Definition

Adjective 1. Focussed on Europe and the Europeans: Centered on or giving primary importance to Europe, European culture, or European perspectives, often to the exclusion or marginalization of other worldviews.

Usage and Examples

• General Use: The term describes a viewpoint, analysis, or system that places Europe at the center.
  • The history curriculum was criticized for being europocentric, ignoring the contributions of Asian and African civilizations.
  • Anthropology has moved away from europocentric theories to adopt a more global perspective.

Advanced Usage

• In Academic Criticism: Often used in critical discourse (e.g., post-colonial studies, global history) to identify bias.
  • The scholar's work deconstructs the europocentric assumptions in classical economic models.

Variants and Related Words

• Eurocentric (adj): The more common modern spelling and variant with identical meaning.
  • Eurocentric standards of beauty have been widely challenged.
• Eurocentrism (n): The practice of assessing other cultures by European standards; the state of being europocentric.
  • The book is a study of Eurocentrism in 19th-century literature.

Synonyms

• Europe-centered
• Western-centric (in many, but not all, contexts, as "Western" can include regions beyond Europe like North America and Australia)

Antonyms

• Global
• Cosmopolitan
• Multicultural (in the context of an inclusive perspective)

Adjective

1. focussed on Europe and the Europeans