Cultural Relativism Research Paper

Cultural Relativism is a theory that states various cultures have their respective and distinct moral values. First introduced by anthropologist Franz Boas and popularized by his students, this theory was meant to explain the reasons behind the different practices carried out across different communities (Lewis, 2001). In recent years, modern philosophers James and Stuart Rachels openly disagreed with the validity of Cultural Relativism by claiming that all human communities hold the same fundemental values. This essay will argue for the validity of Cultural Relativism because different cultures have different goals, and therefore have their own distinct moral codes.
The first reason supporting the validity of cultural relativism is the fact

Since each culture’s goals differ from one another, It is only logical that their moral codes vary as well. Take the aforementioned Baduy tribe in Indonesia as an example. This tribe is divided into two: the inner Baduy and the outer Baduy. Although both believe in the purity of their culture, the former holds their purity as sacred, while the latter has gone through some form of assimilation upon receiving influences from the outside world (Kartakusuma, 2010). The inner Baduy people deem the outside culture as disruptive, and any form of intrusion from other cultures is frowned upon. Punishments for disregarding this rule can take in the form of societal punishment, exclusion, and ultimately exile. This value of protecting one’s culture against the influence of others goes against the modern culture of globalization, where the more diverse ideas and views there are, the better off the community is. This modern community embraces multiple perspectives of the same issue, believing that a rich blend of ideas and perspectives will make life better off. The inner Baduy tribe and the globalization culture have conflicting views on what makes their cultures better off, in which one embraces influences from other cultures and the other deems that to be immoral. These two cultures stand on different ends on the acceptance of other communities, which exhibits varying moral codes

James and Stuart Rachels argued for this point against Cultural Relativism in their book The Elements of Moral Philosophy by claiming that all communities hold underlying values that are universal. However, Rachels overlooked the minor differences across the communities. Values, albeit being fewer than it seems, are not omnipresent across all cultures. The example provided by Rachels is of the Eskimos, where their seemingly ruthless actions of killing infants and the eldery are necessary for the population to survive in the environment’s harsh conditions. However, this is not true for all occasions. The inner Baduy tribe is a good example of a community currently experiencing a population decline because they choose to abide by their existing customs (Kartakusuma, 2010). The Baduy population as a whole is increasing, but more and more people are moving out from the inner community to the outer. This is because the number of inner Baduy people that choose to assimilate with the outside world keeps increasing. Once they receive an outside influence, they are banned from entering the inner community’s premises and have to stay with the outer Baduy circle. At this rate, the inner Baduy tribe might be extinct in a century or two. In contrast to Rachels’ claims, the value that the inner Baduy hold so strongly does not contribute towards their tribe’s