What is Cultural Relativism? - Definition & Examples

Because of nations' diversity and ethnocentrism, many cultures may look weird if you compare them to other cultures, which means each culture is depending on its language, religion, history, ethics, nation, and other things... Which basically means: Cultures and not absolute, or if we want to say in other words: This is Cultural Relativism!




That's why guys, in today's article: will try to define cultural relativism, which is close to moral relativism or ethical relativism. Also, much cultural relativism's examples will be presented🔥!

1  -  Concept Overview 

Cultural relativism is the idea that cultural cultures or phenomena express a distinct expression of the groups (nations) that own these cultures or phenomena, and that therefore - there are no absolute, universal values.



This idea has several definitions that bring us:

• Herskowitz defines Cultural relativism where he says: (Judgments are based on experience, and each person interprets this experience in light of his cultural upbringing.)

• Redfield definition: where it says that: (cultural relativity means that the values in any culture must be understood and evaluated according to the way in which the owners of this culture view things.)

2  -  Cultural Relativism Definition

Cultural Relativism: an analytical concept that has a reputation that includes science other than anthropology with the post-modernist criticism that formed in the last quarter of the last century. The concept of this term was formed as a direct product of the results of the school of historical revisions and a reaction to the concept of Western centralism, which began to know the beginning of its decline in that period after the admission of Western philosophers and post-modernist thinkers themselves that they derive many of the elements of their ideas from the philosophical spirit dispersed in ancient Eastern thought Mainly, especially from those who are discussing it and its past school. 

One of the first products of the philosophers and thinkers who founded this intellectual approach was to expose the same categories of Western modernity and falsify its claims to cosmic and human illusions and that they are the beacon of human progress. These thinkers have shown that the greatest Western philosophers of the modern period, and the German Heikdar among them, were reformulating Suzuki's ideas and their narratives and matching them with the Western-style is nothing but

3  -  Cultural relativism in Sociology, Philosphy and Anthropology

• The term (cultural relativity) means that there are no universal values ​​for all people, as each culture expresses a distinct expression of the peoples and nations that believe in it, and program its behavior according to its standards and data, and the persistence in this direction has led to some of the highs (cultural relativity) to say Every individual has his own personal experiences that he gained from his social upbringing and his suffering in the affairs of life, and he has the right to see and judge things from the horizon of that experience. This means blatant aggression against all constants and everything that enters the circle of the Absolute, even though the word (Relative) denotes the ratio of something to something, and the meaning of the ratio of something that is not fixed to something that is not fixed.

• The (postmodernist) movement exploited the theory of Einstein badly, as it was taken for granted by the owners of that stream that there is no reference to anything so that the basic work of the mind is no longer - as it was previously - focused on making concepts and producing theories, Rather, it became confined to demolishing ideas and criticizing the available data, and since every person has his own mind, mentality, and vision, then what is expected is doubt, chaos, and nihilism, and this extends to everything, even the postmodernism itself, as what its companions say is a relative and special thing due to The absence of anchors and constants.

Aspects os some African cultures

•  I would like to point out here that cultural relativity and the foundations of (postmodernism) doctrine deeply penetrated Western cultures, as did the theory of evolution and the rise of (Darwin), and the consequences of that if the situation continues as it is can be disastrous on the moral, social and political level.

• (Cultural Relativity) was employed in evading rights, and in perpetuating injustice, tyranny and aggression against people, and in the east and west it became justified to torture in prisons on the pretext that the country is going through special circumstances, and there are those who refuse to give workers and marginalized groups their legal and legal rights under the pretext The costs of that are exorbitant, not borne by the budget of a poor country ... It is truly frightening, and a foreboding warning that we find ourselves with a large number of moral and legal exceptions to find us in the end as though we do not believe in anything, do not respect or consider anything. It is the duty of intellectuals, intellectuals, and media professionals to stand firm against granting privacy to those who make it a tool for violating rights and prohibitions, killing people and destroying the meanings of justice and equality.

4  -  The positive effects of cultural relativity:

We believe that pure good is very rare, just as pure evil is very rare. Hence, I will present in this article and beyond what I believe are the advantages and positives of cultural relativity, and I will present some of the negative consequences that follow. Perhaps the following are positive:





We know that whenever we turn towards the major origins, faculties and phenomena, we find ourselves in the absolute realm, and whenever we go towards the sub and the partial and what is like the details we find ourselves in the realm of relativity, for example: (honesty) it is a universal value and virtue of the greatest virtues, and I have found The level of theorizing is broad consensus, but when we come to the details, we will find that one may lie and feel no embarrassment, but rather lie, and he feels that he is doing a work that is thanked for him, as if an unjust criminal traces innocent people and asks you about the path that he took, then you are in this The position holds that lying may save a soul and prevent the commission of a crime, etc. If you say honesty, and what is forbidden, you may have blamed yourself for life ... but it is well established that the illiterate, who are afflicted with the shallow knowledge and the inhabitants of underdeveloped regions ... 




Take their behavior and situations as a single model for living, and they view their beliefs and opinions as to the heritage by which they should be weighed All things, even in tasteful and aesthetic matters, they do not recognize relativity or cultural specificities, so they see them annoying those who contradict them in that, and here comes the role of cultural relativity as the reluctant that is destroyed in the wall of closure and contempt and mono-vision, and we now feel that the acceptance of Ddah) in many things become bigger, as we see how people have become Ataadhiron among themselves better than the situation in the past, it is natural that we find some of the excesses in Excusing, as we have seen in the privacy belief prohibitive.

Because of the difference, we co-exist: your religion, language, nation doesn't matter 

5  -  Limited understanding of the term

Some scholars have linked the term “cultural relativity” to the term scientific relativity. This is nothing but a terrible misconception generated by the lack of knowledge of the research of this school in its origins. And the adoption of linguistic similarity between the two terms. There is no direct historical, philosophical, intellectual or temporal link between the two terms, then these Arab scholars reached through their misunderstanding of this position of Islam on relativity, and they produced non-coordinated words without color or smell until cultural relativity became as if it was a position of Islam, and that is similar to the delirium of the boys because the thought Islami has benefited a lot from this school.

6  -  Cultural relativism examples

• In India, some religious groups worship cows, camels or bulls... We respect them as we don't judge this habit, but if a western nation or another African nation has seen this act: probably they will find it strange and weird...While we can not actually judge this act if it is true or false! this is the incarnation of this phenomenon...

• In January 2002, when President Bush referred to terrorist states as the "axis of evil," he angered advocates of cultural relativism. For any community to designate another society as "evil" is unacceptable to them. The current movement calling for an "understanding" of fundamentalist Islam - rather than fighting it - is a sign that relativity is on the rise. Advocates of cultural relativism believe that Westerners should not impose their ideas on the Muslim world, including the fact that the suicide bombing of civilians is evil. They assert that the Islamic belief in the necessity of jihadis as credible as any belief in Western civilization and that America bears the blame for the 9/11 attacks as much as the terrorists.

7  -  James Rachels: the challenge of cultural relativism

James Rachels is one of the best and serious researchers and scientists about this topic, Here you are a good article if you want to discover more about this topic and expand your knowledge about Culture Relativity!