How to cope with cultural dilemmas in an increasingly globalized world?
The well known Horace Miner who wrote "Body Ritual among the Nacirema’ is a very good idea of how we view on a 'different' culture. It is a normal for a human being to view on its own culture as the 'normal' or 'acceptable' culture due to the forefathers who also followed the same culture.
What do we mean by culture?
Basically we normally combine culture with art and music. But culture is a larger concept than just arts and music. Culture is what shapes and forms people and leads them to behave in a certain way. It is from culture that a human being creates its personality and way of being- that could be the way we eat, interact with others, dance, speak, work, dance and love.
The evolutionary concept of culture:
- Some cultures are better and more right than others.
- Some cultures rank higher than others on a "developing ladder"
- The goal (at least from those on the top of the ladder) must be always to move up the ladder- to become more and more developed towards Western standards.
The relativistic concept of culture:
- all cultures are equal
- culture as homogenic islands
- Cultural relativisim is the principle that an individuals human beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual's own culture.
Every other culture is abnormal, one would believe. This is understandable if one has not heard or know that much about other cultures.
People from the west believe that the western culture is normal and suits people the best. But this opinion might not be shared by other cultures. The other cultures might as well believe that their own culture is the correct one for mankind.
When living in a globalized world where different cultures interact on daily basis it is important to be openminded and be objective when talking about other cultures. Children from other cultures come from different ways of living than we are used to in the western world. Therefore it is important to know about these different cultures in order to understand where there are coming from.
