WHAT IS CULTURE?

Lesson 5

Introduction

This section helps students understand the direct and indirect impact of one’s
culture on the moral thinking and behavior. Culture background is one factor to consider
behind a person’s choices in life. It is equally imperative that environment’s culture must
also be understood so as a person’s actions and behaviours will be accepted.

Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Articulate what culture means

2. Attribute facets of personal behavior to culture

Topic Outline
1. What is culture?
2. How does it define our moral behavior?

Try this!
Create a collage of picture of your culture inside the box. Be creative in presenting a good
synopsis of your cultural descent. For instance, if you are a Subanen, put pictures that
highlights distinct features of your culture. Below, write a description for others to know as
if you are endorsing a product.
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 Think ahead!

How do you think your community and culture influences your behavior? Give
examples.

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Read and Ponder

Is your right and wrong the same as everyone else’s?

Some schools of thought believe that everyone has their own ethics. This means what is
considered right or wrong depends on the time, place, and even the particular preferences or
practices of a group of people or individual person.

While we all have our cultural and individual differences, can we also accept that each one of us
can choose what is morally right and wrong?

Of course, there are cultural and individual differences. In some cultures, people may think it is
wrong to place your elbows on the dinner table, while in others it is totally acceptable. Some
people may prefer drinking tea and others coffee. While we should be tolerant and respectful of
cultural differences, should we also accept all cultural practices as morally right?

To further explore this issue we need to clarify that normative ethics deals with how we should
behave and live our lives, particularly when our actions affect others. However, we do not
always, as individuals or societies, do what we should. Looking at specific times and places we
can understand why people behave the way they do. This, however, does not mean they should
have.

Take slavery, for example. It was legal in the UK until 1833, and in the US until 1865. In
Australia, the indentured labour of Indigenous people and South Sea Islanders in the 19th and
20th centuries was akin to slavery. Yet many Europeans at the time saw nothing wrong with it. 

Even when we agree that certain behaviours are wrong, they may still be widespread. For
instance, bribery is considered wrong and it is illegal in every nation, but in some countries it is
very common. 

Some people believe ethics is relative. If we accept that everyone can choose what is morally
right and wrong, then we cannot and should not evaluate the moral actions of others.

Another view is there is a common morality that applies to everyone, everywhere, at all times. A
common morality is based on high-level principles such as respect for people’s autonomy and
respect for justice. This common morality applies to all specific moral codes, so it allows us to
make judgements about all behaviours.

Source: Tsahuridu, E. (2017, July 1). How does culture affect ethics? Retrieved from
INTHEBLACK: Leadership, Strategy, Business:
https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2017/07/01/how-does-culture-affect-ethics
 See if you can do this!

Answer the following in your own words. What is culture? How does it define moral
behavior?
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 CULTURAL RELATIVISM

Lesson 6

Introduction

Have you ever seen or eaten food from another country, such as dried squid or fried
crickets and think of it as weird and gross? This is an example of ethnocentrism! That means you
use your own culture as the center and evaluate other cultures based on it. You are judging, or
making assumptions about the food of other countries based on your own norms, values, or
beliefs. Thinking “dried squid is smelly” or “people shouldn’t eat insects” are examples
of ethnocentrism in societies where people may not eat dried squid or insects. To avoid judging
the cultural practices of groups that are different to yours, we can use the cultural
relativism approach. This section revolves around discussion on Cultural Relativism- its
definition, advantages of recognizing the differences, and the dangers of the position.

Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Recognize differences in moral behavior of different cultures

2. Appreciate the differences
3. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of cultural relativism

Try this!
Read the statements below.

1. In Bolivia, 14-year-old girls can legally get married. In China, men have to wait until
they’re 22.
2. In America, eye contact suggests that you are paying attention and interested in what a
person has to say. Yet, in other cultures, eye contact can be considered rude and a
challenge of authority.

Think ahead!

How about in Philippines? What does the culture say regarding the statements above?
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Give two more examples of cultural differences/opposites that you have known, observed
or experienced. Write them down below.
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 Read and Ponder

Definition of Cultural Relativism in Sociology

By 
Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.
Cultural relativism refers to the idea that the values, knowledge, and behavior of people must be
understood within their own cultural context. This is one of the most fundamental concepts
in sociology, as it recognizes and affirms the connections between the greater social
structure and trends and the everyday lives of individual people.
Origins and Overview
The concept of cultural relativism as we know and use it today was established as an analytic
tool by German-American anthropologist Franz Boas in the early 20th century. In the context of
early social science, cultural relativism became an important tool for pushing back on the
ethnocentrism that often tarnished research at that time, which was mostly conducted by white,
wealthy, Western men, and often focused on people of color, foreign indigenous populations,
and persons of lower economic class than the researcher.
Ethnocentrism is the practice of viewing and judging someone else's culture based on the values
and beliefs of one's own. From this standpoint, we might frame other cultures as weird, exotic,
intriguing, and even as problems to be solved. In contrast, when we recognize that the many
cultures of the world have their own beliefs, values, and practices that have developed in
particular historical, political, social, material, and ecological contexts and that it makes sense
that they would differ from our own and that none are necessarily right or wrong or good or bad,
then we are engaging the concept of cultural relativism.
Examples

Cultural relativism explains why, for example, what constitutes breakfast varies widely from
place to place. What is considered a typical breakfast in Turkey, as illustrated in the above
image, is quite different from what is considered a typical breakfast in the U.S. or Japan. While it
might seem strange to eat fish soup or stewed vegetables for breakfast in the U.S., in other
places, this is perfectly normal. Conversely, our tendency toward sugary cereals and milk or
preference for egg sandwiches loaded with bacon and cheese would seem quite bizarre to other
cultures.

Similarly, but perhaps of more consequence, rules that regulate nudity in public vary widely
around the world. In the U.S., we tend to frame nudity in general as an inherently sexual thing,
and so when people are nude in public, people may interpret this as a sexual signal. But in many
other places around the world, being nude or partially nude in public is a normal part of life, be it
at swimming pools, beaches, in parks, or even throughout the course of daily life (see many
indigenous cultures around the world).

In these cases, being nude or partially nude is not framed as sexual but as the appropriate bodily
state for engaging in a given activity. In other cases, like many cultures where Islam is the
predominant faith, a more thorough coverage of the body is expected than in other cultures. Due
in large part to ethnocentrism, this has become a highly politicized and volatile practice in
today's world.

Why Recognizing Cultural Relativism Matters

By acknowledging cultural relativism, we can recognize that our culture shapes what we
consider to be beautiful, ugly, appealing, disgusting, virtuous, funny, and abhorrent. It shapes
what we consider to be good and bad art, music, and film, as well as what we consider to be
tasteful or tacky consumer goods. The work of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu features ample
discussion of these phenomena, and the consequences of them. This varies not just in terms of
national cultures but within a large society like the U.S. and also by cultures and subcultures
organized by class, race, sexuality, region, religion, and ethnicity, among others.

Source: Cole, Nicki Lisa, Ph.D. (2020, February 11). Definition of Cultural Relativism in
Sociology. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/cultural-relativism-definition-
3026122

See if you can do this!

Why can’t all cultural practices be always correct? What is the role of cultural relativism
in ethics? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
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