Cultural Relativism In The 20th Century By Franz Boas

Short Essay 1 The dynamic and complex nature of the world is, in part, owed to the plethora of diverse cultures and societies throughout the span of humanity. Cultural Relativism, is a concept that admonishes judgement against these cultures from an outside perspective, and requires that a society’s traditions, beliefs, and practices be viewed within cultural context. While Cultural Relativism is a core concept rooted within anthropology, there is recent opposition against the concept regarding controversial practices or rites of passages such as female genital mutilation. Foremost, Cultural Relativism was developed in the 20th century by Franz Boas, in opposition to the concept of ethnocentrism, or belief in the superiority of one’s own

For example, In 1947, the Executive board of the American Anthropological Association refused to take part in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, due to the constraints of Cultural Relativism (Textbook 300). By embracing the concept of Cultural Relativism, anthropologists take on the role of an “observer” that records data rather than taking on an “interventionist” role (Powerpoint 4). As a result, anthropologists prevent their own bias and judgement being applied to the culture they are studying. Historically, there have been instances, such as genocide, in which anthropologists have spoken out against (Textbook 300). But for the many other human rights issues, such as domestic abuse, anthropologists have not spoken out in consideration of the principle of cultural relativism (Textbook 300).

With this in mind, cultural relativism does have limits. As each culture develops its personal moral system, one can push the principle of cultural relativism to extremes. For example, taking an extreme relativist position, one cannot oppose any culturally-accepted forms of homicide, such as infanticide (Textbook 301). Therefore, the moral complexity of taking a cultural relativist stance on various issues has been increasingly