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Universalism And Cultural Relativism

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What is culture? There are genetic variables that constitute a person or an individual’s biological and physical makeup such as skin colour, eye colour and to an extent body shape. The cultural makeup of an individual is not fixed ergo it can change and be adapted. For example language, clothing, world view, habits, ethics, religion and relationships can constitute the culture of an individual or group. Ilesanmi (2009) gives a rather normative definition of culture stating that it is the sole criterion by which human endeavours acquire their authenticity. The decisions an individual takes are guided by the specific way of life embodied in the cultures that they were raised in. Culture is most important with regards to how we experience life …show more content…

Universalism offered a core of ‘human-nature’ which threatened to homogenise diverse African societies (Zechenter, 1997). Universalism took decision making away from cultural groups shifting the defensibility of practices from within the framework of the community (internal judgements), to using international or external judgements (Donnelly, 1984). International standards are particularly criticised for an over focus on the individual rather than the group (Charters, 2003). In defence of universalism, Zechenter (1997), showed that universalism protests the group indirectly by attending to the needs of the individual. Feminists are in favour of universal standards of human rights as pre-colonial villages, Native American tribes and traditional Islamic social systems have disproportionate power balances between men and women (Donnelly, …show more content…

It shows the sensitivity of traditional leaders to outside interference on customary laws. Given the experience of African people with colonisation, imposing decisions on discriminatory practices is inappropriate (Charter, 2003). African issues must be solved by African means. The concept of universal human rights has been criticised as a Western ideology imposed on non-Western cultures (Sjoberg, Gill and Williams, 2001). Writers acknowledge that universalism is a product of European history that denies communitarian values thus undermining African culture. In the ‘West’ there is an obsessive concern with the dignity of the individual, his worth, personal autonomy and property (Ilesanmi, 2009). Communist countries see the individualistic focus of universal human rights as a feeder to the capitalist system by granting individuals the right to purse private interests (Sjoberg et al, 2001). Universal human rights prioritize civil and political rights over social and cultural rights (Charters, 2003) this stands against African values of economic development. As such, western imperialism in the form of human rights also slows down the development of Africa (Zechenter,

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These human rights 'instruments', as they are called, have fixed how many rights apply to particular groups of human beings such as women or children. They have also come up with new ideas that were not part of the thinking of those who first drafted the Universal Declaration. The link between human rights and other pillars is clearly evident all the way through the UDHR. First, it allows, in the Preamble, that the credit of the unchallengeable rights of all people is the groundwork of freedom, justice and peace across the world. Secondly, it expands the UN Charter’s stated purpose of encouraging growth by giving economic, social and cultural rights the in the same degree of safety that an individual finds for civil and political rights (Marshall

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Culture affects how one views others and the world around them in a large way as shown by past experiences, heritage, and family. Family affects our culture because the people we spend our life with have such a large impact on the way we act. Moreover our past experiences affect us by learning from what we and others do and the result. Things one has experienced in the past greatly affects how one views the world. This is clearly shown in Robert Lake’s(Medicine Grizzlybear’s) essay, “An Indian Father’s Plea.”

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In Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order, he organized his book with collection of essays and these essays are from when he moved around Africa. His approach is more theoretical than historical, yet it has a historical tone. He used newspapers, Bank information, his own field working. This book is more opinionated than Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development. He criticizes anthropologist who study the culture, yet the fail to understand the reasons of why people are unequal in their culture and society.

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There have been many definitions for the word culture. Culture is defined as the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. Culture is a way of living and a set of values respected by that society. Without culture, there would be little difference between us around the world. Culture gives us a sense belonging to particular area of the world, and has a significant effect on history.

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Culture is the behaviors beliefs and characteristics of a particular social ethnic age group. That means you have many different cultures like family culture, friend culture, and interest culture like music culture do you think any of these cultures affect how you view the world? Well, culture affects how we view things entirely because our cultures helps us define our moral senses. For example culture, ‘A’ and culture ‘B’ will clash on their moral senses because culture ‘A’ could believe they are doing something right and culture ‘B’ is doing it the wrong way and visa versa with culture ‘B’ so your moral sense would be affected by the culture.

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210 Words | 1 Pages

Culture is identity. Culture encompasses the people I love and the ones that love me. Through culture, individuality is found, which causes this world beautiful. Different groups have different forms of art, music, food, language, etc. But regardless of these differences, everybody is capable of connecting with one another.

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Culture refers to the social heritage of a people- those learned patterns for thinking, feeling, and acting that are transmitted from one generation to the next, including the embodiment of these patterns in material items. Culture provides the meanings that enable human beings to interpret their experiences and guide their actions (Hughes and Kroehler, 2013). The African culture have played a role in our society for many years. America is known for its diversity and is called the melting pot.

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Cultural relativism is the understanding of other cultures in their own terms. To achieve the understanding of the rituals used in the cultures of another, one must be able to look at them from an emic (insider) perspective. One must also be able to look at his own culture from an etic (outsider) perspective. The ability to look at one’s culture from the etic point of view will make it easier to explain the rituals to someone from a different culture, for example, rites of passage. Rites of passage are used to mark a life stage and are celebrated by tradition or religion, meant to separate a specific group.

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Culture is the building block for life. It sets society's standards, it sets our own standards, and everything we know is all because of our culture. Culture is a way of thinking, a way of behaving and learning. We express our opinions based upon our beliefs, and define ourselves by what aspects of our culture we choose to show. Culture's impact on someone's perspective of others and the world is greater than its other influencers because it can change how you interact with people, your ability to change, and your opinions of the world.

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Every society has its own unique cultures in which people will have different ideas of moral codes. The diversity of these cultures cannot be said to be correct or incorrect. Every society has independent standards of ethic within their society and these standards are culture-bound. Cultural Relativism has a perception in which rightness or wrongness of an action depends entirely within the bounds of the culture. This theory opposes the belief in the objectivity of moral truth.

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At its extreme ends, radical cultural relativism states that rights are sourced from culture, while radical universalism holds that rights are universally applicable to everyone regardless of culture (Donnelly, 1984: 400). Relativism argues that differences in cultures cannot be judged by an external standard such as human rights, and that each society carries within it internal rules and values (Zechenter, 1997: 324). The American Anthropology Association (AAA) released a statement 1947 that promoted a relativist position when it rejected the notion of a rights system claiming ‘world-wide applicability’. For the AAA, a universal system based on Western values renders all other cultures inferior, and that a universal notion of rights should be based instead on the rights of people to live ‘in terms of their own traditions’ (AAA,

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Cultural relativism has a variety of definitions, but the main idea is that a universal code of ethics does not exist--it varies culture to culture. Rachel’s examines cultural relativism in “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism” and argues that there are commonalities of ethics throughout every culture. Rachels sections off his argument to better explain what they believe. In this piece, they argue that cultural relativism is not a proper theory. They argue that it has many major flaws, but they acknowledge that parts of theory have some truth to it.

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“Cultural Relativist and Feminist Critique of International Human Rights- Friends or Foes?” The journal, “Cultural Relativist and Feminist Critique of International Human Rights- Friends or Foes?” by Oonagh Reitman have the aim to know deeper about the two critiques towards the universal Human Rights by the two major theory, which are the Cultural Relativism and Feminism, how they see the universal Human Rights theory. The Journal address for the workshop discussion matter regarding to the similarities on critique of International human rights that made by the Cultural relativist and the feminist. “ Human Rights is the right that given and held by human simply because they are human, and it does not classified nor held by certain groups or not the subject to variation in culture”(Donnelly 1989: 109-110) From the introduction in the journal, the writer defines how the feminist and the cultural relativist express their idea of Universal human rights. The idea of Universal human rights from Donnelly were being reserve by Relativist, they argue that the human rights itself root from culture and due to the variation of culture, making the human rights not universal.

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777 Words | 4 Pages

Culture is a very vast and complicated term. As a result, it is extremely difficult to provide an all encompassing definition. In layman terms, culture is used to refer to symbolic markers used by societies to differentiate and distinguish themselves from other societies. These symbolic markers range from religion to customs and traditions to something as basic as language and clothes. Basically culture is a way of living.

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Aubrey Rose A, Barangot English 27B Title Gender Equality: An Established Human Right Thesis Gender Equality and Stereotypes Inroduction The gender equality has been accepted and acknowledged as human rights’ principles since the adoption of charter of United Nations in 1945. Most of the international agreements such as ‘the Millennium Development Goals (2000)’ and ‘the World Conference on Human Rights (1993) have highlighted and stressed the grave need for nations to take appropriate actions against such discriminatory practices. To give clarity to this research, the researcher uses the following definitions: “Everyone has a fundamental right to live free of violence.

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