Cultural Relativism: Valid or Not?

Where I'm at with my research paper now, I am writing it about moral and cultural relativism. This is the idea that we talked about briefly with Montaigne's "Of Cannibals;" it is the idea that one cannot judge another culture using the moral structures that belong to one's own culture. This idea has grown over the last few hundred years, as Europeans have grown more aware of other cultures and have questioned their responses to foreign practices. It's a simple idea when read in this way, but there are a lot of complications that present themselves about what the term actually means and what it implies and signifies. My research paper will be a synthesis of the definition of cultural relativism, and the many problems with this definition and with the practical use of cultural relativism.

Cultural relativism, as I said, is the theory that one culture cannot make moral judgements over another, because the two have different moral systems in place. In order to make a moral judgement, there must be a preexisting framework of morals that governs a society. Due to a variety of factors, there are different morals in place in different locations and at different times. Because of this, many argue, a person cannot judge another culture's actions or beliefs because that culture's actions and beliefs are built upon a completely different moral structure.

Problems are brought up with this. One of my sources says that cultural relativism is "absurd" because it asks a person to shed all morals when looking at a different culture. This is an impossible demand, because we are indoctrinated with morals from birth. Another of my sources says that cultural relativism is incorrectly named and is better in theory than in practice. It should be called pluralism, because this name encourages thought of a different set of morals, rather than the loss of one's own. This is a much more realistic theory of thought: imploring one to consider another's morals, not asking one to adopt them or forget one's own. Another issue with cultural relativism is its ability to excuse the cruelty or depravity of a culture as being simply part of its moral structure. An application of this is the controversy of female genital mutilation in parts of the world; this act is painful and causes long-term health defects in women, but it is nevertheless part of a cultural tradition.

This topic is interesting me more and more, both with its intricacies and with the implications of the theory itself. I love the idea of thinking of other cultures complexly, but when do we draw the line? Do we excuse things like female genital mutilation, foot binding, religious and racial prejudice, and oppressive power structures; all in the name of cultural relativism? Does cultural relativism decrease the likelihood of the mixing of cultures, therefore taking away the hope of diversity and complexity within societies? I don't know how many of these questions I can bring up in a research paper without talking too much of my own feelings, but I am getting very excited about exploring this topic in a paper and organizing my thoughts into something coherent!