Importance Of Cultural Relativism Essay

943 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Cultural Relativism

Every country and tribe have their own culture, the differences can be seen through their religious and clothing habit. For example, women living in Muslim countries or practicing the religion of Islam with are required to cover themselves in hijab, a scarf that covers the head and neck, leaving their face uncovered. However, some people may see this as “weird” or even (stereotype)symbolizes them as terrorists, due to the rise of ISIS. This is all because people tend to see their own culture as the superior and standard one in the world. This is why cultural relativism is important. It refers to the idea that the values, knowledge, and behaviour of people must be understood within their own cultural context. The essay will explain that, why …show more content…

Different culture has different rituals and practices; it is not possible for anyone to thoroughly understand every other culture in terms of their own. Therefore, we need to observe them through their eyes.?? Take the Balinese cock fighting as an example, it is a ritual among peasants. The rich, however, are despised by the practise and often harass them or call the police to clear up. Participants often received a stiff fine and their pets are confiscated. However this does not stop them from playing cock fight. Those who are not in the community could not understand why the Balinese are so persistent to keep this ritual. From their point of view, the loss outweighs the benefits a lot. What they do not understand is that the cock fight represents a fight between men. As anthropologist Clifford Geertz explains: “As much of America surfaces in a ball park, on a golf links, at a race track, or around a poker table, much of Bali surfaces in a cock ring. For it is only apparently cocks that are fighting there. Actually, it is men.” (Geertz, 2005) In other words, the cocks are (standing for)representing those Balinese men to fight, the one who win will receive recognition and attain prestige. From this point of view, seeing Balinese cock fighting in terms of their cultural code shows the dignity of Balinese men, thus we should respect their

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Cultural Relativism

    1508 Words  | 4 Pages

    The moral action guide, Cultural Relativism, states that from an outsider’s perspective, a person cannot judge whether an action, society, or a culture is moral or amoral. Cultural Relativism argues since each society or culture has its own ideas on morality, it is not possible for an outsider to judge whether their actions or society ideals are moral or not, because what each person or culture perceives as moral is relative to where they are from. Immanuel Kant on the hand argues in his paper, “The Good Will and Categorical Imperative,” the moral action guide of Deontology. Deontology claims that there are universal rules which all rational beings are held to and that morality is derived from the duty to these universal rules. Deontology’s

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay About Prejudice

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    Miroslav Volf once said “prejudice is a form of untruthfulness, and untruthfulness is an insidious form of injustice.” Today, there are so many diverse people in this world that it is almost impossible to avoid stereotypes which are almost always incorrect. However, the human race needs to evolve and shift away from judging people based on their ethnicity, culture, gender or religion. As individuals with a unique look and different perspective of life, we should realize that not only we have in common our own opinions and tastes, but also what we have in common is the way we form our belief. Therefore, writing this essay will guide you to understand that not only it is essential for a person, especially an individual who experience culture clash, to be treated as something more than a stereotype, but also will guide people to realize that prejudice should not exist, because it comes in many forms, it affects people lives and it prevents equality.

    Read More

  • A Common Thread

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    Clifford Geertz in his essay “Deep Play” brought us the world of cockfighting in Bali. In this essay he portrays the culture of our present American society through the use of the Balinese cockfight. Amazingly enough Geertz used what some would call a primitive culture to show us the aspects of our culture and the role these aspects play in our culture. Social structure, family, tradition, and money are just a few of the aspects brought out by Geertz that govern our present society. Geertz sums up our culture when he states,

    Read More

  • William Penn's Theory Of Cultural Relativism

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to William Penn "Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.” The theory of relativism was first thought of by an ancient Greek sophist, Protagoras. He stated that “man is the measure of all things.” Which means man is the ultimate source of value. If we took a look at the world today, we would see that are many other cultures other than our own. With many cultures within the world, everyone is bound to believe that every culture is different. Even though their different, all of them are similar to each other. So if this is the case, do we as humans have the right to judge these cultures? Although cultures are not alike it is able to be question through culture relativism.

    Read More

  • Cultural Relativism In A Multicultural World By Rosado Summary

    640 Words  | 2 Pages

    The concept of cultural relativism in a multicultural world by Caleb Rosado. 1. I find it interesting that the author points out that ethnocentrism “implies the failure to view reality from the perspective of the other” (Rosado 4). I believe that sometimes people incontinently fail to see reality in a different perspective because they cannot understand the manner that other people see reality. It is not even because they repudiate the way other people see things but because it is difficult for them to find a logic or coherent explanation about why others perceive realities the way they do. I can tell from past experiences that even people that respect other’s people perception of reality sometimes fail to understand why others

    Read More

  • Ethical Relativism and Cultural Relativism

    714 Words  | 2 Pages

    In explaining Cultural Relativism, it is useful to compare and contrast it with Ethical Relativism. Cultural Relativism is a theory about morality focused on the concept that matters of custom and ethics are not universal in nature but rather are culture specific. Each culture evolves its own unique moral code, separate and apart from any other. Ethical Relativism is also a theory of morality with a view of ethics similarly engaged in understanding how morality comes to be culturally defined. However, the formulation is quite different in that from a wide range of human habits, individual opinions drive the culture toward distinguishing normal “good” habits from abnormal “bad” habits.

    Read More

  • The Pre-Islamic World

    919 Words  | 2 Pages

    With the emergence of Islam a new way of life was soon embraced. Religion and culture do not intertwine on many levels. Culture has been recognized as a certain group’s way of life, in which they articulate their ideas in an artistic manner. One might believe that culture was present long before religion was introduced in society. It was difficult for people to balance their cultural views alongside their religious views. Many ideas and events that a certain culture found to be permissible was found to be controversial to the message of Islam. Although it took tremendous effort from Prophet Muhammad (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to convince the people of the Pre-Islamic world that Islam was ultimately the Path of Allah, once the people adopted this beautiful religion they found that altering their culture was simply to their benefit. Due to the fact that culture is a set of traditions that have been passed down for centuries, the people found it challenging to maintain the two.

    Read More

  • What is Culture Relativism: Views by James Rachels

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    Culture Relativism; what is it? Culture Relativism states that we cannot absolute say what is right and what is wrong because it all depends in the society we live in. James Rachels however, does not believe that we cannot absolute know that there is no right and wrong for the mere reason that cultures are different. Rachels as well believes that “certain basic values are common to all cultures.” I agree with Rachels in that culture relativism cannot assure us that there is no knowledge of what is right or wrong. I believe that different cultures must know what is right and what is wrong to do. Cultures are said to be different but if we look at them closely we can actually find that they are not so much different from one’s own culture. Religion for example is a right given to us and that many cultures around the world practices. Of course there are different types of religion but they all are worshipped and practice among the different culture.

    Read More

  • Cultural And Cultural Relativism

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cultural and ethical relativism can often be thought to share the exact same beliefs and be one and the same, but they actually have differences. As taught in lecture, Cultural relativism is when people try and understand and become involved with other cultures that are not their own and do not use their own cultures as the norm. People are free to still have their own opinions that come from their own culture, but they attempt to better relate to those of other cultures and figure out the “why” behind the rituals, beliefs, and values of others. They believe that the ways people behave and perceive others is relative to their culture and cannot be understood without taking their culture into account. Cultural relativism is against ethnocentrism

    Read More

  • Examples Of Assimilation In Power Politics

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    This comes into play with the difficulties encountered by Indians and Muslims both in and out of America who are demonized and viewed as terrorist due to propaganda instated on whole societies and religions because of a mere few who decided to enact cruel crimes. For those who prefer their own cultural ways of living and those who refuse to meet western beauty and dress standards life both in and out of western society is made difficult. Not only are people often affected in everyday life due to contrived prejudice and stereotypes but some to the extent that their lives are endangered and their human needs are not able to be met and are at times being held from

    Read More

  • Essay On Cultural Relativism

    2426 Words  | 5 Pages

    Nearly all of mankind, at one point or another, spends a lot of time focusing on the question of how one can live a good human life. This question is approached in various ways and a variety of perspectives rise as a result. There are various ways to actually seek the necessary elements of a good human life. Some seek it through the reading of classic, contemporary, theological and philosophical texts while others seek it through experiences and lessons passed down from generations. As a result of this, beliefs on what is morally right and wrong, and if they have some impact on human flourishing, are quite debatable and subjective to ones own perspective. This makes determining morally significant practices or activities actually very difficult.

    Read More

  • Shaping Identity: A Muslim American Perspective

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is extremely important to understanding other cultures because when observing, examining, and writing on another cultures you will sound biased or even ethnocentric if you enforce your own philosophies and practices onto that culture's customs and practices. An example to help understand cultural relativism is, lets say for example a wealthy white man ins walking alone at night and then he is confronted by a African American man demanding for the wealthy mans wallet/money, at first everyone will thing that the black man is immoral and a bad person and some will even go as far to say that all African Americans are reflected by this individual, but cultural relativism makes us question what isn’t obvious perhaps the poor man is robbing a wealthy man because he has a dying daughter who needs medications but he can not afford them so he risks his innocents and robs the wealthy man because he (thinks) he knows that the wealthy mans loss is not devastating to him, now the African American does not seem as guilty as previously thought but at the same time if the wealthy white man would have fought back he wouldn’t be immoral because he is scared for his life and knows he is the primary provider for his family, both men are put in scenarios where one can say they are immoral but cultural relativism justifies the

    Read More

  • Globalization Of Culture Essay

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    Culture refers to the collection of values, customs, and attitudes of a group of people belonging to certain area, country or a place. It shapes individuals’ habits, knowledge, experiences, and their perspectives. It is important to avoid ethnocentricity since it creates a bias in which, one views their own culture to be superior over other cultures. In the age of globalization, such single-minded bias can prove to be costly as it can lead to undermining positive characteristics of other cultures. This in return can create negative relationship with citizens from other cultures as well as their governments.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Culture Essay

    1514 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the earth, about 7.6 billion people are living, and they are all different. Some are white, black, yellow, red, brown and maybe other. They are all human, but they are different. Each country has their own style to live according to location or environment differences or others. Although human are one same species, they have all different cultures.

    Read More

  • Cultural Influence in Shaping Individual Identity

    1704 Words  | 4 Pages

    My culture, family, and environment have influenced and shaped my personality. Throughout my life I have been affected by my culture and history. I have always been open to other cultures and their ways of life to better myself. Since I have been to many countries all around the world, I have gained a love of learning about different people. I understand the impact my culture has had on me from believing the power and fearlessness I have to live each day to it’s fullest. Many experiences in my life how made mer realize how grateful I am from where I come from and the opportunities I have had. During a month long trip in 2012 to India, that my entire thinking on life and living changed and the meaning in life of my identities. Traveling around India was one of the best opportunities I have had in life. Getting to explore another cultures, by working for women’s and children’s organizations, as well as traveling to all the important Mahatma Gandhi historical sites. The message I received on this trip was through Gandhi’s meaning of peace and

    Read More

More about Importance Of Cultural Relativism Essay

Open Document