Cultural Relativism and Community Practice

During social work community practice last week, our teacher told a story that had been in the news lately. The story was about a Saudi Arabian school girl who hit her teacher in the head with a glass, after a the girl struggled to get her cell phone back from her teacher. The girl is sentenced to 2 months in prison and 90 lashes. The lashes, with a cane, are divided evenly over a few days reports ECanadaNow. Saudi Arabia has been known for continual human rights abuses. Amnesty International (http://www.amnesty.org/) and other human rights organizations are fighting to protect peoples human rights around the world. The 2010 World Report on Human Rights produced by Human Rights Watch provides a report on more than 90 nations and territories around the world and can be downloaded at http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2010/news-release.

Discussion proceeded the story about the school girl. In my social work cohort, I see that there are people on both ends of the continuum on issues such as this-that raise dilemmas and challenge values. A small few are on the strong cultural relativism side, which "is a principle that an individual humans beliefs and activities should be understood in terms of his or her own culture" (Cultural Relativism, p.p 1). While a majority are hovering somewhere in the middle of the continuum, others are far in the depths of the other side. Donnelly (1984) describes the continuum ranging from radical and strong cultural relativism through weak relativism just short of radical universalism. Just remember strong and weak are relative on there own. In the author states that strong cultural relativism "holds that culture is the principle source of the validity of a moral right or rule. In other words...rights and other social practices, value, and moral rules are culturally determined" (p.p 401). He explains that strong cultural relativists would accept few universals. On the other side, weak cultural relativism accepts many universal human rights which does not allow for many context, local variations and exceptions.

There is a common misconception people have when evaluating and discussing the topic. Many people in the weak depths of the continuum believe that cultural relativism is a way to say it's "OK" and that "anything goes." Kluckholn, an anthropologist, explains that this is not the case. There may not be any universal moral standards that cross the globe, but the universal is that people have moral standards. Cultural relativism has been in the forefront of many debates on rights and morals, for example the Declaration of Human Rights, but whether you follow, ascribe or despise the relativist doctrine this is what we need to remember, as values are challenged and dilemmas contemplated.

• "It does not require a relativist to sacrifice his or her values. But it does require anyone engaged in a consideration of rights and morals to reflect on how their own enculturation has shaped their views.
  
• There is no reason why the relativist should be paralyzed, as critics have often asserted. But a relativist will acknowledge that the criticism is based on his own ethnocentric standards and realizes also that the condemnation may be a form of cultural imperialism" (Cultural Relativism, p.p. 8).

Some would say, that the 2 month imprisonment and 90 lashes waiting for the school girl are barbaric, and that "we" the international community need to intervene in such situations whether ascribed by religion, law and/or culture is a necessity. When, if, why, and how is it that "we" intervene?

It was brought up in class that, here in the United States, we once allowed slavery and the burning of witches, but this was changed. It is important to remember that cultures, contexts, and systems are always changing and that we do not live in a static world.

Do we leave everyone be, this individualistic mindset? Where we don't interfere in our family disputes, our neighbors business, and our community and global issues. How do we change our lives, others lives, how do we change the world without CHANGE?

Often journalists, photographers and anthropologists alike, observe and take snapshots of peoples lives without intervening or changing the situation. This is often a huge ethical dilemma-interfering or not!

Hardcatle and Powers (2004) describes four ways to document and discover lives of communities including: fieldwork study, community power structure study, community analysis study, and problems and services study. Coming from an anthropological background, my interest is ethnography, which is a qualitative research method using participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, and informants. I would like to do research with a community to discover and define social problems. Then assist in establishing new programs to meet the needs of individuals, groups and the community. Personally, I left the discipline of anthropology behind because I want to assist and be more involved with change.

Finding the "right" way to intervene or help, can be challenging; especially when there is not one way of knowing, thinking and doing that is relevant to all.

Cultural Relativism. (2009) Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_relativism

Donnelly, J. (1984). Cultural relativism and universal human rights. Human Rights Quartely, 6(4) 400-419.

ECanadaNow. Sadia Arabian School Girl Gets 90 Lashes (January 26, 2010)
http://www.ecanadanow.com/world/2010/01/26/3626/comment-page-1/

Hardcastle, D. A., & Powers, P. R. (2004). Community practice: Theories and skills for social workers (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc.