CULTURAL

RELATIVISM
Definition
• Cultural relativism refers to the idea that the values, knowledge, and
behavior of people must be understood within their own cultural context.

• One of the most fundamental concepts in sociology, as it recognizes and

affirms the connections between the greater social structure and trends
and the everyday lives of individual people.

2
Definition
• Cultural Relativism is the view that moral or ethical systems, which
vary from culture to culture, are all equally valid and no one system is
really “better” than any other.

• Cultural relativism refers to not judging a culture to our own

standards of what is right or wrong, strange or normal.

3
Examples
1. Have you ever seen or eaten food from another country, such
as dried squid or fried crickets and think of it as weird and gross?

2. Throughout Asia, the way of eating is to use chopsticks with

every meal. These people may find it unnecessary to find that
people in other societies, such as the American society, eat using
forks, spoons, knives, etc.

4
Examples
3. Colonialism refers to the social system in which the political
conquests by one society of another leads to “cultural domination
with enforced social change”.

4. Here in the Philippines, premarital sex is morally unacceptable. If

go to another country, teenagers want to lose their virginity at a
young age.

5
 Advantages and
Disadvantages
of
Culture Relativism
6
 Advantages
1. It is a system which promotes cooperation.
2. It creates a society where equality is possible.
3. People can pursue a genuine interest.
4. Respect is encouraged in a system of cultural relativism.
5. It preserves human cultures.
6. Cultural relativism creates a society without judgment.
7. Moral relativism can be excluded from cultural relativism.
8. We can create personal moral codes based on societal standards with ease.
9. It stops cultural conditioning.
7
 Disadvantages
1. It creates a system that is fueled by personal bias.

2. It would create chaos.

3. It is an idea that is based on the perfection of humanity.

4. It draws people away from one another.

5. It could limit moral progress.

6. It could promote a lack of diversity.

7. It could limit humanity’s progress.

8. Cultural relativism can turn perceptions into truths.

8