Anthropology has nothing to do with encouraging respect for other cultures. The practice of Anthropology and its sub-disciplines are about the study of Humans. It is true that many instructors teaching a 100 level Anthro class will tend to spend a greater than normal amount of time emphasizing the ethnocentric ideals that are so rampant in modern western culture, especially in the United States, but only because so many of the students don't seem to grasp the concept of relative conditions.
I can assure you that there is very little villainy of industrialization in higher-level classes. As a matter of fact it is fairly well accepted among many professional anthropologists that the hunter-gatherer and other pre-historic tribal groups often lived in more miserable living conditions than we; any perceived paradise condition was due to a smaller population density and strong gender role exploitation. Any one who has ever spent five hours on their knees grinding corn on a flat rock will tell you that it ain't no fun.
The 100 level classes are often forced to teach down to a very large group of people who have no interest in Anthropology and are simply taking the course for credit. Another consideration is that these 100 level classes are often taught by grad or doctoral students, or even new instructors who just happen to be low man on the pole in the department.
While ebbixxs assertions about Anthropology may be accurate they are more reflective of the sub-discipline Cultural Anthropology. It is important to remember that Anthropology encompass several sub-disciplines; Cultural Anthropology, Physical Anthropology, Archeology, and Linguistics. Each of these sub-disciplines can in turn be further divided.
The other disciplines, Physical, Archeology and linguistics are very much grounded in science and the scientific method. I am taking a 400 level class in Diseases and Human Evolution this semester, and it is quite rigorous.
The Cultural sub disciplines have come under increasing scrutiny as it seems more and more unlikely that one can study foreign cultures without either influencing them by your presence or reflecting your own cultural biases on any results you may find.