1. COMPARATIVE OR
CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Anthropologists draw upon as many cultures as possible before reaching any
generalizations (e.g., about human nature, about farming societies, about the
process of urbanization). It is important not to confuse what is true for one
society with what may hold for all humans.
2. HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE
Any aspect of a culture must be studied within the context of the whole culture; no part can be
understood apart from the whole. Anthropologists carefully study the
interrelations between the parts of a culture and between the culture and the
environment. A holistic perspective is especially important in planning culture
change because a seemingly beneficial change may have disastrous consequences.
3.
REDUCTION OF ETHNOCENTRISM AND PROMOTION OF CULTURAL RELATIVISM
ETHNOCENTRISM
1) Judging the customs of other cultures by the standards of one’s own
culture; considering your own culture to be superior, most moral, efficient,
logical, etc.
2) Misinterpreting another
culture because you are inappropriately applying the concepts and values of
your own culture.
CULTURAL
RELATIVISM
Viewing the beliefs and customs of other people within the context of their culture. Suspending judgment
and making the effort to understand another culture in its own terms.
Cultural relativism is a method necessary to understand another culture. It is not the same as moral relativism or the position that as individuals we cannot judge right from wrong and can make no evaluations on moral terms. As moral individuals, as citizens and voters, we have the right and responsibility to judge certain matters but should realize that the way we view something is not absolute and is influenced by our own culture, background, experiences, etc.
3 step process when confronting the culturally
unfamiliar
1. React emotionally/ethnocentrically
2. Suspend judgment, investigate the situation and try to understand it in a culturally relative way
3.
Reach a considered, personal judgment (e.g. you
may come to approve of what at first seemed peculiar or wrong, you may be glad
that your culture doesn’t follow such a practice but be able to appreciate why
the other culture does, you may still not understand but recognize that members
of that culture deem it important and you respect that, you may decide that the
practice is morally reprehensible to you)