cultural relativism

Meaning: Cultural relativism is a stance used in sociology and anthropology. Behaviors such as dress, diet, kinship rules or religious ritual are interpreted by how they function and what they mean inside the culture that produces them. The aim is to avoid imposing outside standards, which helps researchers reduce bias when studying unfamiliar groups.

On the MCAT: Passages describe a researcher or observer reacting to an unfamiliar custom. You may be asked to identify whether the reaction shows cultural relativism or ethnocentrism. A typical item describes someone who studies a ritual by asking what role it plays for the community, with no judgment of it as better or worse. That is relativism. A related question may ask which approach lowers observer bias in cross-cultural research. Cultural relativism also appears alongside the terms culture shock, cultural universals, assimilation and multiculturalism, so know how each differs.

Common confusion: Students often treat cultural relativism as meaning that every practice is morally acceptable, or that cultures cannot be compared. As the exam uses it, it is a method of understanding a practice in context, not a claim that no practice can be criticized. It is also not the same as xenocentrism, which is the belief that another culture is superior to one's own. Ethnocentrism judges other cultures by one's own standards, and cultural relativism is the corrective to it.