gives three distinct
meanings of cultural relativism: a moral stance that requires
anthropologists to suspend moral and ethical judgments when
interacting with a
culture different from their own, a methodological strategy that
allows the
anthropologist to pay specific attention to the uniqueness of a
culture, and an
epistemological position that cultures are unique and therefore
knowledge about
different cultures is almost inherently not comparable. (Sec.
1.3).

In your forum contribution:Discuss what you see as the strengths
and weaknesses of each of these three
kinds of relativism.Identify one belief or practice in
another culture that you find puzzling,
strange, or troubling, and then
discuss the extent that cultural
relativism is a useful approach to
understanding and interacting with the
people who hold it.Discuss the extent that cultural
relativism would be a useful approach to
understanding and interacting
with people in your own society that did
(or do) the same.Explore the extent to which whether
one is studying in one’s own country or in
another makes a difference in
the applicability of cultural relativism
to one’s research.
Choose of the “Consider This” boxes
that
Nowak and Laird present us with in Chapters 1 and 2
of , discuss the topics below
from the film , available in the Films
On Demand database, in the Ashford Online Library.The
topics covered are:
Whether the UN’s Universal Declaration
of Human Rights should be applicable to
all cultures
Whether it is possible to truly view a
culture without being influenced by the
cultural constructs of our own
cultureHow our understanding of what it means
to be a patient in the United States
reflects our different cultural
backgrounds and affiliationsIn the film Margaret Mead: Coming of
Age, it is mentioned that Mead’s initial
research was criticized on
methodological grounds. Why was that? Do
you consider the criticism
warranted or not warranted? What could she
have done differently?Based on the film and the book,
discuss the challenges of field work. What
do you think would be the most
difficult? What has changed since the time
of Mead?