Essay Surrounding Cultural Relativism

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The opinions and beliefs surrounding Cultural Relativism seem to be as numerous and as varied as the cultures studied themselves. There are all sorts of beliefs surrounding the idea. Many people staunchly defend relativism for all they're worth, while some people don't believe the idea holds any merit whatsoever, and that it may even oppose social and moral progress. There are supporters and there are detractors, and they include people from all sorts of different professions.
One of the supporters of cultural relativism was Ruth Benedict, anthropologist and professor at Columbia University. Benedict seemed to be a rather vocal supporter of cultural relativism, although she never referred to the concept by this name. She goes about her argument from a rather psychological frame of reference, speaking of individuals and their patterns of behavior.
She makes her point by bringing up the concepts of 'normal' and 'abnormal' (or aberrant). “In how far are such categories culturally determined, or in how far can we with assurance regard them as absolute?” (Pg. 33) She says it doesn't matter what kind of abnormality we pick, be it homosexuality, sadism, or catalepsy; there is more than likely a culture where this aberrant trait is actually the norm, or even highly sought after. Each society has its own specific patterns of normal and abnormal, with …show more content…
He continues to touch on one of the biggest challenges of cultural relativism. Tolerance is an ideal value to strive towards, and most would agree that it is deeply beneficial. Vaughn explains how cultural relativists cannot advocate tolerance without undercutting the tenets of their own ideals. Tolerance would be categorized as an objective moral value, and supporting an objective moral value is not allowed by relativism; thus relativists cannot tout tolerance without compromising their
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