The Philosophy of Culture: A Short Essay on Cultural Relativism

In the early 20th century, a wave of obsession was washing over the Western world with regard to a heightened interest in African-descended cultures, with the rise of aesthetic and intellectual movements on both sides such as negrophilia in France and the Harlem Renaissance of the United States. Defined as "primitive" and "exotic" compared to white Western societies, imagery circulated throughout the West that would reinforce the idea of foreign cultures such as those of Africa as inherently inferior. Indeed, despite varying levels of interest and involvement on the part of Europeans, the general consensus between these societies was that Africans, along with any non-Europeans, were lesser entities as a result of the aspects of their non-European cultures. While this perspective was certainly the predominant theory among mainstream Western academia and intelligentsia, concepts were being developed on the fringes of the intellectual community that would serve to challenge the preconceived notions that came to dominate European perceptions about "other" cultures. Among these, the philosophical concept of cultural relativism stands out as the most prominent example of intellectual theory being used to combat misconceptions regarding different societies, cultures and their people. Generally credited as being the brainchild of the black American philosopher Alain Locke when it is examined in the modern period, cultural relativism is a philosophical theory that endeavors to establish a rationale for difference and uniqueness in values and norms of differing societies. When applied ethnographically, this can lead to potential understanding between seemingly disparate groups of people and can help eliminate prejudices and biases when one attempts to impartially and rationally examine another's societal perspective. In the process, this can prove to be an effective tool in the defeat of the idea of certain cultures or societies as inherently superior to others on the normative level, while also simultaneously putting an end to the myths purported by pseudoscientific theories attempting to equate intangible ideals such as culture with "measurable" quantities, such as intelligence. Utilizing Alain Locke's three-pronged approach involving three principles- equivalence, reciprocity, and convertibility- cultural relativism can be used to explain differences in cultures both within societies and between them while also providing the basis for arguments in other philosophical arguments, such as those of the well-known French structuralist Claude Levi-Strauss. When properly examined, understood and then applied, it can be seen that cultural relativism is the foundational premise for the defeat of notions of inferiority within "other" societies.

To truly grasp the concept of cultural relativism and its context in anthropological research involving ethnography and intelligence, the principles of cultural relativism as defined by Alain Locke must first be established and explained. While cultural relativism has had its place in the annals of history since the founding of the discipline itself, the notion of cultural relativism itself has yet to be definitively defined in a manner similar to other philosophical schools and disciplines. However, with the establishment of the initial principles key to the discipline by Locke, it can be stated the concept of cultural relativism has a base from which other philosophers and intellectuals can draw ideas and frameworks for their individual arguments. Locke's principles, while initially somewhat broad, make the necessary distinction between the concept of cultural relativism as a tool to be used in the determination of values and whether those values represent cultures and societies as a whole in a way that can be used in pseudoscientific arguments for or against these aforementioned groups. The first of these principles established by Locke is known as "cultural equivalence," or simply "equivalence." At its core, Locke describes equivalence as the ability to search for and define similarities and comparisons in the dominant culture of a society with that of a marginalized or otherwise less prominent one. This ability would allow those of differing cultural backgrounds and societal positioning to find "common ground" amongst each other and potentially eliminate cultural differences as the reasoning for conflict or misunderstanding. Locke implies that upon interaction with people of a differing cultural or societal orientation, humans naturally focus on the dissimilarities between one another and establish notions about each other as a result. Should the values and norms of a given culture or society vary greatly in degree, the resulting established concept can lead to prejudice or conceptions being unfairly attributed despite the existence of actual similarity across communities in terms of values. As a result, adherence to the principle of "cultural equivalence" in an ethnographic sense would involve the observation and recording of values and norms in these disparate communities in an objective manner, noting the shared notions about particular institutions or concepts in these communities and using these notions to lay the groundwork for potential intercultural understanding regarding these concepts. The practicality of the true elimination of bias in this research is certainly something that can be challenged; however, by attempting to follow the designs of the principle as established by Alain Locke, the resulting data gathered can be much more definitive and reflective of the particular realities of a community's lived experiences and shared values.