November 2015
Mary Thomas
AP English/ Burnett
Cultural Relativism
I believe the idea of cultural relativism is a beneficial one. If everyone was able to put their culture aside for a moment and simply look deeper into another's to understand, the world may live more peacefully. Human beings are so quick to judge and criticize based on their own values and customs, they never take into account that there may be more similarities between theirs and another society's than expected. This idea is extremely relevant to our world today and every day of the past. If each of us tried to understand other cultures and didn't push them aside because of our preferences for our own, there would be much less war and trouble. Right now in the world we are dealing with major terrorist threats because they are attempting to push their ideas onto everyone else. This is only making life worse for everyone and if they realized that our culture is equal to theirs then there would be no problem.We all come from different ancestors and therefore different cultures and traditions. In Things Fall Apart, even each individual clan practices its own customs within that culture. While it is normal for people of Umoufia to be aggressive and war ready, some of the other clans act with more reason instead of action. Although the practices of the other clans are not always understood, they still respect them. If we were all to keep this in mind, we might be able to be more accepting and understanding. We need to step back and look from the outside instead of from our societies. America has grown as a place of freedom and cultural diversity and has strived to function successfully in doing so. I believe that if we were to really think about this ability, we would realize that not one culture is correct or superior and we would be able to appreciate each others beliefs and values.
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