Cultural relativism Essay

Cultural relativism remains a arguable if not completely misunderstood innovation in the terra firma today. It is unknown that people consider heathen relativism a problem because to do so would hint at the belief in heathen superiority or exceptionalism. It would seem that there is also a belief that variant from otherwise(a) kitchen-gardenings that atomic number 18 in opposition to a separate finale homecoming a threat.Whether the threat is real is another matter because as considerable as one culture perceives a threat, then there will be a militant response to such threat conceived. These days, cultural relativism has a bad reputation in many quarters. It conjures images of a man where anything goes. According to this domino theory of norms, if people open themselves to the possibility that other cultures may have valid, if different, ways of life, the next thing you know, theyll be doing it in the streets. (Rosaldo)Part of the reason for such distress at the notio n of cultural relativism is the fact that there is an inherent belief held by many cultures that their scheme of beliefs, life, etc are the right way to live and that any type of culture that is different or perceptually opposite of the right way are violate and need to be contained, altered or even salve from themselves. If there is no transcendent ethical standard, then often culture becomes the ethical norm for determining whether an action is right or wrong. This ethical system is known as cultural relativism.1 Cultural relativism is the entrance that all ethical truth is relative to a specific culture. whatsoever a cultural group approves is considered right within that culture. Conversely, whatever a cultural group condemns is wrong. (Anderson) An example of cultural relativism gone horrible wrong can be viewed in the early clashes amidst Europeans and Native Americans during the New orb era of the early colonization of North America. To the Native Americans, humans wer e considered in harmony with nature and lived among the inseparable world.To the European mentality, there was the belief that the natural world needed to be tamed and cities needed to be create upon the land. To the Europeans, the Native earth centrist ideology was unacceptable and needed to be removed. This was the basis of most of the early clashes that ultimately lead to massacres and genocidal campaigns. What is bizarre more or less this type of thought process is that it assumes there is an invisible line between cultures and that the world is not an inclusive place of a multitude of cultures.It seems to deal that culture exists only from one mindset or tradition and what is out of doors that tradition subscribes to chaos and disorder. First, the idea of separate but equal cultures no longer seems accurate. Cultures are not separate they are not check to their own individual museum cases. They exist side by side in the same space. Also, weve noticed that there are inequa lities between culturesrelations of self-assurance and subordination. Take, for example, settler colonialism, the system we had in America.Relationships formed in the colonial finish and after created inequalities, which a committed anthropologist would have to critique. (Rosaldo) So, from this we can infer that the concept of cultural relativism is a flawed notion and concept because it is based on a flawed premise of exclusiveness and ethnocentricity. In other words, to hope that cultural relativism exists is ridiculous because to claim it exists would mean the subdivision of humanity as opposed to looking at humanity as members as the world as a whole which is the natural order, an order only changed by human intervention designed to suit specific needs.Bibliography Anderson, Kirby. (2004) Cultural Relativism. Retrieved 6 February 2007. http//www. inplainsite. org/hypertext markup language/cultural_relativism_. html Rosaldo, Renaldo. (2000) Of Headhunters and Soldiers Separat ing Cultural and Ethical Relativism Retrieved 6 February 2007. http//www. scu. edu/ethics/publications/ iie/v11n1/relativism. html