Cultural Relativism - Essay Example

What is the definition of cultural relativism? Discuss some of the cultural mores in the memoir and how they affect the ordinary lives of the characters. Is it fair to judge these cultural norms or is it incorrect to compare our civilization to that China in the mid-20th century? Cultural relativism is related to a natural theory of evolution that views the cultural and linguistic diversity of human civilization globally as related to unique aspects of geographical isolation and parallel development. Maria Baghramian traces cultural relativism as back as Herodotus, and cites the woks of Montaigne, Dilthey ("Patterns of Culture"), and Frank Boas as the important figures of the development of this movement. (Baghramian, 2004) The main aspect of the development of cultural relativism historically also includes the interrelation of ideas between Darwin, Dewey, and Boas. (Strauss, 2011) Darwin’s work in the Galapagos influenced Boas’ conception of cultural diversity by allowing him to see the patterns of evolution in language and culture that proceeded on the same fundamental lines as the development of diversity in species as Darwin described. This also led him to value the history and lineage of each culture as an essential characteristic of cultural relativism. (NNDB, 2011) The Darwinian aspects of cultural relativism made it an attractive methodology for the study of global cultures in anthropology. Yet, with cultural relativism there also developed a basis of moral relativism, which in some ways was posited in a manner that reflected the scientific method in social sciences, but which also removed moral criticism of cultural practices from academic research. For example, in this context foot-binding, as described by, Pang-Mei Natasha Chang in “Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir,” was practiced traditionally in Chinese society, though it created immense pain and suffering in the girls themselves. With cultural relativity in the practice of anthropology, researchers are required to suspend judgment and evaluate foot-binding within the socio-cultural understanding of Chinese society and its indigenous values and morality. This investigates how foot –binding relates to other cultural traditions, rituals, and hierarchies, but it fails to take a stand on the morality of the practice in universal teams, believing that the question is beyond the anthropological or scientific method. (Glazer, 1996) Thus, in this manner it can be argued that foot-binding was so widely accepted of a practice, that it was not immoral because it was the common, accepted basis of society. In this sense, there are no universals, only cultural and moral relativism in patterns of human evolution. However, looking at description from the girls themselves, who describe their motivations at the time, it is clear that many girls opposed it themselves, in their own minds and suffering, but were simply too lacking in respect politically and socially without power, that they were abused on a mass scale. (Celliana, 2010) The question of the mass-practice of harmful, immoral, or violent practices culturally is viewed through our contemporary moral value system, which taints our own judgment from that of the dispassionate objectivism which cultural relativism is based on, but we have to continue to reform society to outlaw, abolish, and reform harmful practices from history that have no legitimate foundation. In Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s “Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir,” the character Chang Yu-I has her feet bound by her mother, who follows the ancient tradition like most other women in the society. Chang Yu-I as a child is shown to resist the process and ultimately forces her parents to stop torturing her is this way. This is used symbolically as a means to foreshadow Chang Yu-I’s role in becoming one of the first “modern women” in China, and to pioneer divorce in a society where it was unknown and unaccepted historically. The issues of arranged marriages, forced marriages, and practices like foot-binding in Chinese culture can be viewed and judged from our 20th Century standards of morality, but when we do so we project our own feelings and biases as a universal value in the same manner that the Chinese expressed it culturally in foot-binding. From this realization, cultural relativism has its place in anthropology in the scientific analysis of human culture historically, but people need to approach historical issues with their own sense of moral judgment, in order to question practices like Chinese foot-binding and through that express respect for the political reform practices that abolish harmful old traditions like foot-binding, slavery, or concubinage. 2. How does the history of China in the 20th century affect the memoir? In Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s “Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir,” the history of China is viewed in the lives of extraordinary individuals who are the actual vehicles of historical forces. The traditional status of women in Chinese culture can be viewed historically from accounts and practices of marriage, concubinage, foot-binding and other Feudal or Medieval practices that would be shaken from society by the great transformations of Modernism. (Chang, 1997) This can be seen primarily through the Maoist revolution in China, which elevated males and females to a position of social equality, and destroyed the old order in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960’s. The imperialist values of old China were radically shattered and abolished by Maoism, leading to an entirely new conception of Chinese national identity. (Hays, 2008) The position of women in the traditional China in comparison to what they will become in the modern is a main theme of Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s “Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir,” and the modern woman is symbolized by the first woman to enjoy the freedom of choice to actually break the bonds of marriage through divorce. (Chang, 1997) If one accepts that as many as 2 billion Chinese women were subject to foot-binding against their will, in a manner that can be said to have destroyed their ability to enjoy a normal human life due to social pressure to deform their bodies, the entire practice can be seen as similar to a form of sex slavery. When the Japanese practiced this on the Chinese and Koreans in World War II, by taking many women in the captured areas as concubines for the military, it was resisted heavily by the women and the men in China together. Following this experience of foreign occupation, the reform process was accelerated in both societies as part of the greater global revolution in consciousness that would take following the Second World War. Raeann R. Hamon and Bron B. Ingolds summarize this in their book “Mate selection across cultures,” as a process through which women worldwide are finally given the option of free choice and self-determination in family and marriage relations. (Hamon & Ingoldsby, 2003) In liberating women and girls from youth marriage, forced marriage, arranged marriage, and other practices that depict them as property and domestic labor, they can become equal and productive members of society and make incredibly valuable contributions to the development of the social good in modern culture. 3. Why were woman considered “nothing” in China? How does this idea impact the lives of the main characters? The practice of youth marriage, forced marriage, and arranged marriage was common in Chinese society and is characteristic of the Feudal stage. (Wolf& Huang, 1980) The practice of concubinage seems to share the same cultural and social values towards women as these marriage practices, recognizing the supreme authority of the family and particularly the Father in determining the life decisions for the other people. This is seen as unjust and contrary to freedom in modern society and rejected, and the process of emancipation historically can be studied in works such as Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s “Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir.” While the emancipation of women globally can be related to a common struggle, in China it proceeded as a part of the Maoist revolution historically and as acting in counter to indigenous practices that are not seen in other geographical locations outside of China, making the history unique. (Leader, 1973) Pang-Mei Natasha Chang famously writes in her book that "In China, a woman is nothing." This is perhaps the most popular quote from the novel, but it can be seen in based in the sexual slavery that women suffered in feudal China through the practice of foot-binding, forced marriage, arranged marriage, concubinage, and the way that women were excluded from the political process. (Chang, 1997) A woman who is another man’s pleasure object or slave, actual property and domestic servant, is considered as “nothing,” because she has no autonomous freedom to act personally. There is no doubt that girls and women in these generation possessed a full subjective identity, experience, and awareness that included a sense of the injustice of their own position, but they lacked the power to change the system, and lacking education, the ability to organize politically. As such, foot-binding is symbolic of the over-all position of women and girls in Feudal Chinese culture, and their ‘nothingness’ is primarily in regard to their ability to participate as equals in this culture, enjoying the same opportunities, rights, and privileges as men. This is the basic humanity of the human rights paradigm that guarantees respect and equality for every individual, male or female. In Feudal Chinese practice, forced marriage and arranged marriage portray the girl as a type of property that can be traded for other goods in society. The same principle is displayed in concubinage, which placed women in a position of bound servitude. The wife and children in a family were under the authority of the father, but with concubinage, the woman could lose who children to become servants in her master’s house. (Hays, 2008) With this domestic servitude forced upon women, girls were unable to receive the education that would enable them to compete equally in Chinese society. Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s characters show how this changes in the modern era, and not only education but also marital self-determination through divorce is seen as examples of a woman’s freedom of choice. (Chang, 1997) If a woman is considered “nothing” in a society, it is because she has no path to achievement, no ability to participate in civil society, no political role, no career, or respect in society. As Pang-Mei Natasha Chang shows in her character, this is attained through legal reform and access to basic human rights in the modern era by Chinese women. 4. How did the twentieth century affect education for women and men in China? How did Yu-I’s education affect her life’s path? Women in China traditionally had much less of an opportunity to receive an education than boys, and this can be seen as another aspect of Feudal bondage that has been replaced through the combined processes of Maoism and Modernism to now act as an egalitarian society where men and women can participate in education as equals. (Cohen, 1991) Needless to say, this is of vital importance, but the historical uniqueness of the practice of foot-binding and concubinage particularly represents the challenges faced by reformers in the culture, and Maoism is essential to understanding the unique path that the Chinese have taken historically to economic, political, and social development in the 20th Century. The archaic practices have been banished and modern women in China are not dissimilar than their counterparts in other modern nations, enjoying equal citizenship, voting rights, and access to education. That this process occurred in the actual lives and generations of her own family is what Pang-Mei Natasha Chang is depicting through the voice and lives of her characters. (Chang, 1997) Chang Yu-I is depicted by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang as an archetypal symbol of the Modern Woman in China, and her life struggle represents the historical evolution of the times. That she is able to receive an education, and work in the modern economy is similar to the daily experience of billions of women in modern society, so in some regards would seem almost commonplace. Yet, Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s depiction of the world and traditions of ancient China make it more clear just exactly how important this social progress has been and how quickly it has arrived. By receiving an education Chang Yu-I is able to work in a bank, and become a modern woman, citizen, and respected part of society, Had her feet been bound at childhood, it is unlikely that she would have been able to pursue this course of independence. (Chang, 1997) The effect of this political and social process of reform in the 20th Century in China is to build an egalitarian, modern society that protects the equal status of men and women, as well as their right to vote, participate in society, and enjoy civil rights equally across all sectors of the law. (Leader, 1973) That this is implemented in China through Maoism is important, but similar values and statues have been enacted in most political environments on the same basis, leading to our contemporary view that these are universal human rights. If one accepts the value of human rights, and their validity, then the old processes of Feudalism in china such as foot-binding, forced marriage, arranged marriage, and concubinage are seen as symbols of part of a larger social order that repressed the rights of women and girls historically. (Hays, 2008) Because of this legacy, the rights of women and the protection of girls are a specific part of our human rights law. The importance of education in enjoying equal rights in a society cannot be understated, because without education girls cannot be equal to boys with education, and they will inevitably be subject to the type of domestic servitude that represents the Feudal order. The 20th Century itself brought rapid change across the world, making it reasonable to question whether the advances made by women in China were the result of modernism, as they are depicted in Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s novel, or through Maoism, as Chinese history claims. As Maoism itself changes in China, the modernist development and progress in women’s education and civic participation increases, showing the power of modernism in the society as depicted by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang in “Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir.” Sources Cited: Baghramian, Maria. Relativism. Routledge, 2004. Web. 12 April 2011. Blake, C. Fred. Death and Abuse in Marriage Laments: The Curse of Chinese Brides. Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (1978), pp. 13-33. Web. 12 April 2011. Cellania, Miss. The Bygone Practice of Foot Binding in China. Neatorama, Jul 7, 2010, Last updated February 2011. Web. 12 April 2011. Chang, Pang-Mei Natasha. Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir. Anchor, 1997. Chang, Pang-Mei Natasha. Zhang Youyi : tradition, transition, and transcendence. OCLC's Experimental Thesis Catalog, 1987. Web. 12 April 2011. CHCP. Chinese Wedding Traditions. The Chinese Historical and Cultural Project, 2011. Web. 12 April 2011. Cohen, Myron L.. Being Chinese: The Peripheralization of Traditional Identity. Daedalus, Vol. 120, No. 2, The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today (Spring, 1991), pp. 113-134. Web. 12 April 2011. Glazer, Mark. Cultural Relativism. UTPA, 1996. Web. 12 April 2011. Goodreads. Bound Feet & Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang, Jennifer Ann Daddio. Goodreads, 2011, Last updated February 2011. Web. 12 April 2011. Hamon, Raeann R. & Ingoldsby, Bron B.. Mate selection across cultures. SAGE, 2003. Web. 12 April 2011. Hays, Jeffrey. CONCUBINES, MISSTRESSES, POLYGAMY AND DIVORCE IN CHINA. Facts and Details, 2008, Last updated February 2011. Web. 12 April 2011. Leader, Shelah Gilbert. The Emancipation of Chinese Women. World Politics, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Oct., 1973), pp. 55-79. Web. 12 April 2011. Lim, Louisa. Painful Memories for China's Footbinding Survivors. NPR, 2007. Web. 12 April 2011. Miles, Nancy.FOOTBINDING. UCLA, 2011. Web. 12 April 2011. NNDB. Franz Boas. Soylent Communications, 2011. Web. 12 April 2011. Strauss, Dr. James. FROM DILTHEY TO DARWIN AND DEWEY: PROPHETS OF CULTURAL RELATIVISM. Lincoln Christian Seminary, 2011. Web. 12 April 2011. Wolf, Arthur P. & Huang, Chieh-shan. Marriage and adoption in China, 1845-1945. Stanford University Press, 1980. Web. 12 April 2011. Read More