Xenophilia


Xenophilia or xenophily is the love for, attraction to, or appreciation of foreign people, manners, customs, or cultures. It is the antonym of xenophobia or xenophoby. The word is a modern coinage from the Greek "xenos" and "philia", though the word itself is not found in classical Greek.

In biology

In biology xenophily includes, for example, the acceptance by an insect of an introduced foreign plant closely related to the normal host. Xenophily is distinguished from xenophagy, and is less common than xenophoby. Early 20th-century entomologists incorrectly concluded that the evolution of the glandular terminal disk was a function of xenophily, following its discovery in myrmecophilous larvae.

In culture and politics

Cultural appreciation refers to attraction or admiration towards one or more cultures which are not one's own. Individual examples are usually suffixed with -philia, from the Ancient Greek word philia, "love, affection". Cultural xenophilia according to some sources can be connected with cultural cringe. It may also be area-specific, such as led the Romans to believe that Greeks were better than Romans at music, art and philosophy, though evidently not better in military matters.

National or ethnic xenophilias

Allophilia

Positive attitudes towards outgroups can be measured with the allophilia scale.

In religion

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the English Orthodox Chief Rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and author, posited that xenophilia is deeply ingrained and central to Judaism.