Essay About Importance Of This Idea And Laura Bohannan

Cultural Relativism
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Understanding other cultures without making judgments about
the way they do things or the way they understand and react
to things is the basic concept of cultural relativity. The
importance of this idea is demostrated by Richard B. Lee in
his story about the Christmas feast with the !Kung.
In this story Lee, a social anthropologist living with the
tribe, experiences a misunderstanding that almost caused him
to pack his belongings and leave the bushmen which were the
subject of his study.
The basis of the misunderstanding centered around the idea
that after a year of using his supplies to gain leverage Lee
would show his generousity by providing a large robust ox
for the Christmas feast. Generousity he expected, as a
westerner, to be greated by praise gratitude and general
appreciation. What he didnt realize was that praise was
not the way of the !Kung people.
For if you take an action in your own culture the reaction
is generally predictable, but if you take that same action
exercised in a different and unknown culture the reaction is
entirely unknown leaving room for misunderstandings. And
vice verse.
The !Kung came to the conclusion that in order to thrive,
survive and keep the peace they must instill an air of
humility within each tribal member who is blessed with
success. This is to keep any individual from becoming
consumed by pride and arrogance which would make them feel
above the other members of the tribe and its ways. They do
this by insulting the man and painting his perceived success
as a failure. This is their custom and it has allowed them
to survive.
It is also that custom that made Lee feel shame for the ox
he bought because they told him that it was old, boney and
only good for soup. That is were the misunderstanding
insued.
Westerners feel that people should be grateful when they
receive gifts because of ingrained ideas like, reward what
you want repeated and treat others the way you want to be
treated. From the time we learn to speak we ar taught to
say thank you and show gratitude when we are shown
generousity.
The above ideas contribute to the capitalst winner take all
society that we have accepted as the basis for the grand
success of any nation. The !Kung society is more centered
toward the idea that the success of one is the success of
all and that no individual in of himself is greater than the
whole.
Naivity seems to be central in the cause of troubles.
Laura Bohannan believed that even though some things were
relative to certain cultures other things were universal.
This belief inspired her to try and prove her theory while
she was living with the Tiv people of West Africa.
She believes that the beliefs she brought with her from her
culture will easily be related to the beliefs of the tribe
members.