Cultural practices Essay

Culture, ethnocentrism and heathen possibility of relativity ar the three terms which form the land of this essay. There is an effort to define separately of these terms in as on the button manner as possible. Moreoer several(prenominal) discussion on humane attitudes and characteristics precedes the final exam perish along to the question displace we stress a cultural perpetrate as beneficial or wrong ? The answer is affirmative Yes, all cultural practices usher out non be considered equal and beyond reproach, judging them as right or wrong is sure acceptable.Definitions Culture is defined as, the totality of rational and physical reactions and activities that characterize the behavior of various(prenominal)s make-up of a social congregation together with and individually in relation to their subjective environment, to other groups, to members of the group itself, and of each individual to himself. ( Heuristic device) Ethnocentrism is defined as disposal to look at the orbit, primarily from the perspective of ones testify gardening. It practically entails the belief that ones throw race or ethnicgroup is the most important and/or that well-nigh or all aspects of its finis be superior to those of other groups. ( Ethnocentrism). Cultural relativity is the principle that an individuals beliefs and activities should be interpreted in terms of his give culture. ( Cultural relativism). It is important to note everywhere here that the five civilizations of human register is the mother of all cultural practices. separately civilization devised a behavioral simulate which suited the local geographic, economic and semipolitical conditions. The roots of all ethnicgroups claiming to take in their own and independent culture can be traced back to these five civilizations. They atomic number 18 essentially offshoots of the basic civilization. Discussion It has been proved beyond doubt that the major shun characteristics of hum an race are his rapaciousness and his ego. He always wants to dominate over his fellow humans and other brio sentence species. On the other hand, one of the outflank qualities of human beings is to make our globe a worth living place. Those who devised the cultural practices were in either casehuman beings and hence all cultures name whateverthing that can be called good and something that can be called bad or not acceptable. A few examples ordain prove this point. The Indus valley civilization, firmly advocates the theory of live and let live. Hinduism, a faith originating in the Indian sub-continent advocates provided vegetarian food. The argument is, why kill a fish, chicken or an animal when your ache can be filled with vegetables and cereals, without make any compromise on the nutritious values? So far so good. The same culture has a company system. The status of a human being is decided by the virtue of his birth. If he is born in a high caste, he has the un iverse at his feet, and if he is born in a turn away caste family, then he is treat as an untouchable, who will never get any opportunity in life to improve his position. The European culture. While European intelligence has been instrumental in inclose the highly developed technical world of instantly, full of comforts, the same Europeans expectsucked the linage of the third world population by establishing colonies, for centuries together. A very truthful situation, right from the civilization days to today, is that all human efforts in devising cultural practices have been concentrated at local take aim only. No culture has a globose approach. The Indus valley civilization is perhaps an excommunication to this. The practices are laid down for a particular group of people residing in that particular geographic area. In the perfect history of human evolution, man has never lived like asingle species. gratuitous to say, improvement of life and peaceful co- lastence were the aims of any cultural practices. Hence, evaluation of any culture should be done on a very basic question, does it allow others to exist peacefully? The two systems of cultural perceptions, to wit ethnocentrism and cultural relativism have very little significance. While ethnocentrism places ones own culture as the only dress hat cultural relativism closes the doors for beliefs about other cultures. Ethnocentrismdoes not put the Statesns or Europeans as the silk hat cultural groups and cultural relativism cannot ignore the fact that slavery system in America is a wrong practice. These perceptions are irrelevant because no culture is coercive or the best, and no culture is so complete in itself . Summary No theory can prevent judgement of the wrong and the right of any cultural practice. Simply because no culture is flawless, when assessed on humanitarian and global grounds. Any practice which preserves the peaceful co-existence and helps in bettermentof life will alwa ys be applauded and any practice which promotes injustice, cruelty and supremacy over others, will always be turned down. If Americans think in an ethnocentric way that they are the indirect dominators of the world affairs, they are mistaken. It was Europe yesterday, America today and tomorrow may belong to some other culture. Similarly if Asians think that in that location is no need to pass judgment on any other culture because every culture is complete on its own, they are also wrong. They ought to pass a judgment and raise a section against the wrongcolonization and slavery of Europeans and Americans respectively. No theory can stop firing judgments over any cultural practice. Judgments are necessary. They always help in up(p) upon the negative aspects of any culture. Works cited pageboy 1) Heuristic device and cultural relativism, wikipedia the impeccant encyclopedia, 12 02-07, Retrieved on 14-02-07. < http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/cultural_relativism > 2. Ethnocen trism, wikipedia the free encyclopedia, 10-02-07, Retrieved on 14-02-07, < http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/etnocentrism >