ETHNOCENTRISM--Etymology and Origin--GUMPLOWICZ AND SUMNER

21 September 2017--

Tracing the Origins of an Important Anthropological Term


ETHNOCENTRISM--
"believing that one's own nation is the center of civilization," 1891, from ethno- + -centric; a technical term in social sciences until it began to be more widely used in the second half of the 20th century. Related: Ethnocentricity; ethnocentrism (1902).

Dr. Gumplowicz, professor of sociology at the University of Gratz, says that there are illusions which have been most baneful in the wider life of the world. He mentions two of them which, with real German facility for coining new names, he calls "acrochronism" and "ethnocentrism." ["Address of Professor J.C. Bracq," in "The Eighth Lake Mohonk Arbitration Conference," May 28, 1902; he adds, "Acrochronism is the illusion which leads us to think that what we are doing is the culminating point of some great process."]

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=ethnocentric

.. (OCR DECODED)--
The belief that l foreigners are in-ferior to one's Olin people is not peculiar to the so-called civilized nations. Prof. St7 It bin of Yale used to call this national egotism n ethnocentrism." and cited an instance of It from a message sent south by a native fireenInniter, extolling his land and its inhabitants as greatly su-perior to the countries and races of white men. In The Journal of Religious !Psychology the anthropologist Otant Is quoted am saying: NY Times--01104/1914 The Opinion Column


William Graham Sumner, Yale Professor, 1840-1910


Although the early conceptual history of ethnocentrism is blurred, it appears that, contrary to popular opinion and major writers on ethnocentrism, Sumner did not coin the concept in 1906. To make it clear, Sumner did not claim that he had invented the concept.










Ludwig Gumplowicz-- (Jewish descent)--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Gumplowicz

http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095912337
 Because of ethnocentrism, this struggle is characterized by conflict between (in an evolutionary sequence) racial groups, nation-states, and classes. Little of his work has been translated into English (the notable exception being his Grundriss der Soziologie, 1885), and his writing is popularly discredited by its authoritarian and racist overtones, although theorists of global processes have recognized his contribution in drawing attention to large-scale social conflicts such as conquests and wars. See also military and militarism.




http://biography.yourdictionary.com/ludwig-gumplowicz
Gumplowicz argued that there are no natural rights antecedent to the state, all rights being of the civil type only, that is, existing to the extent that they happen to be guaranteed by a particular state. The history of every nation is one of class conflict in which the fittest necessarily survive and dominate the less fit. Each group strives to become the controlling group within the state, the only motive being self-interest.


Ironically, since Gumplowicz was Jewish, his work Race Struggle (1883) is regarded by some scholars as having been an important influence on the development of Nazi theories. Early in 1909 Gumplowicz left the University of Graz, and shortly thereafter he and his wife committed suicide.




https://books.google.com/books?id=5DaJwW432SIC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=gumplowicz++race+struggle&source=bl&ots=5lO6pSDy5g&sig=c8Jzr5n31R5mPu31jAxeznEbCKc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi51erK6rfWAhWkq1QKHcy8Cf0Q6AEIRjAF#v=onepage&q=gumplowicz%20%20race%20struggle&f=false

A prominent Jewish sociologist at the University of Graz, Ludwig Gumplowicz, contributed greatly to social Darwinist thought in the late nineteenth century with his book, Der Rassenkampf (1883, Racial Struggle). Gumplowicz thought history was dominated by the Darwinian struggle for existence between various human races. History, he asserted, is "the eternal lust for exploitation and dominance of the stronger and superior. The racial struggle for domination in all of its forms, in the open and violent, as well as in the latent and peaceful, is thus the essential driving principle, the moving force of history."'" Unlike most anthropologists and social Darwinists of his time, however, he did not define races biologically, and he viewed racial mix-ture as a beneficent force in human evolution. Rather, he considered races to be social constructions, similar to what we would call ethnic groups today, as is evident in his discussion of the nature of the racial struggle: Struggle and war have their particular compelling nature, their particular bloodthirsty law that always and everywhere presses itself all-powerfully upon the ones struggling, and makes every struggle between heterogeneous ethnic and social elements into a "racial struggle whether the antagonism between these races is large or sinall.'s
Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism-- Cantor, Swetlitz, 2006 P. 101

A SUIVRE--