Arabic Versus Asian Culture Essay

The world is comprised of many diverse cultures that exhibit differences in racism, ethnocentrism, or scrutiny. The Asian culture is one example of the many that are highly ethnocentric. My culture (Arabic) does not prove to be ethnocentric but conservative and modest in almost all practices such as socialization. The Arabic culture has multiple differences and similarities from the Asian culture in terms of customs, traditions, colonialism, and societal values, including togetherness.

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The Asian culture has multiple collections of various customs and traditions of art, music, literature philosophy, and politics. It comprises numerous ethnic groups of the continent of Asia that have different values (Han, 2017). A combination of the various differences contributes to the construction of the Asian culture as a sociocultural unit. On the other hand, the Arabic culture hails from the west of the Arabian Sea in the east. The various customs and traditions comprise of language, art, architecture, music, philosophy, gastronomy, and spirituality. These cultural heritages are different across diverse ethnic groups among the Arabs but form a united sociocultural unit.

Asia and Arabic cultures differ in terms of ethnocentrisms. For instance, across Asia, the way of eating is through using chopsticks with every meal. For Asians, people from other societies such as the Arab practice the unnecessary such as eating using spoons, knives, and forks. Yet ethnocentrism is unavoidable at some other instances; there are different instinctual reactions towards other people by either culture (Yoo, Jo & Jung, 2014). This is evident through the result of various events such as genocide or war. The Asian culture is more culturally relative compared to the Arabic culture. This proves how ethnocentrism offers a solution to the tensions between different cultural selves. The other way of life for Asians is reduced to the version of a cultural self contrary to Arabian practices.

Asians and Arabs also differ in terms of colonialism on the bases of ethnocentrism. None of the Arabian Gulf countries has taken in a single refugee contrary to the Asian countries. Even worse, these countries are situated close to the areas under attack. The Middle-East region is renowned for the Arab-Muslim interaction even though it is composed of a diverse mix of religions and ethnicities. Arabs were the minority from the Middle East but expanded through conquests of neighboring nations (Korotayev, Issaev, & Shishkina, 2015). Their invasion led to the conversion of others into the Islam religion. This led to the banning of Languages, and new generations were formed to the singular Arabic language. The nations under Islamic-Arabian control were also diverted into becoming Arabs. For Asians, it is the South East Asia that conquered in terms of colonialism. While the Arabs are mainly comprised of Islam, Asia boasts of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. Japan was among the countries involved in colonialism. The factor of colonialism led to diverse political, economic, and cultural practices. The different colonialism practices prove differences between the Arab and Asian countries.

The Arab culture dwells on social loyalty. The most important aspect for the culture is the family as the needs of a group are put at more emphasis compared to the needs of an individual (Wagner, Hansen, & Kronberger, 2014). For the family, honor is the most respected value. Men and women refrain from being alone together. Other values that are persistent with the Arab culture include generosity and kindness. This is similar to the Asian society that demonstrates significance in households. The community demonstrates local ingenuity about the environment and spatial organizations (Wagner, Hansen, & Kronberger, 2014). The community upholds the values of togetherness and team building. Despite differences between ethnic groups and practices, society is well-formed of diverse practices and beliefs. Therefore, Asian and Arabic cultures are seemingly similar in the different aspects of beliefs and practices.

Before reading the articles, I had a negative attitude towards the Asian culture and their practices. I can classify myself with the individuals involved in discrimination of others because of their identity without further assessment of their internal customs. I thought that the Arabic culture was the only perfect culture after being fed with many articles, especially related to the beliefs of the culture. I was surprised to find that the Asian culture is more ethnocentric compared to my own. Furthermore, there are many societal similarities between the two cultures. This has earned be a greater belief in positivity regarding the Asian communities and the related societies. It was all out of ignorance, but my knowledge at present lets me value Asians even more.

The customs, traditions, colonialism, and societal values, including togetherness of the Arabic culture, exhibit both differences and similarities in multiple dimensions. There are different values for different ethnic groups from the two cultures. These involve those of literature, art, philosophy, and language. Ethnocentrism is also highly proven for the Asian culture compared to the Arabic culture. Nonetheless, colonialism is different for the two cultures, and the difference still becomes proof of the different ethnocentrism. The two cultures have approximately similar societal practices. While the Arab values the family, Asians value households even more. Therefore, there are no significant differences between the two cultures despite the gap concerning ethnocentrism.

References

Han, C. M. (2017). Cosmopolitanism and ethnocentrism among young consumers in emerging Asia: Chinese vs. Koreans towards Japanese brands. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 29(2), 330-346.

Korotayev, A. V., Issaev, L. M., & Shishkina, A. R. (2015). Female labor force participation rate, Islam, and Arab culture in cross-cultural perspective. Cross-Cultural Research, 49(1), 3-19.

Wagner, W., Hansen, K., & Kronberger, N. (2014). Quantitative and qualitative research across cultures and languages: Cultural metrics and their application. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 48(4), 418-434.

Yoo, J. W., Jo, S., & Jung, J. (2014). The effects of television viewing, cultural proximity, and ethnocentrism on the country image. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 42(1), 89-96.