DISCLAIMER: Media files courtesy to their respective and rightful owners. REFERENCE MODULE: DepEd-CAR

2. No one culture is superior than another culture when
compared to systems of morality, law, politics, etc.

3. Cultural norms and values derive their meaning
within a specific social context.

4. There is no absolute standard of good or evil,
therefore every decision and judgment of what is right
and wrong is individually decided in each society.

5. Any opinion on ethics is subject to the perspective of
each person within their particular culture.

6. It tries to promote the understanding of cultural
practices that are unfamiliar to other cultures such as
eating insects, genocides or genital cutting.

7. Everything that happens within a culture must and
should not be questioned by outsiders.
Ex: Nazi party’s point of view justifying the Holocaust

8. Creates questions about cultural practices in terms of
who is accepting them and why.
Critical cultural relativism also recognizes power relationships.

9. This procedure refers to the partial or
total removal of the external female
genitalia or any other trauma to the
female reproductive/genital organs.
Africa’s female genital cutting

10. By allowing this procedure to happen,
females are considered women and
then are able to be married. FGC is
practiced mainly because of culture,
religion and tradition.
Africa’s female genital cutting

11. Outside cultures such as the United
States look down upon FGC, but are
unable to stop this practice from
happening because it is protected by
its culture.
Africa’s female genital cutting

12. Foot binding was to stop
the growth of the foot and
make them smaller.
China’s feet binding

13. The process often began between four
and seven years old. A ten-foot bandage
would be wrapped around the foot forcing
the toes to go under the foot. It caused
the big toe to be closer to the heel
causing the foot to bow.
China’s feet binding

14. In China, small feet were seen as
beautiful and a symbol of status. The
women wanted their feet to be “three-
inch golden lotuses”. It was also the
only way to marry into money.
China’s feet binding

15. Because men only wanted
women with small feet, even after
this practice was banned in 1912,
women still continued to do it.
China’s feet binding

16. To Western cultures the idea of feet
binding might seems torturous, but for
the Chinese culture it was a symbol of
beauty that has been ingrained the
culture for hundreds of years. The idea
of beauty differs from culture to culture.
China’s feet binding

17. ETHNOCENTRISM CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Ethnocentrism is judging other cultures
based on the preconceptions originating in
the standards and customs of one’s own
culture.
Cultural relativism is the notion that a
culture should be understood on its own
terms, not using standards of another
culture.
Involves looking at another culture from the
perspective of one’s own culture
Involves looking at another culture by its
own perspective instead of one’s own
culture.
An ethnocentric individual will believe that
his culture is better, ‘correct’ and ‘normal
A person who believes in cultural relativism
understands that one culture is not better
than another.

18. Basing from the comparison table, identify which of the
following is an example of Ethnocentrism, which is of Cultural
Relativism.
1) Slave harassment.
2) No culture is superior to any other culture
when comparing systems of morality, law
or politics.

19. 3) The Merchant of Venice by William
Shakespeare.
4) As long as we don’t “hurt” anyone,
anything goes.
5) Adolf Hitler’s hatred to Jewish people
that lead to Holocaust.

20. 6) The idea of “absolute truth” and God is
discarded.
7) Mandate of Heaven proliferated by the
Chinese.
8) British Imperialism where Africans and
Americans are considered primitive
societies.

21. 9) A rejection of the idea of universal right and
wrong.
10) Truth itself is relative, depending on the
cultural environment.

22. 11) U.S. is generally better than other
nations.
12) All cultural beliefs are equally valid.

23. Write a positive sign (+) if the situation portrays Cultural
Relativism, otherwise, a negative (-).
1. In the Philippines, premarital sex is morally
unacceptable. If you go to another country,
teenagers want to lose their virginity at a young
age.

24. Write a positive sign (+) if the situation portrays Cultural
Relativism, otherwise, a negative (-).
2. In the Philippines, we do not cease to debate on the
moral acceptability of contraceptives. In other
countries, abortion is perfectly normal, more so the
use of artificial contraceptives.

25. Write a positive sign (+) if the situation portrays Cultural
Relativism, otherwise, a negative (-).
3. One society make any prohibitions on women; while
another society allows women to have equal
opportunities and obligations as men.

26. Write a positive sign (+) if the situation portrays Cultural
Relativism, otherwise, a negative (-).
4. James Rachel’s notes on the interesting but
seemingly scandalous practices of the Eskimos:
• They practice infanticide
• They lend their wives to their visitors as a sign of hospitality
• They abandon their old and feeble people in the snow to die

27. CONCRETE EXAMPLES
Study the following comic strip. You can make your own
comic strip where the dialogue rotates on how important
cultural relativism in attaining cultural understanding. You
could use the actual setting and experiences present in
your community or barangay.

28. CONCRETE EXAMPLES
- Identify one practice, culture or process in your
community which you appreciate or condemn.
- Make a comic strip out of it.
- Explain why you appreciate or condemn it in at
least 5 sentences.