Cultural Relativism Vs. Human Rights

Monday May 21, 2012

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Cultural Relativism Vs. Human Rights

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TOPIC: Cultural Relativism Vs. Human Rights

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#160682

TimeLine

If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong

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Cultural Relativism Vs. Human Rights 3 Years, 9 Months ago

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What is (if there is one) the boundary between understanding a culture different to our own to attacking this culture for violation of human rights? A good example would be female genital mutilation in North African regions; this practice is commonly accepted and even admired by the women who receive it, so, would I be wrong to say that it is a violation of human rights and those women and men who support it are merely deluded?

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#160688

fourfold

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Re: Cultural Relativism Vs. Human Rights 3 Years, 9 Months ago

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TL.

I've thought about this before. I don't believe in absolute rights, so my answer will only appeal to some values in common with you or other people who answer the thread--it won't try to establish those values normatively.

They are girls when they are mutilated in this way, so they aren't given the chance to know the full extent of what they've lost. Insofar as it's a moral question whether this is permissible (and the larger question, of course, whether women are entitled to enjoy their own sexuality as adults) it doesn't matter whether her family or her tribe or her society thinks it is.

I'm skeptical about any kind of special right to be left alone with one's cultural practices, just because they were handed down some number of generations, or because there's a whole edifice of social norms and institutions that support them (i.e., it's an integral part of a way of life).

The idea of an ethic of non-interference in foreign cultures has to be an instrumental value to make any sense. It can't be that different moralities are all entitled to protection on their own account; but people may be entitled to some protection from having their cultures destroyed by a powerful world-culture.

It seems like such a radically eviscerating practice as genital mutilation makes the question of cultural survival relatively trivial.

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#160689

tjdcjf0124

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Re: Cultural Relativism Vs. Human Rights 3 Years, 9 Months ago

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Good question, though I understand with respect to FGM there is dissent even within the culture about the practice. Amnesty's page on FGM might make a helpful overview for those not familiar with the practice: www.amnestyusa.org/Stop_Violence_Against...2=39&n3=1101

For my part, I think normative readings of cultural relativism are false, and that respect for cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, whatever, does not extend to turning a blind eye to everything they do.

Hence I'd argue that you're not wrong at all to say that something like FGM is a violation of human rights, and ought to be approached as such by the rest of the world.

td

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#160694

Didymus

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Re: Cultural Relativism Vs. Human Rights 3 Years, 9 Months ago

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As TD also points out, the practice is not "accepted and admireed" by ALL the women who receive it. As Nussbaum points out, cultures are not monolithic entities, they are comprised of indivicuals, and generalities about what a culture as a whole accepts are really shorthand for what the politically most powerful voices in that cultural group accepts. Acknowledging something within a cultural tradition to be a human rights violation does not amount to intellectual colonialism, much less license direct intervention; however, in a pluralistic world we often cannot help making judgments that involve each others' cultures. What, for instance, should an American Immigration official do if a foreign visitor to the U.S. applies for asylum on the ground that if she returns to her homeland, she and/or her daughters will be subjected to FGM?

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#160697

Diotima

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Re: Cultural Relativism Vs. Human Rights 3 Years, 9 Months ago

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I'm with TD and Didymus on this. While I do think that it behoves us to understand cultural practices, I do not think we therefore have to stand back and say that all practices are thereby only understood by those within a culture.

FGM is a good example of a practice where women have applied for, and got, asylum. I'm not saying we should go to war on countries that practise it. But I do think that we ought not to turn a blind eye to it. I guess this is James Rachels' argument that I'm running here - a guy who talks a lot of sense, imo.

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#160698

Hypersonic

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Re: Cultural Relativism Vs. Human Rights 3 Years, 9 Months ago	Karma: 1
[quote1219009023=TimeLine]even admired by the women who receive it [/quote1219009023] Stockholm syndrome extends a lot further than is traditionally though, I think. Women fought against the right to vote, too.

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