Women, Minorities, and Indigenous Peoples: Universalism and Cultural Relativity
Author(s)
Nagengast, Carole
Abstract
The concept of cultural relativity, developed by anthropologists to induce respect for difference, is often deployed to excuse, rationalize, or explain differential treatment before the law of women, minorities, and indigenous groups and to justify what many call human rights abuses. Accusations of cultural imperialism – regardless of the source – chill the anthropological soul and raise difficult questions concerning research questions and advocacy. Cultural relativity should not be discarded altogether because the reasons it developed as a central theme of American anthropology have far from disappeared and it can be used to defend basic rights. By the same token, some of the ways in which the concept of culture is used also penalize those “minorities” to whom respect may be intended. The author makes an argument for a mediated and partial universalism.
