Cultural relativism types and its elements

Andrew Arat^*
*Correspondence: Andrew Arat, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, Lancashire, England, Email:

Received: 01-Sep-2022, Manuscript No. GJSA-22-74221; Editor assigned: 05-Sep-2022, Pre QC No. GJSA-22-74221 (PQ); Reviewed: 19-Sep-2022, QC No. GJSA-22-74221; Revised: 26-Sep-2022, Manuscript No. GJSA-22-74221 (R); Published: 03-Oct-2022

Description

Cultural relativism is one of the most important concepts in the field of sociology, which asserts and recognizes the connection between social structure and everyday human life. It is the idea that all systems of morality and ethics, which vary from one culture to another, are equal and that no one system is superior to another. A person’s beliefs and value system should be understood in the context of their own culture, not according to the criteria of another culture. Cultural relativism is based on the fact that there is no specific ground rule for what is good or bad. Therefore, any opinion about what is right or wrong depends on the rules of the society, culture and belief system. Therefore, any judgment about morality or ethics depends on a person’s cultural perspective. Ultimately, no particular ethical position can be considered the best.

It states that there are no universal beliefs and each culture must be understood in its own way because cultures cannot be translated into terms that are universally available. Cultures are important in society because they provide social and economic benefits. The principle is sometimes practiced to avoid cultural bias in research and to avoid judging another culture by one’s own culture’s standards. For this reason, cultural relativism was seen as an attempt to avoid ethnocentrism.

Cultural relativism refers to the ability to understand a culture on its own terms and thus not make judgments based on one’s own culture’s standards. Cultural relativism is good because it allows people to practice their beliefs and enjoy their cultural heritage or religious beliefs without fearing or fearing others for why they do what they do.

Types of cultural relativism

There are two distinct categories of cultural relativism: absolute and critical. Absolute cultural relativists believe that everything that happens within a culture should and should not be questioned by outsiders. Meanwhile, critical cultural relativism questions cultural practices in terms of who adopts them and why, and recognizes power relations.

Cultural relativism challenges beliefs about the objectivity and universality of moral truth. In essence, cultural relativism says that there is no such thing as universal truth and ethics; there are just different cultural codes. Moreover, the code of one culture has no special status, but only one of many.

Elements

Cultural relativism has several different elements, and there is some disagreement about which claims are true and relevant to cultural relativism and which are not. Some claims include:

• Different societies have different moral codes.

• There is no objective standard that can be used to judge one social code as better than another.

• The moral code of one’s own society does not have a special status, but only one of many.

• There is no “universal truth” in ethics, meaning that there are no moral truths that apply to all people at all times.

• The moral code of a society determines what is right and what is wrong in that society; that is, if a society’s moral code says that a certain act is right, then that act is right, at least in that society.

• It is impudent for people to try to judge other people’s behaviour. Instead, researchers should adopt a tolerant attitude toward the practices of other cultures.