Cultural Relativism (Polygamy)
Essay Preview: Cultural Relativism (Polygamy)
Report this essay
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
The idea of cultural relativism started from the society. From the society it turns out to be a symbol of that particular area and become mass/universal. According to Rachel (p.18) says ” These customs cannot be said to be “correct” or incorrect, “for that implies that we have an independent standard of right and wrong by which they may judge”. In a simple word cultural relativism is there is no answer for what is right and what is wrong, to judge this issue we have to know who are these people who belief this issue is right or acceptable. I will bring the example cultural relativism of “polygamy”. Based on Merriam-Webster Dictionary polygamy is a marriage in which a spouse of either sex may have more than one mate at the same time. A cultural relativist living in Non-Moslem countries would be against in “polygamy”; while cultural relativist on the Moslem countries would be legally acceptable by their culture. When a society deems that this is right, it will be accepted within the society.
Using my earlier example about “polygamy” and the following disapproval can be made where the Moslem countries see nothing wrong with Polygamy. On the other hands of the Non Moslem countries believe that “polygamy” is wrong and immoral. Going back to the Polygamy example for instance, while in non-Moslem countries polygamy is considered wrong and nothing more than unnecessary misbehavior by the man to married another woman without having a divorce. The Moslem countries consider its a great action of a husband because hes showing that hes a responsible man. For them its one of their worships to god.
One of the reasons why is being permitted back then (Middle East), it was because of during the war there were men killed. For that reason, females became more or stay the same,