ANTH 195 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Cultural Relativism, Ethnocentrism
Document Summary
A succinct way to think about cultural relaivism: cultures can only be judged relaive to one another; must be understood relaive to its own cultural context. Ethnocentrism-the opinion that one"s own way of life is natural or correct and the only way of being fully human. Cultural relaivism (from righteous dopeiend): strategically suspends moral judgment in order to understand and appreciate the diverse logic of social and cultural pracices that, at irst sight, oten evoke righteous responses and prevent analyical self-relecion. Morally we think that the heroin addicts have, a lack of self-control, they have the opportunity to get themselves out of their situaion so they are lazy, they are responsible, etc. The pracice of suspending judgment unil a belief or pracice can be understood within its total context. Moral relaivism-that each people"s values are unique and require that outsiders view them by the group"s own standards rather than a universal one.
