How an ethnocentric view does evoked conflicts between two cultures
The British sailed to Australia with the intention of colonizing the land and when they set foot in Australia and met the Aboriginals, they started to look at their ethnocentric view through their cultural lens. The view of the First Australians caused conflicts between these two different cultures due to the British thoughts of being superior to the Aboriginals. Through the Aboriginal’s own cultural eyes, they saw the British as different, reference to their clothing and questions such as ‘why are they coming here? And how long are they staying?’ Before the British came, the Aboriginals lived in diverse tribes all around Australia and they all lived in harmony due to their own cultural rules between each other as a tribal community. From the “First Australians” DVD, words said when the British first encountered the Aboriginals ranged from savages to animals that had no rights. Also the documentary mentioned that they thought it was abnormal how the Aboriginals lead their lifestyle, which included the less or no clothing used. The British believed their lifestyle is the lifestyle that everyone should follow and that it is the only right way to live, this means that their ethnocentricity empowered them to not understand or accept other lifestyles, such of the Aboriginals. Since the British were obviously more advanced in their technology and had more knowledge of the world, which made them think they should be more superior to the Aboriginals. They thought they had more skills and knowledge, which when compared them to the Aboriginal, made it seems like the Aboriginal were not smart or even have the capacity to learn. Evidence from both the allegory of ‘The Rabbits’ and the documentary, shows that the British judged on the colour of the Aboriginal’s skin as filthy in contrast to their own fair skin. Meanwhile when the colonizers came, the British governor, Arthur Phillip, decided upon a relationship with one of the Aboriginal, which happens to be Bennelong. Governor Phillip believed that he needed an insight to what the Aboriginal tribes are reacting to the British or ‘white’ settlers. The relationship between them created a temporary peace and maybe even made the two cultures bond, or so Governor Phillip thought. However even with Governor Phillip who made an effort with an Aboriginal, the other British people were still judgmental and still had the ethnocentricity to think of the Aboriginal people as savages and animals who were inferior. Even Governor Phillip had thought at first by creating a bond with one of the Aboriginal, it would release tension so that the British would then be able to take away more of their land. Eventually all these ethnocentric view and thoughts moved the British to think its okay to take away the Aboriginal lands and that they had no feelings or be able to fight back. Eventually more conflicts evoked due to the British started to not only think with an ethnocentric view, but act with it, meaning being superior against the ‘weak’ Aboriginals. The conflicts that was evoked further was due to the British or the ‘whites’ acted and killed some of the Aboriginal people. The Aboriginals then fought back and the British fought back in a continuous cycle. From the documentary, “First Australians”, it showed and described how after the first fight between two cultures, triggered more fights to occur; the British continued to fight with no mercy and began slaughtering more Aboriginal for reasons as to eliminate the population. This happened when Governor Phillip and Bennelong and his companion sailed to England. Back in Australia, the British who were not as considerate as Governor Philip were left in charge and so more wars began. Hungry for power and land, the British began to take full control, spreading slowly all over Australia by taking more and more of the Aboriginal land. They even destroyed the native crops and grew their own crops and sometimes took advantage of the Aboriginals and turned them into slaves working on the land. Enraged from the merciless act of killing, slavery and the taking of native lands, the Aboriginal formed a rebellion lead by Windradyne. Both culture played out violence against violence which creates endless torments and fights. The British were stubborn and refused to back down or respect the Aboriginal’s culture. Finally, even though the British thought they were more civilized, they were wrong, the Aboriginal leader, Windradyne was the one who was brave and saved his people from further killing by being civilized enough to make a peace treaty with the British butchers. Having an ethnocentric view does provoke conflicts between two different cultures. Both cultures were playing violence on violence which did in fact, from the evidence shows that the British butchers started it all due to their ethnocentric lens. The Aboriginals, in my view, were the victims although some of the British were in fact injured or killed as well, but this was only because the British acted first upon them and so it was considered a payback in their culture. If only the British would learned to accept a new culture rather than judging the Aboriginals through their ethnocentric lens, less conflicts would erupt.
