will define cultural relativism‚ explain why it is important when studying other cultures‚ explain the difference between it and ethical relativism and explain if there are limits to cultural relativism. Cultural relativism is the view that no society or culture is better than or superior to another culture when comparing systems of politics‚ morality‚ law‚ etc. Different cultures have different moral codes. Right and wrong are merely a matter of opinion. Cultural relativism states there are no
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618). This claim is known as Cultural Relativism. "Cultural Relativism‚ as it has been called‚ challenges our ordinary belief in the objectivity and universality of moral truth. There is no such thing as universal truth in ethics: there there are only the various cultural codes‚ and nothing more. Moreover‚ our own code has no special status‚ it is merely one among many" (Rachels 618). It is clear that the answer to the question of ethics is‚ Cultural Relativism. The subject of murder is probably the
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In the everyday life of the perceived “normal” individual‚ rituals and rites performed by individuals as part of a different culture might seem harsh‚ cruel or even barbaric. After my first read of "Body Ritual among the Nacirema"‚ that is how I perceived their daily way of life. They believe in magic potions‚ seeking pain from the “holy – mouth – men” a couple of times a year‚ and the men and women perform acts that seem to contradict one another by trying to obtain abnormal body shapes‚ and then
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Cultural Relativism: A Moral Fallacy Cultural Relativism is the theory that all belief’s are equally valid and that truth itself is relative‚ depending on the situation‚ environment and individual. Those who hold the belief of Cultural Relativist‚ hold that all beliefs are completely relative to the individual within a cultural identity. In this essay‚ I will show that cultural relativism is unreliable as an ethical theory by showing the irrationality of the arguments that support it. The
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Understanding other cultures without making judgments about the way they do things or the way they understand and react to things is the basic concept of cultural relativity. The importance of this idea is demostrated by Richard B. Lee in his story about the Christmas feast with the !Kung. In this story Lee‚ a social anthropologist living with the tribe‚ experiences a misunderstanding that almost caused him to pack his belongings and leave the bushmen which were the subject of his study
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1. Do you think you would enjoy a vacation in the land of the Nacirema? Why or why not? Where do the Nacirema live? Nacirema have different beliefs than I do. They believe you body is ugly and it is a vessel for disease and debility. This belief is not something I chose to believe. I believe we should all love our bodies. There are ways to prevent sickness and weakness outside conditions does these things to the body. The body does not function just for weakness and disease. I would not want to
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In Nacirema‚ Horace Miner uses satire and wordplay to teach us how easy it is to judge cultures that we don’t know much about. Miner is sneakily describing American culture‚ their entire way of life including both material and symbolic elements‚ the whole time77. Miner is trying to teach us that ethnocentrism‚ using your own culture as a standard to evaluate another‚ leads to the belief that other cultures are inferior78. Instead‚ we should be using cultural relativism‚ understanding other cultures
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judgement but yet to be true to their name ‘relativist’ they would be practising ‘do not pass judgement’ thus they are preaching to others that they should not do something in order for others to follow relativism. This concludes that relativism is self – refuting because a concept of relativism has been broken in order to follow it. This could be seen as unfair because to put relativist morality into
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Ethics for Business Organizations." Review of Business 17.2 (1995): 23-29. This article focuses on business ethics as the process for constructing business behavior. It also defines the practice of craft ethics in business today as a form of relativism and the dangers of it. Collier‚ Jane. "Theorizing the ethical organization." Business Ethics Quarterly 8.4 (1998): 621-654. This article defines an organizational framework to help us understand organizational ethics. It uses the ethical
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The movie Crash incorporates aspects of anthropology such as ethnocentrism‚ race‚ and differing roles in society. Each of these aspects is revealed through the lives of different people colliding with one another and according to biases and personal prejudices. The title Crash metaphorically represents the culture shock we experience when we “crash” into people of different nationalities. Ethnocentrism‚ the belief in the superiority of one ethic or racial group over another‚ is an evident theme
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