed
concern and lastly, relaxed admission standards to equal
ize minority group disadvantages.
Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif in their experimental
structuring of ethnocentric antagonisms showed dramatically
how adolescent boys could be brought to the brink of
open conflict. It was also possible to reverse the con
flict in adolescents relatively easily, although this
would have been more difficult to have controlled if they
had passed the point of violent outbreak.
Veblen's account of the structuring of values in
Teutonic peoples in conflict indicates the danger of
unbridled antagonism arising from nationalistic rivalries.
World War I was costly and bitter with destruction of
enormous wealth and human life, only to be repeated on a
larger scale some twenty years later in World War II.
249
The rapid developments in the human way of life
have been in technology, giving man far greater power
over his physical and biotic environment than ever before.
The potential for human misery is great in the development
of atomic weaponry in the last twenty-five years. Antag
onisms stemming from racio- or sociocultural centrism
could now plunge the world into a holocaust more frightful
than anyone can anticipate, should unrestrained ethno
centrism precipitate mass atomic warfare.
Minimizing the differences among antagonistic,
powerful and aggressive alliances is the principal problem
at this stage of human development. A clear understand
ing of the nature of ethnocentrism and the possibility of
learning to control its manifestations would be the most
valuable intercultural project upon which present-day
leaders could embark. Extension of "we-group" feeling,
so benign in primary group interaction, is the general
direction to be taken, one which could make constructive
use of technology, including atomic energy, for highly
socialized purposes.
Development of genuine cultures in which morale
is high because the carriers are challenged to participate
in highly creative ways of life would tend to reduce
250
sociocultural boredom and repressiveness and truly to
justify the positive feelings of ethnocentrism.
a p p e n d i x e s
251
APPENDIX A
SECOND ANNUAL INSTITUTE ON HUMAN RELATIONS
252
SECOND ANNUAL INSTITUTE ON HUMAN RELATIONS
June 17-22, 1956
"The American People in Transition”
Presented by:
The Los Angeles County Conference on
Community Relations
at Whittier College
Whittier, California
PURPOSE:
Understanding the involvements of the American
people in transition toward achieving a democratic inter
relationship of all sectors of the population.
Considerations:
1. Problems common to all minority groups.
2. Understanding the historical and cultural
influences of the principal minority groups.
3. Exploring for bridges toward integration.
4. Achieving awareness of blocks preventing
integration.
5. Encouragement of minority group contributions
that would enrich the total American way of
life.
253
254
WHO MAY ATTEND:
Professional and lay leaders from the following
groups are urged to attend: Education, Religion, Labor,
Management, Social Work, Law Enforcement, Government
Work, Civic Leaders, College Students, otheissin teres ted
in intergroup relations.
The enrollment will be limited to seventy-five.
Since a unique and important aspect of this Institute
is the group living experience, priority will be given to
those applicants who are registering for campus residence.
DATE:
June 17 through 22, 1956. The Institute opens
with registration at 3:00 P.M. on Sunday, June 17, and
closes ^n Friday afternoon, June 22nd.
PLACE:
Provident Hall on Whittier College Campus. Whit
tier College is located in Whittier, California, 15 miles
east of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Pacific Electric busses
reach Whittier from Los Angeles every 12 minutes.
PROGRAM
Sunday, June 17
3:00 P.M.— Registration
6:00 P.M.— Dinner
8:00 P.M.— Opening Session
Monday, June 18
Morning — PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE NEGRO
Afternoon— PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN
Tuesday, June 19
Morning --PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE AMERICAN INDIAN
Afternoon— PROBLEMS RELATED TO AMERICAN JEWRY
255
Wednesday, June 20
Morning— PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE JAPANESE AMERICAN
Wednesday afternoon through Friday afternoon
CONSIDERATION OF THE PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTED SOLU
TIONS
The sessions will include presentation of problems
by Consultants followed by group discussion.
Discussion group sessions are limited to full
time participants; all other sessions are open to
the public at $1.00 per session.
STAFF
Dean: Robert W. O'Brien, Ph. D.
Professor of Sociology, Whittier College
Associate Dean: Robert Ariss, M.A.
Curator of Anthropology, Los Angeles County Museum
Director: George L. Thomas
Executive Director, Los Angeles County Conference
on Community Relations
Secretary: Juliet Broughton
Assistant Director, Los Angeles County Conference
on Community Relations
Registrar: Helene Boughton
Vice Chairman, Los Angeles County Conference on
Community Relations
Activities: Mrs. Bernice Nosoff
Chairman, Human Relations Committee, Whittier
Coordinating Council
Publicity: Ray Lentzch
Whittier College New Bureau
256
SPECIAL CONSULTANT
Max Wolff, Ph. D.
Community Consultant, Associate Professor of
Sociology, School of Education, New York Univer-
sity; Director, Study Institute in Community
Participation at the New School for Social Research
VISITING CONSULTANTS
Lee M. Brooks, Ph. D.
Former President, Southern Sociological Society;
Visiting Lecturer, Whittier College
Henry Dobyns, M. A.
Anthropological Consultant on Indian Claims,
Tucson, Arizona
James Schrag, Ph. D.
Chairman, Department of Sociology, Wittenberg
College, Ohio; Consultant, Toledo Race Relations
Institute
Lewis G. Watts, M. A.
Executive Secretary, Urban League of Seattle;
Race Relations Instructor, Seattle University
LOCAL CONSULTANTS
In addition to the five visiting consultants there will
be local and regional representatives from intergroup
agencies and other community interests serving as leaders
and consultant.
Sponsored by the following 55 organizations through
The Los Angeles County Conference on Community Relations,
a coordinating body for these organizations concerned
with eliminating the waste and destructiveness of racial
and religious discrimination. A voluntary association, the
County Conference serves its member organizations as a
clearing house for information and ideas, as a coordinator
of joint activity for organizations with similar problems,
as a catalytic agent to stimulate new activity.
APPENDIX B
QUESTIONNAIRE REGARDING EFFECTS OF
ETHNOCENTRISM
257
QUESTIONNAIRE REGARDING EFFECTS OF ETHNOCENTRISM
(R. M. Ariss,
University of Southern California)
What racial and/or cultural groups have made special
demands for educational considerations at your Insti
tution from 1954 to the present? (Please indicate by
check mark)
Black-Amerleans ____
Latin-Americans _____
American Indians _____
Japanese-Americans _____
Chinese-Americans _____
Other
What was the objective of the demands?
Relaxed admission standards to equalize minority
group prestige and socio-economic disadvantages
Requests to augment curricula pertaining to
cultural traditions of the petitioning groups
Requests for financial assistance to minority
group members to enable their attendance at your
Institution
Other (please specify):
Was there any program at your Institution in behalf
of minority groups prior to the recent civil rights
activist movements? If so, please list as per groups
named in Question 1, with date of establishment of
259
such programs. Please mention briefly the provisions
of such programs you may have initiated.
4. If there is available a listing of formal demands by
militant minority groups, I would be thankful for a
copy of such.
5. Any additional comments or clarifications regarding
the attitudes of policy makers at your Institution?
If you care to state your personal feelings, please do
so. May I refer to your opinions in summary along with
similar opinions of other academic administrators? (Names
not to be mentioned.) Please use reverse side for addi
tional comments.
With thanks,
(s) R. M. Ariss
R. M. ARISS
APPENDIX C
FORMAL DEMANDS BY MILITANT MINORITY GROUPS
260
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
ALBANY, NEW YORK
"Black Students' Demands1 1 ' * '
Below is the text of the original demands in the
exact form that they were presented by the Black Students
Alliance. Several modifications were included in the
final agreement signed by Dr. Evan R. Collins, president
of Albany State University.
OFFICIAL LISTING OF
BLACK STUDENTS ALLIANCE
DEMANDS
DEMAND I: EFFECTIVE AS OF THE COMMENCEMENT OF SPRING
SEMESTER 1969
WE DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE INSTITUTION OF AN AFRO-AMERICAN
HISTORY COURSE
A. This course is to be taught by a qualified in
structor of our own chosing.
B. This course is to be taught on the 200 level and
no prerequisite course is to be required.
C. Students who complete the above mentioned course
must receive 3 full credit hours toward their
normal academic requirements.
"Black Students' Demands," The Knickerbocker
News (State University of New York, Albany), January 17,
1969, Sec. B, p. 3.
262
DEMAND No. II: EFFECTIVE AS OF THE COMMENCEMENT OF FALL
SEMESTER 1969
WE DEMAND THE FORMATION OF A DEPARTMENTALLY AUTONOMOUS
AFRO AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM
A. The above department will enable interested stu
dents to major in Afro-American Studies on both
the undergraduate and graduate levels.
B. Though the administration is expected to vigor
ously engage in helping arrange for this program,
we demand the right to play the decisive role in
both recruiting and screening of all potential
instructors.
C. The requirements for qualification, and the
appointment of all potential instructors will be
determined by a committee appointed by the BSA.
D. We further demand the right to play the decisive
role in the structuring of the department's cur
riculum.
DEMAND No. Ill: EFFECTIVE AS OF THE COMMENCEMENT OF FALL
SEMESTER 1969
WE DEMAND THE ENROLLMENT OF A MINIMUM OF 300 NEW AFRO-
AMERICAN, PUERTO-RICAN, AND OTHER NON-WHITE MINORITY
GROUP STUDENTS.
A. We further demand to right to participate in the
recruitment of such students.
DEMAND No. IV:
THE AFOREMENTIONED DEMANDS ARE ABSOLUTELY NON-NEGOTIABLE
AND WE DEMAND THAT THE ADMINISTRATION TAKE IMMEDIATE AND
APPROPRIATE ACTION TOWARD INSURING THEIR IMPLEMENTATION.
THE PERSONAL SIGNATURES OF DESIGNATED MEMBERS OF THE
ADMINISTRATION SHALL BE AFFIXED TO THIS DOCUMENT AS AN
INDICATION OF THE ADMINISTRATION’S INTENTION TO GRANT
THESE DEMANDS.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
ITHACA, NEW YORK
The demands of the Jewish Students were for a
Jewish Studies Program: more professors of Jewish history,
Hebrew language (there are none of these at present) and
Jewish culture. Middle Eastern politics was also men
tioned. There were, however, no demands for increased
enrollment of the Jewish minority, or of increased faculty
hiring of people of Jewish religion. The student body and
faculty are well represented on these.
PROPOSED HISTORY COURSES FOR THE
AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM
1. Black Historiography and Historical Thought
Black historians; white historians of black people;
how Blacks have been treated in History; problems
confronting black historical writers and intellectu
als. This course should permit extensive research by
students.
2. Survey: Blacks in American History (Two Semesters—
Substitute for Survey Requirements in American
History)
Blacks in Africa (culture, civilisation); forces in
white civilisation leading to the opening up of Africa;
Sheila Tobias, Assistant to the Vice Pres, for
Academic Affairs, Cornell University, personal letter of
March 10, 1969.
263
264
institutional history of slavery. This is a history
of a group within the larger American experience, and
would explore in a systematic context the nature of
white forces and their effects on black Americans.
It would be divided into semesters at the point of
emancipation and might provide additional focus on
any of the topics in courses 3 through 14 below.
BLACK TOPICS;
3. Black Culture in American Society.
4. Black Culture in the Twentieth Century.
5. Black Folk in a New Nation: Their Meaning for Democ
racy.
6. Economic History of the Black Man (perhaps better
offered in the Economics Department).
7. History of Black Militancy.
8. Urbanization and Ghettoization: Ghetto History and
Development within the Urban Process, North and South.
9. Problems in American Political History: Emergence of
Blacks into the Political Process.
10. Black Literary History— A History Constructed from
Representations of Blacks in American Fiction.
CHRONOLOGICAL DIVISIONS
11. Colonial and Ante Bellum Slavery.
12. Blacks During the Civil War and Reconstruction.
13. Black People from the Civil War thru World War I.
14. Black People from World War I to the Present.
265
COMPARATIVE HISTORY
15. Comparative Black People in the Tropics after Eman
cipation.
16. Comparative Slave Systems: The Role of Subjugated
Blacks (possibly a graduate seminar).
17. History of Negritude: Attempts to Establish Outside
Allies, the Indies Included.
18. African History: A Survey Including Northern and Sub-
Saharan African, Africa East and West.
GRADUATE COURSES
19. Graduate Seminar in Black American History (Pre and
Post Civil War in two semesters).
20. Graduate Seminar in Comparative Slave Systems.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
PROPOSALS SUBMITTED TO ARLAND P. CHRIST-JANER,
PRESIDENT, BOSTON UNIVERSITY
BY UMOJA, APRO-AMERICAN STUDENTS' GROUP
15 April 1968
Z* SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY:
1. We propose that the Boston University School of
Theology building be named in honor of the Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a 1955 graduate of
the school and one of its most distinguished
alumni.
2. We propose that the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Chair for Social Ethics, which has been established
by the Boston University trustees, be occupied by
a Black professor.
II. AFRO-AMERICAN AFFAIRS COORDINATING CENTER:
1. We propose the establishment of an Afro-American
Affairs Coordinating Center at Boston University
to serve as a liasion between the Black students
and the administration in three areas: intellec
tual, social and financial. Presently there are
no personnel or systems at the University which
are responsive and sympathetic to the grievances
of Black students.
266
267
2. We propose that the center would be designed to
strengthen the relationship between Boston Uni
versity and the Black community, Roxbury, particu
larly through a Talent Bank.
3. We propose that a Talent Bank be a part of the
center's function, from which the community can
draw upon the resources of the university. For
example, if a Black organization wanted to set
up a business, it could seek advice in legal
matters, economics, and trends in urban develop
ment through the Talent Bank.
4. We propose that the employment needs of Black
students be more adequately met at the undergrad
uate and graduate level, within and beyond the
academic experience.
a. We propose that full or part-time Black
counselors be hired to deal' with the employ
ment problems and needs of the Black student
body, specifically the expansion of summer,
full-time and work-study jobs.
III. PRE-COLLEGE PROGRAM:
1. We propose that Boston University institute a
broadly-geared, summer orientation program for
incoming, Black freshmen who have been accepted
for admission and plan to attend. This program
would provide for academic upgrading where neces
sary, in addition to those transitional experi
ences which would further all aspects of develop
ment.
IV. CURRICULUM:
1. We propose that a course in Black history from
slavery to the present be established as part of
the College of Liberal Arts history program, with
full credit, and staffed by a Black historian,
within the 1968-69 academic year.
268
2. We propose that the university establish courses
which incorporates material that is more relevant
to Black students. Introductory courses in gov
ernment, literature, art, music, etc. should
include sections on African and Afro-American
contributions for the enlightenment of the entire
student body.
V. FACULTY;
1. We propose that more Black faculty members be
employed in all schools of the university.
2. We propose that the existing Black faculty members
be considered for elevations in status where qual
ified. Presently, no Black faculty member has
been awarded a full professorship.
VI. SCHOLARSHIP;
1. We propose that the ten (10) Martin Luther King,
Jr., scholarships be awarded to Black students to
do graduate work. We propose that they be.awarded
as follows; Two (2) for the School of Law; two
(2) for the School of Medicine; two (2) for the
School of Business; and four (4) for the Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences. We propose that a
Black faculty member be included in the selection
of these ten (10) Martin Luther King scholars.
2. We propose that 100 Black freshmen be admitted to
Boston University under some financial aid plan;
possibly work-study, partial scholarship, and
loans, or some combination of these.
VII. RECRUITMENT;
1. We propose that 100 Black students be accepted to
Boston University in excess of the anticipated
admission of Black students for the 1968-69 aca
demic year. These students would be financially
prepared to assume their own tuition, room and
board and other expenses.
269
VIII, LIBRARY:
1. We propose that the Mugar Library collection on
Afro-American history be increased to a volume
comparable to the library for African studies.
2. We propose that Boston University make every
effort to make the collection of papers of the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as complete as
possible. Currently, the university has his
papers only to 1961.
IX. AFRO-AMERICAN HISTORY WEEK:
1. We propose that Boston University continue to
recognize Afro-American History Week, and the
program which will be administered by the Black
students' group, Umoja.
2. We propose that Boston University provide funds
for the program, i.e. an amount substantial
enough to make the program a valuable one for the
entire university community.
God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire
next time.
James Baldwin
The tragic assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., has sparked the dormant conscience of white
America. The past two weeks have witnessed the hypocrit
ical masochisms of a nation.
We, the Black students of Umoja, recognize the
necessity of revealing the racism, which resulted in Dr.
King's death. Racism merely revealed and reviled is not
enough. If white America, generally, and Boston Univer
sity, specifically, is serious about exorcising this
malevolent scourge, they must act in a creative, remedial
fashion. We have developed, therefore, a series of
specific demands and proposals which would make this
270
predominately white campus relevant and responsive to the
needs of Black students. Furthermore, these proposals
would diversify and expand the general intellectual scope
of the university.
We urge the immediate implementation of these
mandates as a living memorial to Boston University's most
courageous graduate—
Our gallant black brother,
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Edward Coaxum, President
Umoja,
Afro-American Students' Society
82 Glenville Avenue
Allston, Massachusetts
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Original demands of the Black student body at NYU.
We the Black student body of New York University
submit the following demands as items of necessary change.
I. Getting more Black students at N.Y.U.
Method of Approach
a. A minimum of 25% of all N.Y.U. scholarships
should go to Black students.
b. Immediate implementation of 4-1/2 to 5 year
programs with adequate tutoring and remediation
modelled after Yale and other Ivy League schools.
Poor background and academic preparation should
be considered.
c. Setting up of long-range programs to reach
students in the 10th year of high school.
d. Financial assistance to Black students not
under scholarship program.
II. Introduction of the following new "A" courses refer
ring to the contribution of Black people.
a. African history
b. Afro-American history as it relates to American
history
c. Black music
d. Black art
e. Black literature
III. Establishment of a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Institute of Black Studies.
271
272
IV. Recruitment of Black Instructors and Black guest
lectures under the jurisdiction of the Martin Luther
King Jr. Institute.
V. Increased number of Black Fellowships and Assist-
anceships.
VI. The University must improve the working conditions
of all its employees and seek Black people for its
higher administrative and academic positions includ
ing a Dean of Black Student Affairs.
VII. Establishment of a Martin Luther King Lounge con
taining literature and other pertinent items for
the use of all Black groups on campus for adminis
trative and recreational purposes.
DUKE UNIVERSITY
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
"Proposal for a Black studies program"**-
Curriculum
I. Introduction tothe Culture of African Peoples—
Discussion of cultural themes in specific areas of
the African world.
A. Black Religion
1. Ancestral worship in Africa
2. Religious movement in the Carribean
3. Independent Black Church in America
B. Musical Tradition among African peoples
1. Blues in America
2. Calypso tradition in the West Indies
3. Musical tradition in Africa
C. Literary Tradition (Written and Oral)
1. Literature
2. Folklore
D. Art of African Peoples
II. Introduction to the History of African peoples—
History and analysis designed to develop the
students' interpretive understanding of political
developments in the African world.
A. The African World (Survey Course)
1. Americas
2. Carribean
3. African Continent
i
"Proposal for a Black studies program," The Duke
Chronicle (Duke University, Durham, No. Car.), February
14, 1969, p. 5.
273
274
B. Africa from 300 B.C. to 11th Century
1. Ancient civilization
2. Rise of Independent States
C. Great African Kingdoms (Kush, Egypt, Ghana,
Mali, Songhay, etc.)
D. Great Rulers of African Past (Ahmose I and
Queen Nefertiti, Phiankhi, Gongo Musa, Sundiata,
Sunni Ali, Askia the Great)
E. Imperialism and Racism— The decline and fall
of Independent African Nations and the coming
of whites and enslavement.
F. Black Men and Women of Resistance (Toussaint
L'Ouverture, Henri-Christophe, Armistad, Den
mark Vessey," Gabriel Prosser, Nat Turner, Toure,
Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Bibi Amima)
G. Black Nationalists (Marcus Garvey, Kwame
Nkrumah, Dubois.
H. Fanon, Carmichael, J. Forman, Shirley Graham,
Malcolm X)
III. Political Movements of African Peoples— The explora
tion and development of social techniques in re
sponse to the situation of the African world.
A. Geo-politics (In-depth analysis of the politi
cal, economic, social aspects)
B. Developing Political Institutions of African
Peoples
C. Comparative Survey of Political Organizations
(Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Lowndes
County Freedom Organization, Universal Negro
Improvement Association, etc., African continent
parties also)
D. Rise of Political Nationalism (B. T. Washington,
J. Nyere, M. Garvey, Nkrumah, Malcolm X)
E. Black Politics in Urban America
IV. The Natural Sciences— Historical survey of the
general principles and uses of the sciences and
introduction to practical application of these
principles to the social life of the Black commu
nity.
A. Development of Land Resources in the African
world (physical sciences)
B. Health Needs and Services in the Black Commu
nity (biological sciences)
275
C. The Black Community and Technology (math and
computer sciences)
V. Languages of African Peoples— Courses should be
designed to advance the concepts and applications
of reading, writing and speech.
A. The role of Languages in African Society— a
conceptual approach using no single language as
the limiting criterion
B. The Development of Communicative Skills
1. Swahili
2. Hausa
3. Arabic
4. Spanish
5. Kikuyu
VI. The Economics of the Ghetto— The course should
include landlord-tenant, buyer-seller, lender-
borrower relationships, rent ceilings, welfare and
public assistance programs, and business and home-
owned cooperatives as they apply to the economic
life of the Black community.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
March 1, 1969
There are two major objectives for this meeting
today, March 1, 1969. First, to make known that we are
discontent over the stagnant development of the Center
for Afro-American Culture (CAAC). Secondly, to present
our list of demands which we feel will be the foundation
for the development of the kind of Center which we orig
inally had envisioned.
"Any man who believes in the benevolence of govern
ment cannot believe in his own power." Autonomy is self-
determination, more specifically, in this instance. Black
Self-Determination. Let it be understood that we will
not compromise on this issue: The center for Afro-American
Culture should be an autonomous entity with sufficient
independence to grant Bachelor level degrees in various
fields of Afro-American Studies; secondly, the ability to
control the selection and retention of all of its person
nel as well as the control of its own curriculum program,
and thirdly, enough independence to expand itself to
include graduate level degrees.
Because we feel that the education of our people
is the issue at stake; and as Lerone Bennett has said,
for Black people, education is a matter of live [sic] and
death. Therefore, we expect immediate response on the
following:
These are our demands:
1. A Center for Afro-American Culture granting Bachelor
level degrees in African and Afro-American Studies
276
277
(as implied above) with the understanding that the
program will expand as soon as possible to include
graduate level degrees at both the Master's and Ph.D.
levels.
2. The selection and retention of all personnel of the
CAAC will be under the jurisdiction of its Board and
no one else.
3. The Director of the CAAC will also be answerable to
the Board and will act as its chief administrative
agent in all dealings with the University.
4. The CAAC will include a Division of Student Affairs
as outlined in the "Substitute Proposal for the Cre
ation of a Center for the Studey [sic] of Afro-Amer
ican culture."
5. That space be provided immediately for the physical
structure of the CAAC and its staff, subject to the
approval of the Black Students' Union.
6. The Ad-Hoc Committee for the CAAC will be restruc
tured immediately and in line with the provisions of
Point 4 of the "Substitute Proposal," i.e., to the
approval of BSU.
7. The alternative core of courses offered now and soon
to be offered by the CAAC should be accepted as ful
filling the elective and core requirements in present
University degree programs.
BLACK STUDENTS' UNION (UWM)
Earl Bean, Chairman
Barbara Garrison, Fred Gordon,
Ollie Mahone (CAAC Representa
tives)
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN
April 22, 196 8
TO: Dr. John Hannah, President
Michigan State University
Mr. Bigge Munn
Athletic Director
Michigan State University
We the undersigned black athletes of Michigan
State University, in complete agreement, present the
following grievances:
1. Michigan State University does not have and must
recruit black coaches for all sports at the Univer
sity such as basketball, baseball, track, and swim
ming. We feel that one or two black coaches are
insufficient.
2. The athletic department at Michigan State University
has a tendency of discouraging black students from
participating in certain sports, especially baseball.
3. Michigan State University does not employ black people
in Jenison Field House, the Intramural Building, the
ticket office, and the ice arena in nonprofessional
positions. We find this to be deplorable and no
longer acceptable.
4. Michigan State University does not employ black train
ers nor a black medical doctor to treat all athletes.
278
279
5. Bert Smith, the athletic counselor, is under undue
pressure attempting to assist all of the athletes in
academic and personal problems. A black athletic
counselor should be employed to assist in counseling.
This need is highlighted by the fact that many black
athletes fail.
6. The academic counseling provided for black athletes
is designed to place them in courses that will main
tain their eligibility and not to enable them to grad
uate at the end of the four year period. Athletes
are forced to take non academic courses when they
need academic courses that will make them eligible
for graduation.
7. Michigan State University has never elected a black
cheerleader. We find this questionable in view of
the large number of talented black girls on this cam
pus.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA
May 1, 1968
BLACK STUDENTS' DEMANDS
1. A full report from the University administration on
steps taken to implement the demands already made.
2. The employment of a black administrator to plan,
execute, and evaluate University efforts to guarantee
black equality in all phases of University life.
3. The immediate hiring of black faculty members.
4. The employment of a black director for the summer
Upward Bound program and balanced employment of black
staff members.
5. A system, deliberately designed to plan to attract
black students and to provide adequate black tutorial
and counseling services for them.
6. Employment of blacks on the athletic coaching staffs.
7. Black courses in Education, Sociology, Economics,
Literature, Art, Music, and Psychology— including a
survey course entitled "The Black Man in America" on
the undergraduate and graduate levels. This course
should be taught by black Americans.
8. Names of fraternities and sororities which have signed
the anti-discriminatory pledge.
280
281
9. Assurance that all individuals and agencies listed on
the off-campus housing rolls do not discriminate in
terms of renting or leasing housing accommodations.
(There must be a definite plan which reflects the
University's resolution to end discriminatory prac
tices in the off-campus housing market.)
10. Study of the course S335: "Race and Ethnic Relations"
for its relevance to student needs and to the current
racial crisis in the Nation. We must submit that
the course is effete and irrelevant and contributes
nothing highly significant to the black students who
take the course. Furthermore, as it was taught last
semester, the course was an affront to active, aware
students.
11. More black counselors in the dormitories and in the
Junior Division.
12. Establishment of a center for the study of blp- k
life and culture. The Center director shoulr ;e a
black man.
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
FORT COLLINS, COLORADO
The following is a list of programs that the
Mexican-American Committee for Equality (MACE) has devel
oped. We, as Mexican-American students, believe that
these goals must be investigated by the proper University
authorities as soon as possible. Furthermore, we assert
that the following innovations must be implemented and
established as operating organs within the University.
We believe that the majority of people connected
with Colorado State University (students, administrators,
faculty, etc.) are either ignorant of the problems faced
by the Chicano population of Colorado, or else have delib
erately denied that such problems exist. If CSU is to
fulfill it [sic] function as an educational institution
for all of the people of Colorado (and of the nation by
extension), it must be willing to enthusiastically support
these and similar programs.
We claim that CSU is a racist university, and we
base our claim primarily on the fact that the University
caters to one specific segment of the population. Nothing
is done for the Chicanos, Indians, Blacks, or Orientals
of the state. The University cannot establish a few
sociology, history, or psychology classes that deal with
minority groups and then sit back and feel as though it
had completed its obligation to the people of color. We
believe that the University has to take positive, meaning
ful steps toward construction of a relevant institution—
a university that can be an asset for all peoples.
Therefore we offer the following as a starting place for
the University. We consider these proposals to be ration
al, practical, and vital to our brothers and sisters. We
are prepared to work for their adoption and implementation
to whatever degree of pressure is required from us as
282
283
students and, more importantly, as human beings, what
we do ultimately will be determined by what the adminis
trative officers of Colorado State University do not do.
I. All Chicano student applications for admission must
be approved until a fair and equitable amount of
Chicano students are attending CSU, at which time
new negotiations concerning Chicano admissions
shall take place between the Chicano students and
the admissions officers.
II. All Chicano students shall be provided with the
following types of aid if the individual Chicano
student requests such aid:
A. Monetary (if a definite need is recognized by a
board made up of Chicano students, Chicano ad
ministrators, and Chicano community members).
1. Special scholarship funds must be established
for Chicano students.
2. Specific scholarships must be made available
to children of agricultural workers.
B. Specialized tutoring and orientation classes.
1. The Chicano that has a background of infer
ior elementary education, as most minority
group students have, or perhaps only a
limited amount of education, needs these
classes so that he may adequately and
realistically participate at the University
level.
2. The entire Freshman year may be devoted to
such classes if they are needed.
III. Active recruitment programs must be funded and
staffed to seek out students from the lower-income
groups in Colorado— Chicanos, Indians, and Blacks.
IV. Every new vacancy at the University, in every de
partment, college, office, or other section of CSU,
must be filled by a minority group official until
a fair and equitable proportion is achieved for
each minority group.
V. Regardless of present vacancies, a sufficient num
ber of Chicano advisors must be immediately made
available to the Chicano student body.
284
VI. A fully accredited ethnic studies department must
be established in which would be included:
A. Classes and majors that offer an education in
which Chicano students can find some meaning,
and to which Chicanos can relate.
B. Special training courses in the education
department that would teach would-be educators
the problems faced by Chicano children, the
advantages of a bilingual education, and how
to effectively and realistically relate to
Chicano students.
C. The CSU library must be provided with books and
literature that deal with the history of the
Chicano people and other factors that directly
pertain to La Raza. Current literature by and
about Chicanos must be added to the supply of
works in the library.
D. All requirements, regulations, standards, and
class structures for the ethnic studies depart
ment shall be formulated by a committee consist
ing of Third World Students.
E. Whether this department deals only with Chicano
affairs, or includes all other minority groups
is of no immediate concern to us. We are,
however, committed to the development and real
ization of this department.
VII. Regardless of present vacancies, Chicanos must be
incorporated into the top administrative positions.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA
Demands of the United Front
1. Get the warrant for Rashidi's arrest revoked.
2. Issue an immediate policy statement declaring free
speech on this university campus, and stating that
no censorship regulations will be tolerated on campus.
3. Insure there will be no more political harrassment
of students.
4. Guarantee- that no outside police will come on campus.
5. Immediate hiring of black people in the athletic
department— in coaching, administrative positions.
6. Immediate development of a department of black stud
ies to be administered and designed by black students
and faculty.
7. The hiring of a black female EOP counselor.
8. Immediate establishment of a community relations
program, manned and staffed by black students.
9. Cease discriminatory hiring policies.
10. The expansion of special actions admissions allotment
from 4 to 10 per cent.
11. That 500 Mexican-American and 500 black students be
admitted to the campus by Fall, 1969.
285
286
12. Immediate establishment of a Mexican-American
Studies Center adequately supported by Chicano
faculty and with adequate financial assistance for
students, graduate and undergraduate.
13. Appointment of Chicano administrators to deal with
all Chicano student affairs on campus.
14. Appointment of a female Mexican-American counselor
for EOP.
15. Specific apportionment of associated student funds
for Chicano student activities.
16. End recruiting by racist corporations, especially
companies with holdings in South Africa.
B I B L I O G R A P H Y
287
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Creator Ariss, Robert Mcleod (author)

Core Title A Critique Of The Concept Ethnocentrism As Set Forth In Selected Social Science Literature

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Sociology

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,psychology, social

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor McDonagh, Edward C. (committee chair), Lasswell, Thomas E. (committee member), Servin, Manuel P. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-387782

Unique identifier UC11361296

Identifier 7005197.pdf (filename),usctheses-c18-387782 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 7005197.pdf

Dmrecord 387782

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Ariss, Robert Mcleod

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA