The Importance Of Cultural Relativism

Describe the purpose of the rite of passage from three perspectives: anthropologist, sociologist and psychologist

"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" is significant as it establishes the issue of representation in ethnography. The purpose of the article is to raise the question of how can we study a different culture from the outside and how can we understand our own culture from within. Culture can be defined in many ways, Tylor (1871) stated that culture is; “…that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Therefore, the article presents the topic of cultural relativism, arguing that there is no impartial viewpoint from which to assess cultures, that every culture should be interpreted and understood from the

Commonly, culture is considered large and extravagant events and holidays, such as Diwali, a wedding, or the Fourth of July. Each event and holiday have specific traits and rituals that occur to distinguish the event from everyday life, but culture isn’t exclusive to lavish events such as these and include everyday activities such as watching a football game and listening to a speech. Every belief, behavior, and symbolic system that a person shares with another is an example of culture. Authors Anne Fadiman and Joshua Reno explores the different aspects of culture and ethnography in their two books, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, and Waste Away: Working and

In “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”, James Rachels presents six claims that have been made by cultural relativists. One of the six claims that Rachels presents in section 2.2 of the article is that different societies have different moral codes. I believe that Rachels thinks this claim is true. Section 2.1 of the article does a good job at explaining this idea. In this section, Rachels gives several examples of the differences that can be found in moral codes of different people groups throughout time. One of the specific examples he mentions is the different burial rituals of the Greeks and the Callatians. The Greeks perform a ritual that includes burning the dead. The Callatian ritual consists of eating the dead. The Greeks and Callatians, while encountering each other, both stated that the other’s ritual was inhumane. This disagreement, according to Cultural Relativism, is okay and to be expected because the two moral codes come from two drastically different societies. A modern example of this claim is that up until recently in China, small feet were praised and larger feet were frowned upon for women. Radical efforts to prevent women’s feet from growing included foot-binding. This method of prevention caused women to constantly be in pain. Women’s foot size in the United States isn’t emphasized like the way it used to be in China. Therefore, citizens of the United States believe that Chinese foot-binding was a barbaric method, while people in China would think

Cultural relativism is the theory where there is no objective truth in morality, and moral truths are determined by different cultures. The primary argument used to justify cultural relativism is the cultural differences argument, which claims different cultures have different moral practices and beliefs, therefore, there is no objective truth in morality (Newton). After reading James Rachels The Challenge of Cultural Relativism, I find his criticisms to be persuasive because the argument made for Cultural Relativism is not sound from a logical point of view. You cannot draw a conclusion about what is factual based on what people believe is factual. Rachels also points out that even though cultures do in fact disagree about moral values,

Moral and values is some of the things we learn as we grow up and these morals and values we learn from our parents and friends and also from our cultures and some of them you get to develop them as you grow up. The is so many ways to develop ones morals and values and cultural relativism and ethical subjectivism is of those ways that are used to develop morals and values.

Cultural relativism refers to the view that ethical systems or moral actions that are perceived to vary across cultural diversity are all equal and valid and as such, no one culture is better than the other is. For instance, by taking how words are used in one culture to mean a thing, the same words may be employed in a different culture to mean another thing. Another example is prayer announcements in Saudi Arabia can be heard from far distance which legal. Even if that may disturb your neighbors who are not Muslims. However, in United States such thing is illegal and consider a noise violation.

“Rites of passage” is a term often used in anthropology to refer to specific ceremonies that mark a personal or collective change in the identity of a person. “The term rite of passage was first used in anthropology to encapsulate rituals that symbolize the transition of an individual or a group from one status to another, or to denote the passage of calendrical time”. (Tzanelli, 2010) Rites of passage have been a major part of almost all educational, social and spiritual groups. They have been observed immensely in native tribal-traditional societies, which account for ninety nine percent of human history. All around the world, societies implement unique rituals and events to signify a transition of a person from one social identity to another. (Frey, 2013). Rites of passage ceremonies and rituals take place throughout an individual’s whole life cycle starting

Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are two contrasting terms that are displayed by different people all over the world. Simply put, ethnocentrism is defined as “judging other groups from the perspective of one’s own cultural point of view.” Cultural relativism, on the other hand, is defined as “the view that all beliefs are equally valid and that truth itself is relative, depending on the situation, environment, and individual.” Each of these ideas has found its way into the minds of people worldwide. The difficult part is attempting to understand why an individual portrays one or the other. It is a question that anthropologists have been asking themselves for years.

Every culture in the world has rites of passage. Whether it be death and dying, birth or a transition from puberty to adulthood, every culture has certain rituals they use to christen these changes in social status within a society. A rite of passage is symbolic in how important a change is in the lives of the people who experience them. Status changes such as these are very important in the eyes of their culture and the ceremonies they produce help them retain stability while their society adjust to the changes that are occurring to the individuals. An interesting rite of passage that can be found in many cultures around the world is a young girls transition into womanhood. Two of the cultures that one examined this rite in were the Oglala Sioux of South Dakota, and the Tukuna of the Amazon.

Cultural relativism is the way society separates right from wrong within a culture. What we describe as “good” and “bad” is based off of our cultural beliefs. Cultural relativism argues that no culture is better than any other and all their beliefs are equally valid. The way that modern society is has made it possible for almost everything to be justified.

Rachel does not believe it is a good argument because in his example in chapter 2 he states “This point should not be misunderstood. We are not saying that the conclusion of the argument is false; for all we have said, Cultural Relativism could still be true. The point is that the conclusion does not follow from the premise. This means that the Cultural Differences Argument is invalid. Thus, the argument is fails.” (19). Rachel has a very valid point because the cultural differences argument is invalid due to the fact that there is no valid true or false answer.

Cultural relativism is one of the core concepts of anthropology. Are there any limits to this concept? If so, what are they? Is there a place in anthropology for the idea of universal human rights?

Relativism reminds us that all culture has customs that seem bizarre or repugnant to outsiders, though we tend to favor and support our own culture. Cultural relativism grew out of recognition that cultures can be quite diverse in the meanings they assign to the same behaviors and values they embody (Crapo, 2013 sec 1.2). In other words, what is required of us is that we should not confuse our feelings about such a custom without investigating the real understanding of that particular culture. Unlike moral relativism, cultural relativism is not the claim that “anything goes” and does not imply that we must abandon our values or accept customs that are personally repugnant to us (Crapo, 2013 sec 1.2). Ironically, every rite of passage is significant to its culture, to confront and respect the ethnocentrism is sometimes a struggle, though, in a give-and-take way, it is vital to understand the required fieldwork of Anthropologist before passing judgment on other cultures. Liturgy varies from culture to culture, making the point that each religion performs the rite of passage traditional to their beliefs (William & Lapsley, 2014). Notably, I will examine and explain in the contents of this paper, the comparison, and similarities of Tsuji’s Rites of passage to death and afterlife in Japan. Besides, I will also examine through an etic perspective my own culture of Baptism, and how the culture has evolved over the years. Ceremonies such as christenings,

If we look at the world today, there are millions of cultures centered everywhere. With this much cultures in the world, everyone is bound to believe that they’re all different. Even though they are different in some aspects, all of them are similar to each other in some way. So if this is the case, do we as human beings have the right to judge these cultures as ethically wrong or just a cultural difference? Cultural Relativism is the belief that we cannot judge the cultural practices of other societies and that we should let them do as they please. But if we cannot judge them, does it make it right when they threaten the lives of others? Through the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, we begin to have a deeper insight this idea of