ABSTRACT
Culture is the learned, repetitive, characteristic way of behaving, feeling, thinking, and being of a societal group. It is transmitted from one generation to another through language, role-modeling, child enculturation, and other means. Behaviors like dietary preferences; religious practices; establishment of hierarchies; and values, mores, and beliefs are all culturally transmitted. Culture gives meaning to individuals of a social group (Brown & Ballard, 1990). Humans are ethnocentric. They experience the world through their primary culture, which has been adaptive in the history of society. Culture is humanity’s most powerful nonbiological mechanism of adaptation and is what has made our species so dominant. Conversely, ethnocentricity, with its emphasis on relatively subtle differences—as opposed to overwhelming similarities—among human beings, has become the fulcrum of discord, tension, and even culturally motivated war, like the wars in Bosnia and Rwanda. This is worrisome, especially for a pluralistic society like ours, with its immense ethnic diversity.
