Relativism, Cultural

Types of Relativism

Relativism is a theory that takes many forms, such as epistemological relativism, ethical relativism, and so on. The types of theory most relevant to law and society are linguistic and cultural relativism. Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf created the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis for linguistic relativity, which is predicated on the idea that the conceptual categories embedded in language shape the speaker's perceptions of the world: linguistic structures affect cognitive processes. The fact that some language systems lack terms for particular phenomena necessarily alters speakers' way of viewing them, such as not having a word for snow or a certain color. [Page 1284]Anthropologists frequently use examples to indicate the pervasive manifestations of cultural relativity in social life. For instance, societies require children to undergo various surgeries because of their aesthetic standards. Likewise, women's body size varies in accordance with social mores about beauty. Food taboos represent another compelling illustration of relativism inasmuch as societies allow and forbid the consumption of different animals.

Another common example comes from the field of proxemics, which examines social assumptions about the proper uses of space. These include the distance that individuals consider appropriate to establish between one individual and another, as well as the proper way to arrange furniture in a room. The significance of numbers also reveals the socially contingent nature of symbolic meaning. For instance, thirteen is an unlucky number in American culture, while four holds this position for the Chinese, as it is a homonym for death. Three is a magic number in American culture and four is a sacred number for the majority of Native American cultures. What constitutes an insult also varies from one society to the next, as well as what conduct is deemed disgusting. In some historical African societies, the use of the left hand for eating was regarded as repulsive because of its association with defecation.

It is important to recognize that the early cultural relativists were responding to the views of anthropologists who subscribed to stage theories according to which “civilized” societies were deemed superior to “primitive” and “savage” ones. Cultural relativists wanted to show that other societies were not inferior, and because they were motivated by this egalitarian sentiment, they sometimes highlighted aspects of other societies that showed their complexity. For instance, some referred to the Australian aborigines as “primitive,” even though their kinship system was much more complex than that of the Western anthropologists who studied them. For example, Americans use the same term, cousin, regardless of whether the relative is by blood or marriage or is on the mother's or father's side, while aboriginal peoples have specific terms for relatives based on these social attributes.

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