Blog 7

                “Contestant Number Two” is a documentary about a Druze woman’s, Duah, attempt to enter a beauty pageant.  The Druze religion requires woman to dress modestly.  The beauty pageant, which was televised, required the wearing of a bathing suit, something which outraged Druze society.  Over time, Duah and her family’s views on what she was allowed to wear changed.  At first, the family was cautious of what was okay to wear.  However, when the Druze society initially reacted to the news she was going to wear a bathing suit, the family wanted her to go through with the pageant.  When the head of the Druze religion got involved, Duah dropped out.  When there was too much tension between them and the Druze society they moved back to the society.  This is similar to how sects and cults move towards society when under too much pressure.  In the documentary, Duah claims that the people in her class see nothing wrong with her wearing a bathing suit.  This shows how globalization affects a society.  The younger generation has had more contact with other societies and is therefore more influenced by them as opposed to the older generation of Druze.  This documentary shows the struggles of a young woman against her society, and how a society exerts pressure on those wishing to go against it.

                Ethnocentrism is the belief that your society is better than others.  This belief is held by most societies, and many different explanations have been proposed as to why.  Some claim that imperialism is the cause, and others that it is a biologically linked.   However, I believe it is inherent to the formation of a group.  A society or group needs to keep its members by convincing them they are better off in their group than others.  This ethnocentrism can have varying degrees.  Ethnocentrism can result in a group trying to “convert” members to their group, but ethnocentrism can result in tension between groups.  Ethnocentrism was combined with Darwinism to create Social Darwinism in the late nineteenth century.  Social Darwinism was the belief that White Christian Europeans were superior to other races.  This lead to eugenics, which was the belief that inferior races should either be sterilized or killed, which would lead to the end of their race.  These views influenced Nazi Germany and lead to the Holocaust.  Europe was not the only place that events like the Holocaust occurred.  Genocides also occurred in Rwanda, Cambodia, and other areas.  Ethnocentrism is a force that can create violence and hate between groups, but it doesn’t always.  One form of ethnocentrism is a rivalry between schools, because each school believe themselves to be superior to the other.  Ethnocentrism is a necessary part of any society, but when present in extreme amounts in a society can be disastrous.

                Theosophy is a religion which has experienced many schisms after the death of their charismatic leader.  The schisms resulted from a difference in views between different groups within Theosophy.  The schisms can be viewed in terms of ethnocentrism.  The main schism occurred between the group located in India and the United States.  The US group wanted to stop the Indianization of the group.  This is a form of ethnocentrism, because the US group believed that their group was better and wished to improve their group by splitting from the Indian group.  The New thought and the Harmonial Family is a group that survived the death of its charismatic leader through institutionalization.  This process did not occur immediately after the death of the leader, but took some time in which other leaders arose.  Another group that institutionalized was Spiritualism.  A split occurred in Spiritualism when it institutionalized.  Spiritualism had a congregational church system and was heavily influenced by Christianity, which caused non-Christians to split.  Neo-Paganism and Wicca are examples of primitivism.  Both groups started for the nostalgia for the past.  These groups are in high tension with the society, because they are different from Christianity.  New age movements are a religious group that embraces modernization.  It shares it views through the internet, books and magazines.  The Association for Research and Enlightenment is a group that survived the death of its leader by moving towards mainstream society.  The group embraced Christianity and combined it with its teachings.  This decreased tensions with society and caused an increase in membership.  ECKANKAR is another religion that relieved tensions with society by moving towards it after the death of their charismatic leader.  Although the group did not incorporate Christian views, they did lessen their negative views of Christianity, which helped to decrease tensions.  Hippie Communal Spirituality is the revival of communal living.  At the communes, drugs were used as a way to expand conscious.