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Cultural Relativism

Nov 26, 2014
By Sedi Minachi                                                                 ©

Cultural Relativism

The clash between those who view human rights from the perspective of cultural relativism and those who view it from the international perspective is an important debate between scholars and social activists today.  Cultural relativism justifies human rights and women’s rights abuses on cultural grounds, and has been frequently used as an argument against the universality of human rights.  Cultural relativists argue that there are no human rights absolutes and the principles of human rights are relative to the society in which we are raised. 

The sources of cultural relativism:

Although the basis of cultural relativism goes back to ancient Greek philosophers, the most aggressive form of it started since the 19^th century colonial period where several Western scientists justified the superiority of one race over other races and viewed other cultures as inferior and primitive. 

During the post-second world war period, Western anthropologists and sociologists confessed error and used concept of cultural relativism as a counterpoint to colonialization of non-European countries.  For example, in combating colonialism, the French anthropologist, Claude Levi-Strauss argued for the independent value of each culture and also that the West should stop extending its modern values to the rest of the world.  The reasons scholars such as Levi-Strauss gave for the independence of the developing countries from colonialism was valid and it is not the point of this paper, however these scholars completely ignored the oppressive social practices of societies run by undemocratic laws and policies.  Repressive governments and individuals who seek to rationalize repressive practices claim that the culture of their society accepts those practices such as limitation to speech, subjugation of women, honor killing, genital mutilation, amputation of limbs, public lashing and other cruel punishments.  In other words, cultural relativism perceive cultures as a static, and romanticized perspective in which traditional societies are defined as unchanging holistic entities, unaffected by human history or they fail to take into account the dynamism of culture which normally offers its members a range of choices. 

The implications of the cultural relativists’ views have caused misunderstanding of the Islamists global movement in which according to the ideology of political Islam, anyone who is conceived as a non-Muslim faces severe punishment such as torture and death. The beheading of American and European journalists and humanitarian activists proves that Islamists have no regard for human life.  The tragic incidents in Ottawa and Quebec where two Canadian soldiers were killed by supporters of ISIS just over a month ago also confirms that Islamists are committed to use acts of extreme violence not only against citizens in the Middle East, but anywhere in the world in order (as they justify in their sermons) to extend the Islamic tradition and sharia law outside of the religious domain of  Muslim majority countries as well as to gain political power within the global civil society.  

In conclusion, I argue that human rights have no boundaries and everyone should benefit from these rights. The demands for the promotion of international human rights values based on respect, dignity, freedom, equality and social justice is shared by all humans and every society needs to adopt them regardless of differences based on religion, gender, race, sexuality and ethnic backgrounds.

Note: I will expand my views on cultural relativism within the universities in Canada in the next few weeks.