CHAPTER 5

ETHICS AND
CULTURE
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this chapter, students should be
able to understand and discover:
◦ Culture as a source of morality
◦ Ethical relativism
◦ Cultural absolutism and cultural relativism
◦ Ethical values in Malaysian culture
 Definition of Culture
◦ Culture from the Latin cultura stemming from colere,
meaning "to cultivate", generally refers to patterns of
human activity and the symbolic structures that give such
activity significance.
◦ Different definitions of "culture" reflect different
theoretical bases for understanding, or criteria for
evaluating, human activity.
1. Culture as a source of morality

◦ Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes
codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law
and morality, and systems of belief.
◦ Most general, the term culture denotes whole product of an individual, group
or society of intelligent beings.
◦ It includes, technology, art, science, as well as moral systems and characteristic
behaviors and habits of the selected intelligent entities.
◦ In particular, it has specific more detailed meanings in different domains of
human activities.
◦ Morality that exists in various cultures and society which usually based on custom
or tradition – called customary or traditional morality.
◦ Many custom and traditions are quite effective and helpful in creating moral
societies.
◦ Many of moral teachings have arisen out of human need in social interaction, and
gradually become custom & tradition in a particular society.
2. Ethical relativism

◦ Ethical relativism is the theory that holds that morality is relative to the norms of
one's culture.
◦ That is, whether an action is right or wrong depends on the moral norms of the
society in which it is practiced.
◦ The same action may be morally right in one society but be morally wrong in
another.

Retrieved October 27, 2013 from

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/ethicalrelativism.html
◦ Ethical Relativism: the prescriptive view that
(1) different groups of people ought to have different ethical standards for
evaluating acts as right or wrong
(2) these different beliefs are true in their respective societies, and
(3) these different beliefs are not illustrations of a basic moral principle.
Retrieved October 27, 2013 from http://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/relativism.html
3. Cultural absolutism and cultural relativism
◦ Two extremes in ethical reasoning:
i) Absolutism - maintains that there are absolute truths / moral truths to which all
human being must adhere if they are to be moral
ii) Relativism - there are no absolutes of any kind, including morality, it is relative to
specific groups of people, customs, cultures, or even individuals.
◦ Absolute:

Means “perfect in quality, and complete”, “not limited by restriction or

exceptions”, “not to be doubted or questioned”.
It never change because it has come from absolute being (God).
According to Berry, Poortinga, Segall, and Dasen (1992), cultural absolutism is the
idea that psychological phenomena, such as intelligence, kindness, trustworthiness
and honesty, do not differ from culture to culture; they are the same among
cultures.
◦ Relative:

No absolute values at all.

All values are relative to time, place, persons, and situation.
Morality varies from culture to culture and from individual to individual and that
we ought to respect each other’s moral views.
What is considered as ethical in Malaysia may not be so in other countries
◦ Because there is no objective moral truth that pertains to all people and for all
times, one moral code is no better or no worse than any other (i.e., the moral
equivalence doctrine).
◦ Thus, we should not impose our values on other societies.
◦ It follows that, according to cultural relativism, we cannot object to Hitler and
Nazism, genital mutilation (i.e., female circumcision) of young girls in Africa, and
so on, because each of these practices is justified by the worldview within which it
exists.
◦ Nor could we contend that one culture is superior to another culture.
◦ In addition, we would also be prevented from criticizing our own culture’s
practices
Younkins, 2000
Retrieved October 24, 2013 from http://www.quebecoislibre.org/younkins26.html
 Cultural relativism in practice
Nazism
◦ German Nazism emphasised German nationalism, including both irredentism and
expansionism.
◦ Nazism held racial theories based upon the belief of the existence of an Aryan
master race that was believed to be superior to all other races.
◦ The Nazis emphasised the existence of racial conflict between the Aryan race and
others, particularly Jews whom the Nazis viewed as a mixed race that had
permeated multiple societies, and was responsible for exploitation and oppression
of the Aryan race.
◦ In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and the Nazis gradually
established a one-party totalitarian state, under which Jews, political opponents
and other "undesirable" elements were marginalised, harassed and eventually
imprisoned and exterminated, leading to the Holocaust incident
◦ The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and
murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.
◦ "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire."
◦ The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that
Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an
alien threat to the so-called German racial community.
◦ During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other
groups because of their perceived "racial inferiority": Roma (Gypsies), the
disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others).
◦ Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioural
grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses,
and homosexuals.
◦ At least 200,000 mentally or physically disabled patients, mainly
Germans, living in institutional settings, were murdered in the so-
called Euthanasia Program.

Retrieved October 24, 2013 from

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143
 Extermination camps (or death camps) were camps during World War II
(1939–45) built primarily by Nazi Germany to systematically kill millions of
people by execution (primarily by gassing) and extreme work under starvation
conditions.
 Another distinctive feature of Nazi genocide was the extensive use of human
subjects in "medical" experiments.
 The most notorious of these physicians was Dr. Josef Mengele, who worked in
Auschwitz.
 His experiments included placing subjects in pressure chambers, testing drugs
on them, freezing them, attempting to change eye color by injecting chemicals
into children's eyes, and various amputations and other surgeries

RETRIEVED OCTOBER 24, 2013 FROM BERENBAUM, MICHAEL (2005). The World Must Know: The History Of The Holocaust As Told In The United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Johns Hopkins University Press.
German Policemen Tormenting a
Jew Inrzeszów, Poland

Jewish mass grave near Zolochiv, west

Ukraine (Nazi occupied USSR). Photo
was found by Soviets at former Gestapo
headquarters in Zolochiv.

A child dying in the streets of the

Warsaw Ghetto
Why we remember the holocaust
the holocaust documentary
 Cultural relativism in practice:
Genital mutilation/cutting

◦ Genital cutting is widespread within some African cultures and

ethnic groups. It is seen as the climax of initiation, something that
both boys and girls have to take part in before they are accepted as
adults in the community.
◦ Young people leave home to be trained in the ways of adult life.
For girls this means learning practical skills before returning to
their homes as women.
 According to supporters, the process of female genital cutting has practical
merits in a physically harsh society. It is proof that the woman is mentally
strong and able to deal with the difficult responsibilities of adult life.
 It also has religious and social significance. The shedding of blood is seen
symbolically as a stream connecting the woman to the rest of her close-knit
community. In a small community oneness is very important.
 The ritual is also seen as an essential preparation for marriage. After the
initiation rituals women begin looking for a husband and hope to start a
family.

Retrieved October 24, 2013 from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/femalecircumcision/femalecirc_1.shtml
 Cultural relativism in practice:
Foot inBinding
◦ The first recorded binding occurred the Five Dynasties and Ten States
period in the 10th century.
◦ According to the story, an emperor had a favorite concubine, a dancer who
built a gilded stage in the shape of a lotus flower.
◦ When she bound her feet into a hoof-like shape and danced on the lotus, the
practice became very fashionable; and the other concubines attempted to
imitate her in order to gain the emperor's favor.
◦ So foot binding started with the royal court and then spread throughout China,
beginning in the south of the country and soon reaching the north.
◦ In the 12th century, foot binding had become much more widespread, and by the
early Qing Dynasty (in the mid-17th century), every girl who wished to marry had
her feet bound.
◦ The only people who didn't bind their feet were the very poor, ethnic Hakka
people, and women who worked in fishing because they had needed to have
normal feet in order to balance themselves on boats.
Chinese -
Traditional Foot Binding Culture
◦ One of the treasures of any country is its people. In this respect Myanmar,
particularly the east with its rich and diverse ethnic minorities, is well endowed.
◦ One of the most striking of these groups is the Padaung.
◦ Natives of Kayah State the Padaung are seldom seen in the lowlands and, if they
appear at all, tend to congregate around the provincial town of Loikaw near the
border with Thailand.
◦ In the past Padaung girls were fitted with the rings at the age of five or
six.
◦ The day chosen for this ritual was prescribed by the horoscopic findings
of the village shamans.
◦ The neck was carefully smeared with a salve and massage for several
hours, after which a priest would fit small cushions under the first ring-
usually made of bronze - to prevent soreness.
◦ The cushions were removed later on. The process would continue with
successive ring being added every two years.
◦ A Padaung women of marriageable age will probably have had her neck
extended by 25 centimetres
◦ These severe decorations express the Padaung women's own concept of beauty
and social ranking but there are other theories concerning the origins ofthese
rings.
◦ It has been claimed that rings were first placed around the women's necks in order
to make them undesirable to slave traders.
◦ A Padaung legend explains that the rings were protection against tiger bites, a
constant hazard in their homeland in the north of China.
◦ Unlike normal accessories, these rings are for life and may only be removed
when really necessary.
◦ Adultery among Padaung women has always been punished by the removal of
the rings, a fate almost literally, worse than death.
◦ This is an unusually cruel punishment as the cervical vertebrae has become
deformed after years of wearing the rings, and the neck muscles have
shrunken.
◦ Unless she wishes to risk suffocation the unfortunate wife must pay for the
infidelity by spending the rest of her life lying down or try to find some other
artificial support for her neck.
Retrieved October 25, 2013 from
http://www.myanmargeneva.org/tourism/THE%20PADAUNG_files/THE%20PADAUNG.htm
Brass shackles
 Support Cultural Relativists
◦ There is extreme variation in customs, manners, taboos, religions, and so on from
culture.
◦ Moral beliefs and attitudes of human beings are learned essentially from their
cultural environments.
◦ People in different cultures tend to believe that their morality is the one true
morality.
Support Cultural Absolutists
◦ Similar moral principles exist in all societies.
◦ People in all culture have similar needs
◦ There are a great similarities in situations and relationship existing in all cultures.
◦ There are a great many similarities in sentiments, emotions, and attitudes.
 Criticism on Anthropological
(study of mankind) Facts
1) Just because culture differ about what is right and wrong does not mean that
one culture is right whereas another is wrong.
2) Just because a belief is learned from or accepted by a culture does not mean
that it is true or false, or that truth is relative only to specific societies.
3) Just because moral principles are similar in all societies does not mean that they are
valid and absolute.
4) Even if people have similar needs, sentiments, emotions, and attitudes, there is still
a question of whether these should or should not be satisfied.
Ethical Values in Malaysian culture

Among others:
1. Adat meminang
2. Berpantang 44 hari
selepas melahirkan
anak
3. Bertindik di kedua
belah telinga (anak
perempuan)

What are the ethical

values hidden in these
customs?
Cultural relativism: an exercise
◦ Work in groups of 4
◦ Try to remember and identify what are the culture(s) that are still practiced by your
family/ethnicity till today
◦ You may list down more than one culture to be presented after the time is up