The Challenge of Cultural Relativism
JAMES RACHELS
Adapted from The Elements of Moral Philosophy by James Rachels, Chapter 2, pp. 1529.
? 1999
by McGrawHill,
Inc. Reprinted by permission of the McGrawHill
Companies, Inc.
Morality differs in every society, and is a convenient term for socially approved habits.
Ruth
Benedict (Patterns of Culture, 1934)
2.1 How Different Cultures Have Different Moral Codes
Darius, a king of ancient Persia, was intrigued by the variety of cultures he encountered in his travels. He had found, for example, that the Callatians (a tribe of Indians) customarily ate the bodies of their dead fathers. The Greeks, of course, did not do that?the Greeks practiced cremation and regarded the funeral pyre as the natural and fitting way to dispose of the dead.
Darius thought that a sophisticated understanding of the world must include an appreciation of such differences between cultures. One day, to teach this lesson, he summoned some Greeks who happened to be present at his court and asked them what they would take to eat the bodies of their dead fathers. They were shocked, as Darius knew they would be, and replied that no amount of money could persuade them to do such a thing. Then Darius called in some Callatians, and while the Greeks listened asked them what they would take to burn their dead fathers’ bodies. The Callatians were horrified and told Darius not even to mention such a dreadful thing.
This story, recounted by Herodotus in his History illustrates a recurring theme in the literature of social science: Different cultures have different moral codes. What is thought right within one group may be utterly abhorrent to the members of another group, and vice versa. Should we eat the bodies of the dead or burn them? If you were a Greek, one answer would seem obviously correct; but if you were a Callatian, the opposite would seem equally certain.
It is easy to give additional examples of the same kind. Consider the Eskimos.