Cultural relativism is the idea that a persons beliefs and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture. It is a concept that recognizes the diversity of cultures and the different norms and values they hold. Proponents of cultural relativism argue that the norms and values of one culture should not be evaluated using the norms and values of another. This perspective is of fundamental methodological importance in anthropology, as it emphasizes the significance of the local context in understanding the meaning of particular human beliefs and activities.
Cultural relativism can be applied to various aspects of human life, including ethics, social standards, and moral frameworks. It suggests that these aspects reflect the cultural context from which they are derived, and therefore, cultures differ fundamentally from one another in their moral structures and frameworks. This view does not imply that one society is superior to another; instead, it recognizes that they are merely different.
Cultural relativism should not be confused with moral relativism, which holds that moral absolutes guiding individual behavior do not exist as a matter of principle. While cultural relativism has been the subject of controversy, especially among philosophers, anthropological and sociological studies have led to a widespread consensus among social scientists that cultural relativism is true.
