Ethical and Cultural Relativism

The principle of ethical and cultural relativism is widely misunderstood within academic, political, and social arenas. In its original sense, the principle of cultural relativism is a methodological statement about how cultures should be studied. Anthropologists believe individuals’ cognitions, motivations, and behaviors are learned culturally and can be understood only in terms of the individual's cultural context. Although never specifically used in his writings, the phrase cultural relativism is often attributed to the anthropologist Franz Boas. The principle underlying cultural relativism is essentially methodological and not based on political, social, or moral dogma. Boas believed, as did many others, that humans are necessarily ethnocentric (i.e., the belief that one's native culture is the standard by which other cultures are observed and judged) and that our observations of other cultures are necessarily biased in favor of our native cultural background. For example, a person raised in Culture A is taught that his or her cultural traditions, values, and customs are the preferred and accepted standards by which one should conduct his or her life. Consequently, an individual from Culture A cannot draw conclusions about some other Culture B's traditions, values, and customs without some inherent bias. Moreover, Boas believed that any particular culture is an adaptation to, and a distinctive product of, a unique set of historical, social, and environmental conditions. As these conditions vary, cultures vary accordingly; in this sense, there is no correct culture. Boas's ideas follow from Darwin's theory of evolution. Furthermore, Boas argued that to fully understand a culture, researchers must compile a complete taxonomy of the culture's traditions, religious practices, social mores, sex roles, physical appearance and dress, dietary habits, and communication systems within the context of that particular culture. To accomplish this methodologically, researchers may be required to embed themselves longitudinally in the environment of the culture under study. This methodology is the basis of ethnographic research, where a researcher may actually live within some culture over time, establish relationships with its inhabitants, learn its systems of traditions and communication, and record its activities. The principle of cultural relativism, then, is a methodological principle about how to conduct anthropological research. Because cultures vary significantly, conclusions about a particular culture must be made within the context of that culture, that is, relative to that culture.

By the 1950s, the tenets of cultural relativism became widespread throughout the field of anthropology and were accepted by most anthropologists. During this time, however, misinterpretations of Boas's original thesis were being disseminated especially within political and religious circles. Such misinterpretations, some of which confuse cultural relativism with ethical relativism, exist today. For example, critics who misunderstand the original thesis of cultural relativism insist that cultural relativism is the point of view that all culturally held beliefs are equally valid and that truth is relative. These same critics mistakenly contend that those who practice the methodology of cultural relativism believe that all religious, ethical, aesthetic, and political beliefs are entirely relative to the individual within a particular cultural context. Moreover, these critics often amalgamate cultural relativism with moral relativism, situational relativism, and cognitive relativism. Scholars studying cultures from a cultural relativist perspective describe cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors. Critics from an ethical relativistic perspective prescribe the way people should think and act. The critical debate among ethicists is whether some cultural tradition or act can be inherently right or wrong, thus implying a form of universality in ethical standards, or whether some cultural tradition or act can only be judged within the context of its performance. For example, Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, and Michael J. Meyer maintain that ethical relativism is the perspective that holds that morality is relative to the norms of a particular culture. Cultural beliefs, traditions, or actions are considered right or wrong based on the moral norms of the culture in which they are practiced. From this perspective, there are no universal moral standards that apply across cultures. To the ethical relativist, the only moral standards against which a society's practices can be judged are its own. The dilemma for the ethical relativist, and thus for myriad cultural groups, is that there can be no universal standard for resolving moral arguments. Most ethicists reject this type of ethical relativism.

...