Cultural Relativism

[Sunstone]

It seems just common sense that the foremost thought in a nine year old girl's head when she's being held down by her own family while her clitoris is removed with an unsterilized shard of glass is very likely to be, "Thank God my people are sticking up for their cultural rights against Western cultural imperialism by mutilating my genitals!" [/sarcasm]

In other words, I don't think there's much legitimacy to the argument that a right to follow one's own cultural practices always trumps universal human rights. But what do you think? Should cultural relativism be respected at all costs? Why or why not?

If you argue that cultural practices trump universal human rights in the case of female genital mutilation, are you also prepared to argue that France has a right to ban the burqa on the same grounds? Or, are you prepared to argue that Stalin had a right to ban millions of people to the gulags on the grounds that it was a Russian tradition to do so? Or, that the US had a right to practice genocide against its native populations on the grounds that it was only doing what was culturally traditional? Why or why not?

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Cultural relativism is ridiculous. I think everyone deserves basic human rights, no matter where they happened to be born. Injustice and abuse needs to be called out and rooted out wherever you find it. Little Egyptian girls have just as much right to an intact and unharmed body as little American girls do. It seems a bit racist to me, actually. Like foreign people are just too stupid to understand the concept of rights and individual liberty so we should just leave them to their own devices. I know it's supposed to be a response to imperialism, but it seems racist in of itself like so much political correctness is.

 

[LegionOnomaMoi]

Cultural relativism is the view that cultural differences are limited to things like the way people dress differently and how "exotic" the food they eat is (regardless of whether they actually eat the food; what really matters is whether restaurants that serve it say they do). You aren't supposed to challenge illusions by delving into how seriously messed up some cultural views are when it comes to basic human rights (small things, like life, liberty, the right to be treated as a person even though one is...you know...female!).

 

[Windwalker]

Relativism is a valid insight offered by postmodernity. But with all things, the extreme interpretation of that will make it ridiculous. The examples above if cited as indicative of relativism is in fact an extreme, and ridiculous interpretation of what is otherwise valid. Of course the respect of perceptions of truth, acknowledging our own biases to truth, does not trump basic human rights. Bear in mind, the extreme examples do not negate the truth of relativism, only the extremes.

 

[LegionOnomaMoi]

Relativism is a valid insight offered by postmodernity.

Unless we're talking about its most typical form: that of teenagers and young adults (especially undergrad age). It's what I call naïve relativism. The idea that sexism and racism are both ubiquitous in the US (or Western Culture) and the refuge of simple-minded, prejudiced fools- unless of course it takes place in another culture, in which case it become magically something to celebrate. The problem with popular relativism is that it projects Western thinking onto other cultures in order to assert that it is defensible. It's thinly disguised ethnocentrism in that it simultaneously adheres to modern Western moralities while either accepting those of other countries by basically treating them as if they weren't responsible for their actions (as if they didn't know any better) or regarding the horrors perpetrated in other countries as akin to fantasies or myths and thus the reality is that the people are just like "us". It reminds me of the Chomskyans going around and telling other people they didn't understand their own languages because it disagreed with theoretical suppositions. It is one thing to realize that cultures can shape minds differently, and that we can't e.g., shove anti-depressants down the mouths of the Chinese and tell them that their experience of depression as physical is wrong because depression should have symptoms like those in the DSM or ICD. It's another to bash the right-wing ignorant bigots, racists, and sexists while defending the Taliban.

So yes, there's validity to some forms of relativism and I'll even grant that other forms I disagree with have arguments in their favor that are well-thought out and make decent points, but unfortunately I personally have not actually met anybody who adheres to any of these. It's all naïve relativism so far. Clearly, I associate with too many people near college age. Stupid academia.

 

[dust1n]

And here I thought cultural relativism was just something anthropologists use to help remember that civilizations are not bound to work in any particular way...

 

[Straw Dog]

And here I thought cultural relativism was just something anthropologists use to help remember that civilizations are not bound to work in any particular way...

Yeah, it was originally just intended to be a useful tool for research in sociology and related fields.

I think relativism only makes sense within a real context.

 

[dust1n]

Yeah, it was originally just intended to be a useful tool for research in sociology and related fields.

I think relativism only makes sense within a real context.

Truth, as humans see, is very much defined by the circumstances and culture around them, which differ from place to place. I don't think that would be too surprising to anyone. I'm not sure what it was has to do with being for FGM in some way. I'm pretty sure nearly everyone is against FGM. But making sense of why it would occurs would probably being my fruitful if one keeps in mind that the way that people arrive at some truth is being part of a set of circumstances and a historical pretext.