Cultural Relativism Is Important For Many Reasons

Cultural Relativism is defined as, â€Å"The principle that an individual s beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual s own culture†. Wilson talked about this term extensively in his class and he noticed a common trend within his classroom. The trend was that his students warned him, â€Å"Not to be judgmental or to impose your values on other people.†(Soccio 2007). This is a common trend found with a lot of people in my opinion. In fact, I have the same belief as many of Wilson’s students. Cultural relativism is important for many reasons. First, having a sense of cultural relativism provides people with a form of tolerance towards other cultures. Second, it helps people understand acts or actions†¦show more content†¦When these two cultures were told any other way of disposing of their dead, they were completely shocked and almost disgusted (Rachels 2015). This helps support the fact that different cultures have different practices and therefore different moral codes. Furthermore, if different cultures have different moral codes and practices that are based on their own personal culture, another culture should not be able to judge them, simply because they are unique to that culture. Tolerance is another good quality that comes with cultural relativism. Tolerance helps us have a sort of explanation on why other cultures act the way they do. It gives the reason of an action or act being based on one’s culture rather than because of the type of individual that they are. Take a cultural group such as the Eskimos. The Eskimos believe in and practice infanticide throughout their villages (Rachels 2015). This practice is considered highly wrong in American cultures, but is considered morally acceptable in cultures like the Eskimo (Rachels 2015). What a lot of people forget to take into account is the reason the Eskimos perform infanticide. It is not because they are cruel people, no, it is because they are thinking about the possible future life of the child and the future life of their village. Another baby is simply another mouth to feed, a task which can be difficult for some Eskimo families. Therefore, in order to prevent a bad life for the babyShow MoreRelatedCultural Relativism : The Moral Code Of A Culture1470 Words   |  6 PagesCultural relativism is self-explanatory in its name but goes deeper beyond that. Cultural relativism states that standards are relative to one’s culture. There are no standards of morality shared by all societies; all rules are controlled by the society in which a person lives. If the moral code of a culture says that an action is right than according to those standards, the action is right. 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