The original idea for this post turned into a bit of an essay so I’ve decided to split it into two. This first one covers my experience learning about cultural relativism. The next covers cultural relativism as applied to asset management (i.e. my day job).
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised the value in combining my experiences rather than trying to keep parts of my life totally separate.
Sometimes this is described as “bringing our whole selves to everything that we do” in contrast to “wearing different hats” for the different roles we play in life.
I wouldn’t say it’s better to be all one or the other- but instead I’m trying to have the right balance that works for me, and helps me to deliver at my best.
In this regard - something I spend a lot of time thinking about in my role as a charity director at The Watford African Caribbean Association, is culture.
TL;DR
Ethnocentrism, the idea that one’s own culture is superior, stems from ignorance.
Cultural Relativism helps us understand that there is no “universal” standard for right or wrong.
We can still seek to define right from wrong, but we should avoid assuming that something is wrong because it is different.
A more inclusive understanding of culture leads to better outcomes for everyone.
Cultural Ethnocentrism
The Watford African Caribbean Association is all about creating a positive impact in Watford and the surrounding areas whilst celebrating our African and Caribbean heritage.
Unfortunately, this means we occasionally run into people who object to the celebration of our heritage. The attitude is generally summarised as ‘if you’re in Britain then you should assimilate entirely to British values’.
Although the typical person holding these views wouldn’t likely describe it as such, this is known as ethnocentrism: the idea that one’s own culture is superior.
Generally this originates in ignorance of the many positive (and sometimes superior) aspects of other cultures, born from institutional and social biases (it’s normal to know the more about your own immediate “tribe” than that of others who are further away).
But also relevant is a phenomenon that has been described as the epistemology of ignorance (from “The Racial Contract” by Charles W. Mills) : the idea that rather than viewing ignorance simply as a passive absence of knowledge, ignorance can be an active, often intentional, aspect of society that shapes power dynamics, social structures, and systems of oppression of some groups or empowerment of other groups.
When certain information is intentionally obscured, de-emphasised, or denied, we create cultural blind spots that reinforce dominant perspectives and maintain social inequalities.
Mills wrote about ignorance in the context of race, but the mechanism described has philisophical similarities to feminism and the idea of the patriarchy, and is generally useful in understanding how we, as humans, structure ourselves, our ideas, our customs, and our social behaviours.
Think about the biases in how we teach history in the UK - my experience was mostly kings and queens and then world wars 1 and 2, a bit of the falklands war, and that was pretty much it. I understand most people will have (or had) a similar experience.
It’s extremely rare to see much more than a quick mention of the British Empire (good or bad), or the transatlantic slave trade, or how Jesus was not in fact a white man from Oxford but was actually a Jewish man from the Middle East, or for that matter how the bulk of mathematical theory originated in Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, Ancient Greece, and Ancient China. The list could go on- but the point is - we choose what we teach our children (who become the adults in society) and those choices will impact how rounded or biased our society is towards different cultures.
Cultural Relativism
The answer to ethnocentrism is cultural relativism. The principle in anthropology and sociology that a person’s beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based on that person’s own culture, rather than judged by the criteria of another culture.
Cultural relativism emphasises that there is no “universal” standard for right or wrong; rather, each culture’s norms and values are viewed as products of its unique history, environment, and social circumstances.
This is not to say that we should blindly accept someone else’s actions because of their cultural heritage.
For example, I would absolutely insist that Female Genital Mutilation is barbaric and wrong regardless of any cultural or social factors that might lead to FGM.
The point is, when we come to form our opinions/laws we should do so with the full perspective of behaviors and customs in the full cultural context.
Put simply, we can still say something is wrong. But we should not just dismiss something as wrong because it is different.
Practices that may seem unusual or objectionable in one society may hold significant meaning and function in another, and thus should be understood in those terms to gain a balanced perspective.
Celebrating Diversity of Culture
I’d actually go further- when we incorporate other cultures into our own, we can end up with something much better for everyone.
I mentioned the empire earlier, there was an awful lot of bad stuff that happened under the umbrella of “the British Empire”. However a lot of good happen as well.
My existence is down to the post war British Nationality Act 1948 which gave people from colonies the right to live and work in Britain. People in the Caribbean were invited to the UK to help rebuild post-war Britain, which is how it came to be that my father moved from Barbados to England. The Windrush generation experienced hardships and faced prejudices- but they also joined the local populace, made connections, fell in love, and produced children (like me, hurrah!).
Likewise we could consider food - how many fantastic foods are a fusion of cuisines, from flavour combinations and inspirations all the way to dishes entirely invented to cater to different tastes and preferences (looking at you Korma).
Or how about music- where modern music is almost entirely permutations and combinations of influences from music from all around the world.
I could go on - I’m not going to attempt to describe all culture ever. I think the point is that cultural relativism goes both ways, the good and the bad. We should not combat the ethnocentric narrative exclusively with contrarianism. When you live in a society- it’s likely that within that society there will be a certain amount of bias towards the prevailing culture. It’s not a helpful response to blindly attack the dominant culture. If two wrongs don’t make a right then two biases don’t make balance.
Balance comes from destroying ignorance - by learning and celebrating our diversity of cultures and trying to find the best combinations for a given situation.
Cultural relativism in asset management
Obviously cultural differences exist in infrastructure organisations (and in all businesses), both locally to a given organisation as well as when comparing organisations in different countries and regions.
That was going to be the subject of this post but given the length I’ll split that out into its own post.
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