Exploring Ethnocentric Belonging
John Cheney and Cilla Utne

This session will focus on investigating ethnocentric forms of belonging. The term “ethnocentrism” was coined by William Graham Sumner and is defined as “evaluating other peoples and cultures according to ones own culture”.

In family constellations we learn that families can be affected by past traumas that thus create their worldview. In this session, we will explore the feeling of belonging to a particular culture: values, traditions, language, information, race, thought process, etc., which in turn influences our worldview.

The constellation set-up will utilize Dr. Milton Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) as a baseline. We will explore the three ethnocentric stages, Denial, Defense and Minimization, or “difference avoidance” (I avoid people different from me).

The ethnorelative stages, of Acceptance, Adaptation and Integration or “difference seeking” (I seek people different from me) will also be set up. Each stage in Bennett’s model represents a different level of intercultural consciousness.

The session will take a step beyond Family (if the phenomenology permits) and investigate factors like xenophobia, media preferences, ethnic/racial issues, liberal/conservative and religious factors that help us identify with a particular group.

The intention will be to broaden our awareness of these conditions and try to “see the other”, and thus lead us to a point where we can make choices that are free from polarity and entanglement. We will first debrief our experience, and if time permits and it’s desired, we may end with a group balancing through a Five Elements Constellation.