Eurocentrism
Eurocentrism is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. It is an instance of ethnocentrism, perhaps especially relevant because of its alignment with current and past real power structures in the world. It can be a less overt form of white supremacy. Eurocentrism often involved claiming cultures that were not white or European as being such, or denying their existance at all.
The source of a cultural tradition can be seen in the balance of emphasis given to various thinkers and ideas in discussing a subject. In the 1960s a reaction against the priority given to a canon of "Dead White European Males" provided a slogan which neatly sums up the charge of eurocentrism (alongside other important -centrisms).
In Britain, eurocentric or eurocentrist may occasionally be used in political discourse to mean europhile.
Origins
Assumptions of European superiority arose during the period of European imperialism, which started slowly in the 16th century, accelerated in the 17th and 18th centuries and reached its zenith in the 19th century. It is linked with the demise of Hermeticism, which promoted a view of history which saw Hermes and Egyptian culture as being more significant than Greek culture. European cultures were contrasted with traditional hunting, farming and herding societies who populated many of the areas of the world being newly explored by Europeans, such as the Americas, Siberia, and later the Pacific and Australasia. Greater technological sophistication led to widespread assumptions of greater cultural, personal, intellectual and moral value. Such racist developments were used to justify slavery, genocide, and other forms of political and economic exploitation.
The colonising period involved the widespread settlement of parts of the Americas and Australasia with European people, and also the establishment of outposts and colonial administrations in parts of Asia and Africa. As a result, eurocentrism may now encompass the views of people who are not actually European any longer, but who are descended from Europeans and have been brought up into what may be regarded as mainly European cultural traditions.
Instances
The very definition of a continent was expanded to separate the Eurasian continent into two parts, Europe and Asia as to place Europe itself into more prominence. In addition, Cartesian maps have been designed throughout known history to center the northwestern part of Europe (most notably Great Britain) in the map. The regional names around the world are named in honor of European travellers and are in orientation of a Eurocentric worldview. The term "sub-saharan Africa" describes a region south of the Sahara (and thus relating to Europe which is north of Africa, yet does little to describe the region itself). A less Eurocentric term would be "Equatorial Africa", which describes the region of Africa in question. Middle-East describes an area slightly east of Europe. The Orient or Far East, is east of Europe, whereas the West is described west of Europe. Although many of these terms are not intentionally designed to relegate other groups to a subordinate role vis-a-vis the people of Europe, the effects of Eurocentricm create a self-sustaining belief, that Europe and Europeans are central and most important to all meaningful aspects of the world's social values, and cultural heritage.
Western accounts of the history of mathematics are often considered Eurocentric in that they do not acknowledge major contributions of mathematics from other regions of the world, such as Indian mathematics, Chinese mathematics and Islamic mathematics. The invention of calculus is one such example. Western accounts claim Isaac Newton and Leibnitz as its inventors without acknowledging the significant contributions of Madhava of Sangamagrama and other Indian Keralese mathematicians that preceded Newton and Leibnitz by upto 300 years.
University courses on the history of human thought that cover Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant and Marx, but neglect Confucius, Buddha, Upanishads or Ibn Sina, for example, might be regarded as eurocentric.
Other examples of eurocentrism as part of education and the world of letters may be found in reference works such as encyclopaedias.
In an overview of 17th century history, say, it would be eurocentric to list numerous dates, events and political figures from the many states of Europe, but only brief mentions for the Manchu conquest of China or the Mughals in India, or the Aksum Christian period in Ethiopia. Then, as now (and for most of human history), well over half of the human population has lived in Asia.
Eurocentric scholarship frequently featured comments as to the percieved inferiority of non-European groups, for example:
I am apt to suspect the Negroes...to be naturally inferior to the White. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white.... — David Hume, noted 18th century European historian, philosopher and essayist
When we classify mankind by color, the only one of the primary races...which has not made a creative contribution to any of our twenty-one civilizations is the black race. — Arnold J. Toynbee, noted 20th century scholar, historian and author
A Black skin means membership in a race of men which has never created a civilization of any kind. — John Burgess, 20th century scholar and founder, Political Science Quarterly[1]