Understanding Other Cultures Through Critical Cultural Relativism Perspective

I always thought that because I am born and raised in a Vietnamese household, I already have a firm grasp on the concept of overcoming ethnocentric biases and be unprejudiced and/or more understanding when it comes to other religious and cultural practices. However, that is not always true. There are some practices that I have come across in my lifetime whereas I find it morally unacceptable due to the fact that it does not come eye to eye with how I was taught and raised. Having reflected on the textbook section under Objectivity and Morality and anthropologist Nancy Sheper-Hughes’s statements, I can now see that my outlook on other cultures is wrong.

The particular section of the chapter brings up Nancy Sheper-Hughes’ views towards her work in anthropology by insisting others to approach the critical cultural relativism perspective – which creates questions about cultural practices and beliefs in terms of who accepts them and why, and who they might be harming or benefiting – instead of interfering in another’s cultural beliefs and behaviours. Alternately, this method can help raise one’s understanding of another cultural practices without ignoring power dynamics.

It’s not easy for everyone to ignore after witnessing a behaviour from another that we ourselves find unacceptable and/or uncomfortable with, including myself, for the sake of respecting one’s culture. There are many times I struggled to come to terms with something I find questionable in my everyday life. Like for one example, I came upon the cannibalism among the Wari community while I was reading the textbook, and was quite disturbed when I found out they ate their deceased loved ones to erase painful memories and to avoid burying them in the ground. Usually when we hear about our loved ones has passed away, we normally wouldn’t think of eating them first, since it is illegal where we are and holds a very negative perception from the western culture as well as my own. Practices like the cannibalism among the Wari is personally pushing the limit of cultural relativism for me.

Although I know that making moral judgements on another culture is wrong, there are times when it’s hard to be unbiased when you’re witnessing or hearing about a particular custom that you’re not familiar or used to doing, especially judging from my Asian-Canadian norms. However, through the Sheper-Hughes’ critical cultural relativism method, my ways of evaluating another’s culture has changed. I shouldn’t be having thoughts about whether if I think a custom is right or wrong, I should be thinking about the ones that are involved in the particular culture and see if what they believe is actually doing any harm to them or not. In the end, after reflecting from the textbook readings, I think we should all agree with the fact that none of the culture in the world should be split into a good or bad category, depending on what value we have or want to have. And no culture should be deemed as the more superior than others just because we think it’s more “correct” and “acceptable” in comparison.

Based on this reflection and the textbook section, I’ve learned the importance of understanding another culture outside from my own – in their own terms and not letting my own judgements and evaluations using the standards of my own. Even when I engage or witness an event or behaviour that seems morally questionable, I have to remember to question that event or behaviour first and see if it is something that they would see as morally right or wrong in their perspective. I’m curious to see whether other anthropologists are with or against Sheper-Hughes’s approach expressed in the textbook; if they actually apply it to their jobs if they do stand by it. I’m also curious if this approach helps them do their job effectively or does it makes their job harder for them because they can’t ignore their moral judgements.