Cultural Relativism In America

In order for someone who actively opposes, or is unfamiliar with the term cultural relativism, it is critical that they question the way that they have previously viewed differing cultures. It is important that it is understood that all cultures are very different, encompassing very different beliefs, traditions, and morals.

With this being said, I would provide them with some American customs that tend to be negatively viewed by many cultures throughout the world. Many outsiders, who aren’t accustomed to America’s pharmaceutical marketing strategies, find our prescription drug advertising to be very odd and alarming. For example, the commercial-ending sentence, “talk to your doctor about Lipitor,” alarms many outsiders, because in almost every other major country; it is believed that doctors tell their patients which drugs they should take, not the other way around. America’s obsession with firearms is one more example that I could use to demonstrate cultural relativism. In America, the vast majority of adults own at least 1 gun, and they view their guns as the most viable means of security and self-protection. But to people of many different cultures, this dependence on guns is believed to be dangerous and counter-productive.

As a global society, we reject the idea of universal right and wrong. Cultural relativism is the

Due to the myriad of variations among different cultures, many publications of findings would be very ethnocentric to the culture in which the anthropologist belongs to. It is important that cultural relativism is considered when studying personal aspects of culture, like clothing, language, food, and religion. Additionally, when studying aspects such as law, politics, and morality, I believe it is important not to characterize them as “right” or “wrong,” because what is “right” to one person, could very well be “wrong” to someone of a different