Understanding Cultural Anthropology: Second Birth, Laws, and Ethnocentrism
Why Humans Need a ‘Second Birth’
An example of the human transition from nature to society can be seen in the diverse rites by which human communities welcome a newborn in different cultures.
Such diversity suggests that the mere biological fact of birth is not enough to fully integrate an individual into society. A ‘second birth,’ a cultural one, is required to ensure that membership.
The same can be said about kinship structures being superimposed on biological relationships. The sociocultural notion of father or mother is not simply reducible to the biological or genetic parent.
Socio-Cultural Laws vs. Natural Laws
As Lévi-Strauss points out, socio-cultural laws form a compact, homogeneous, and coherent system. Each element is defined by its relationship with others.
However, the technical work of adapting to nature is inevitably progressive, partial, and contingent. It is affected by unforeseen circumstances that may require a reorganization of production or even the geographical migration of entire populations or the disappearance of cultural entities.
The laws of nature cannot be transgressed, while social laws can be disobeyed.
Ultimately, cultural laws are not universal or immune to change over time, but specific to each community and enormously variable.
Deficiencies of Early Anthropological Classifications
Early anthropological science imposed a classification of human communities that split them into:
- Primitive or savage societies, considered remnants of prehistoric times, lacking political power and organized by a primitive mentality.
- Barbarian societies.
- Civilized societies (the West).
Today, we recognize that this classification stems from the prejudice of considering anything different as inferior. This classification reveals a default from the outset: ethnocentrism.
Ethnocentrism is the prejudice where the observer’s own socio-cultural background is seen as superior, while other cultures are viewed as asocial or imperfect.
A Benign Form of Ethnocentrism
While ethnocentrism is likely an inevitable social perspective, knowledge of other social formations illuminates and enhances one’s own. The distrust or hatred toward strangers is based on ignorance of their ways of life. By looking in the mirror and engaging with others free from prejudice, a society can become aware of its own characteristics, complexity, and uniqueness.
This knowledge, provided by ethnology, has eliminated biased views from scientific discourse and introduced a benign form of ethnocentrism into societies that have integrated cultural anthropology into their culture.