Understanding Culture, Society and Politics
Quarter 3 – Module 3:
The Importance of Cultural Relativism in Attaining Cultural Understanding
MELC:
Explain the importance of cultural relativism in attaining cultural understanding.
At the end of the module, you should be able to:
K: Define cultural relativism
S: Demonstrate a holistic understanding of culture and society
A: Value culture and express pride of place without being ethnocentric
This module allows the learner to know about cultural relativism and ethnocentrism. We live in a rapid
world with various cultures and different people interacting with each other. This interaction can be
positive or negative depending on the level of sensitivity and respect people have for other cultural
groups. It becomes natural for us to read the behavior of others in terms of our own standards. But,
what may be right to you may be wrong to them and what may be wrong to you may be right to them. It
is just a matter of respect and deeper understanding.
What I Know
Direction: Read each question carefully write your answers in your notebook/paper.
1. What is Culture?
2. What is cultural relativism?
3. What is ethnocentrism?
4. How will you show respect to other’s culture?
5. Is showing respect to other culture necessary? Why or why not?
6. Have you tried visiting other places and experienced culture shock?
7. How does cultural relativism help in understanding other’s culture?
8. Do you consider your culture, beliefs and practices superior to other culture?
9. How important are your culture, beliefs and practices for you?
10. Have you ever experienced racism? In what form?
What’s In
Task 1: Picture Analysis. Observe the picture. What problem is being emphasized in
the following pictures? Write your answers in your notebook.
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Task 2: Analyze the given line
“One has to abide by the ethical norms of the culture where one is located.”
Note: Answers may vary depending on the views of a student/teacher.
1. What do you see in the pictures?
2. Can you describe what the scenario is in the first picture? How about the second picture?
3. Have you experienced being judged or discriminated?
4. How will you show respect to persons who have different culture from you?
What is It
Cultural relativism- is a principle that an individual person’s beliefs and activities should be
understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture. It was established and accepted
in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the 20th century and later
popularized by his students. It refers to not judging a culture to our own standards of what is
right or wrong, strange or normal. Instead, we should try to understand cultural practices of
other groups in its own cultural context. In other words, right and wrong are culture-specific.
What is considered moral in other society may be considered immoral in another, and since no
universal standard of morality exist, no one has the right to judge another society’s customs to
be correct or incorrect.
Ethnocentrism-, in contrast to cultural relativism, is judging another culture solely by the values
and standards of one’s own culture. According to William G. Sumner, ethnocentrism is defined
as the “technical name for the view of things in which one’s own group is the center of
everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.” He further characterized it
as often leading to pride, vanity, beliefs of one’s own group’s superiority and contempt of
outsiders.
Ethnocentric individuals born into a particular culture that grow up absorbing the values and
behavior of the culture will develop a worldview that considers their culture to be the norm
(standard). They judge other group or culture specially with concern to language, behavior,
custom religion etc.
The pictures below briefly describe the cultures that exist and are practiced and honored by
some groups of people respectively. It couldn't be denied that the world suffers from cultural
differences due to a lack of acceptance leading to discrimination and racism that greatly affects
the well-being of an individual. Like for examples; these unique tribes particularly in Suri/Mursi,
Ethiopia where their women's beauty is determined by how large their lip plate is; while the
Kayan near Loikaw District, Kayah State, Myanmar, for them, wearing traditional brass coil neck
rings has been a standard of beauty in their tribe. To sum it up, cultural relativism is the practice
of viewing the beliefs, values and practices of a culture from its own viewpoint rather than
being ethnocentric and viewing the beliefs, values and practices from your own viewpoint.
Are you aware of this tradition? Okujepisa omukazendu ( lit. 'offering a wife to a guest') is the
polyamorous sexual practice of hospitable "wife-sharing" among the nomadic OvaHimba and OvaZemba
peoples of Namibia's Kunene and Omusati regions.
The Suri Tribe are part of the larger Surma tribe (with the Mursi) and one of the last African groups
to still wear the lip plates.
Philippine Tribes-
How Cultural Relativism Mitigates Ethnocentrism?
It is widely believed in the field of sociology that ethnocentric behavior may be mitigated through the
recognition and application of cultural relativism. A person can practice cultural relativism by recognizing
that our culture shapes what we consider to be beautiful, ugly, appealing, disgusting, virtuous, funny,
and abhorrent and that this should not be the basis for evaluating other culture. Cultural relativism
shapes our understanding of different issues in the society as to why certain religion believe in this and
other not, or how come this group eat this type of dish, wear this weird clothing, sing and dance along
with music while others prefer not to. What we need is an open heart and unbiased and critical mind,
exposure, education, and involvement in activities, programs supporting and recognizing the uniqueness
and beauty of every culture for us to truly grasp what cultural relativism means.
How does cultural relativism see one culture?
Cultural relativism leads to the view that no culture is superior to another culture in terms of systems
of morality, beliefs, values, law, politics, etc. We should not assume that all of our preferences are
based on some objective moral standard. It’s a good idea to keep an open mind when we encounter
practices different from our own.
What’s More
Task 4: Poster Making Direction: Make a poster that shows understanding and respect for other’s
culture. Use short bond paper.
Output is graded according to these criteria:
Relevance to the topic - 20 points
Originality - 15 points
Attractiveness - 15 points 50 points
What I Have Learned
Direction: Based on the activities and readings on this module, write the things you have learned about
the importance of cultural relativism in attaining cultural understanding. Do this in your activity
notebook.
Assignment:
Direction: Draw or look for pictures and paste it on a notebook/paper that best describe about
ethnocentric and culturally relative behaviors manifested by millennials of today. For each behavior
identify the causative factors that are highly involved on the aforementioned.
Example: Racial Discrimination – Prejudice/overt bias
Post Test
References
Agbo, Njideka. 2018. THE ETHIOPIAN TRIBE WHERE A LIP PLATE MAKES YOU MORE ATTRACTIVE. January
11. Accessed January 24, 2022. https://guardian.ng/life/theethiopian-tribe-where-a-lip-plate-makes-you-
more-attractive/. Beleña, Ederlina D., et al. n.d.
Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics for Senior HIgh School. Dayton, Brandon. 2020.
What is the traditionof neck rings in Africa and Asia? April 10. Accessed January 24, 2022.
https://www.simpleshine.com/blogs/news/what-is-thetradition-of-neck-rings-in-africa-and-asia. JSY
Blog. 2019.
Social Bullying. March 06. Accessed January 24, 2022. https://justsayyes.org/bullying/social-bullying/.
Lim, Jed. 2016.
Ethnocentrism and relativism. July 26. Accessed January 13, 2022.
https://www.slideshare.net/JedLim1/ethnocentrism-and-relativism.
