Comparativism Essay

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Relativism can be hard to understand. It’s in our nature as human beings to base thing off of the knowledge we already know. Relativism is the idea that, when faced with another culture, we must try to comprehend it instead of judging it based on our own culture’s values and morals. Human rights advocates opposing the tradition of female genital modification (FGM) is an example of relativism (page 30). Female genital modification can include the removal of the clitoris or a process in which the female anatomy is modified in such a way that constricts the vaginal opening. Both procedures reduce female sexual pleasure and, it is believed to prevent the likelihood of adultery. Although a tradition in societies in Africa and the Middle East, human …show more content…

It compares. Comparativism compares two different cultures to seek similarities and differences. To do so, anthropologists use something called a cross-cultural study. The study is used to gather data and use it to compare the different societies. A cross-cultural study of eighty-seven societies (Meigs and Barlow 2002) (page 134), shed light on the rates of incest in various cultures around the world. The results were eye-opening. Many societies par-take in incestuous activities. In some cultures, it’s a grey area on what is actually incest. The Yanomami society is considered an incestuous culture by the rest of the world. Cross-cousin marriages are quiet common in Yanomami villages (page 135). To them these unions are not incestuous, but the rest of the world it’s a bad social taboo. In another society, the Ojibwa, twenty-four individuals we surveyed about incest, Hallowell found eight cases of parent-child incest and ten cases of brother-sister incest. The Ojibwa use the same word for mother and aunt, father and uncle, and siblings and cousins. Could there be a mix up in communication when the information was gathered? Comparing the cultures of the Yanomami and Ojibwa to the western culture, one can see a stark difference between societies. Comparativism is an eye-opening tool to show how cultural norms differ from each …show more content…

Field work is the hands on component to anthropology. The person will immerse themselves in the culture that they will study. These people must pay attention to every little thing that happens while there. It is important for the ethnographer to stay a little over a year in order to experience things they missed while they were in culture shock (page 42). They must adapt to the natives way of life and stop see the thing they do as something alien and see it as a part of their culture. Although the studier will be an alien in the culture they are in, they must try to live and immerse themselves in the way the locals live. Anthropologist Marjorie Shostak formed personal relationships with their cultural consultants. Shostak worked with the !Kung San in the Dobe region of southwest Africa, on the border between Botswana and South Africa (page 41). Field work must be done in order to really study the culture that is of

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