CULTURAL RELATIVISM

IT REFERS TO THE IDEA THAT THE VALUES,

KNOWLEDGE, AND BEHAVIOR OF PEOPLE
MUST BE UNDERSTOOD WITHIN THEIR OWN
CULTURAL CONTENT
 ETHNOCENTRISM

• is the practice of viewing and judging someone else's culture

based on the values and beliefs of one's own. From this
standpoint, we might frame other cultures as weird, exotic,
intriguing, and even as problems to be solved. In contrast, when
we recognize that the many cultures of the world have their own
beliefs, values, and practices that have developed in particular
historical, political, social, material, and ecological contexts and
that it makes sense that they would differ from our own and that
none are necessarily right or wrong or good or bad, then we are
engaging the concept of cultural relativism.
 CATEGORIES OF CULTURAL RELATIVISM

• CRITICAL
– Creates questions about cultural practices in terms of who is
accepting them and why. Critical cultural relativism also
recognizes power relationships.

• ABSOLUTE
– Everything that happens within a culture must and should not
be questioned by outsiders.
 CULTURAL RELATIVITY TO ETHICAL JUDGEMENT
• Cultural relativism is closely related to ethical relativism,
which views truth as variable and not absolute. What
constitutes right and wrong is determined solely by the
individual or by society. Since truth is not objective, there
can be no objective standard which applies to all cultures.
No one can say if someone else is right or wrong; it is a
matter of personal opinion, and no society can pass
judgment on another society.