Cultural relativism is the ability to understand a culture on its own terms and not to make judgments using the standards of one’s own culture. The goal of this is promote understanding of cultural practices that are not typically part of one’s own culture.
Using the perspective of cultural relativism leads to the view
that no one culture is superior than another culture when compared to systems
of morality, law, politics, etc. It is a concept that cultural norms
and values derive their meaning within a specific social context. This is also
based on the idea that there is no absolute standard of good or evil, therefore
every decision and judgment of what is right and wrong is individually decided
in each society. The concept of cultural relativism also means that any opinion
on ethics is subject to the perspective of each person within their particular
culture. Overall, there is no right or wrong ethical system. In a holistic
understanding of the term cultural relativism, it tries to promote the
understanding of cultural practices that are unfamiliar to other cultures such
as eating insects, genocides, etc.
The Cross-Cultural Relationship is the idea that people from
different cultures can have relationships that acknowledge, respect and begin
to understand each other’s diverse lives.
People with different backgrounds can help each other see
possibilities that they never thought were there because of limitations, or
cultural proscriptions, posed by their own traditions. Traditional practices in
certain cultures can restrict opportunity because they are “wrong” according to
one specific culture. Becoming aware of these new possibilities will ultimately
change the people that are exposed to the new ideas. This cross-cultural relationship
provides hope that new opportunities will be discovered but at the same time it
is threatening. The threat is that once the relationship occurs, one can no
longer claim that any single culture is the absolute truth.
There are two different categories of cultural relativism:
Absolute: Everything that
happens within a culture must and should not be questioned by outsiders. The
extreme example of absolute cultural relativism would be the Nazi party’s point
of view justifying the Holocaust.
Critical: Creates questions
about cultural practices in terms of who is accepting them and why. Critical
cultural relativism also recognizes power relationships.
Cultural relativism can be seen with the Chinese culture and
their process of feet binding. Foot binding was to stop the growth of the foot
and make them smaller. The process often began between four and seven years
old. A ten foot bandage would be wrapped around the foot forcing the toes to go
under the foot. It caused the big toe to be closer to the heel causing the foot
to bow. In China, small feet were seen as beautiful and a symbol of status. The
women wanted their feet to be “three-inch golden lotuses” It was also the
only way to marry into money. Because men only wanted women with small feet,
even after this practice was banned in 1912, women still continued to do it. To
Western cultures the idea of feet binding might seems torturous, but for the
Chinese culture it was a symbol of beauty that has been ingrained the culture
for hundreds of years. The idea of beauty differs from culture to culture.
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