Cultural Relativism In The Film 'Amish On Break'

1. Cultural relativism is learning about another culture by engaging and immersing oneself into that culture. It is to experience another culture from the perspective of the people that culture belongs to. If I was a cultural anthropologist wanting to study a group of people, I would first begin by ensuring that I spend at least a year with them. It is important that when studying a group of people or a certain culture, a cultural anthropologist must stay with that group for a long period to truly experience what it is like from the people’s perspective. I would try to learn their ways and try to assimilate with the people to learn what it is like to be part of that culture first hand. I would try to understand and speak their language, eat

Many of the films that we watched in class portrayed examples of cultural relativism. In the film “Amish on Break”, Becky and Andrew decide to join the U.K. teenagers in the ocean when they take them to the beach. Leah is hesitant to go in the moving water, but Becky and Andrew go in and get the full experience of what it is like to play in the ocean and enjoy the beach, as most teenagers in the U.K. do. This is an example of cultural relativism because the Amish teenagers are engaging in an activity they have never experienced so they can learn what teenagers in the U.K. like to do in their leisure time. They want to learn about this culture and way of life that is truly foreign to them by experiencing it first-hand and engaging in the same activities they do. Another film that exemplifies cultural relativism is the “Emerald Forest.” The father, Bill, finally finds his son Tommy and immerses into the culture of his son’s tribe to better understand him after reuniting with him all these years. In a specific scene, Bill shows that he can be part of the tribe by rubbing the dust of the invisible stones below his eyes and having the pipe blown into his nose to foresee his spirit animal. Although it seems it is a painful experience, Bill goes through with it because he truly wants to see the world through his son’s eyes. Another film that we watched was “Dances with Wolves”, in which Lieutenant Dunbar exemplifies cultural relativism by fully immersing himself into the Sioux

Romanticizing a culture is to portray that culture as perfectly idealistic and exaggerating its positive aspects, to the point that it is an inaccurate depiction of that culture. In the film, “Dances with Wolves”, the filmmaker romanticized the culture of the Sioux tribe to a certain extent. Many juxtapositions were directly and indirectly made between the whites and the Sioux people, in which the Sioux were depicted as an innocent, peaceful, harmonizing, wise, and purposeful group of people, while the white people were shown as savage, cruel, and selfish group. Although the Sioux could have been an overall peaceful group, the film portrays them as having virtually no problems among its men, women, and children. Everyone seems to get along as the leaders of the tribe are respected, the women are happy, and the children are taken care of. This is an example of romanticizing a culture as it is unrealistic for a group of people to live peacefully among one another all the time. They are depicted as having the ideal culture and lifestyle while the white people are shown as completely corrupt and