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AbstractWithin the context of globalization, social workers need to ensure that international-level professional knowledge and practice do not lead to the oppression of the local people that the profession seeks to serve. One of the challenges for social workers is how to negotiate the sometimes-competing definitions and demands of local and cultural norms versus global and international laws. In this study, we used qualitative methods to explore those instances that bring to the fore the contentions between cultural and legal rights in child welfare cases in Ghana. Evidence from the study revealed that these social workers were faced with three main instances where conflict usually arose when navigating between the law and the culture of the people: (a) child custody disputes, (b) child paternity tests, and (c) child marriage. One of the key findings is that social workers adopt a benefit-emphasis approach to sensitise families and communities about the benefits of the legal requirements that guide and protect children. In doing so, they try to avoid any form of condemnation or attack on the norms and values of the people. The importance of this approach lies in its tact to de-emphasize the need to label right or wrong and emphasize the benefits of, for instance, educating the girl child for the family. We argue that using the benefit-emphasis approach is a key strategy for negotiating cultural and legal demands in child protection cases in Ghana.

This paper examines the influence of cultural relativism on the international protection of human rights, addressing the complex interplay between universal human rights standards and cultural diversity. Cultural relativism, which posits that human rights should be interpreted within the context of a specific culture, often conflicts with the principle of universality upheld by international human rights instruments. This tension raises critical questions about the applicability and enforcement of human rights norms across diverse cultural landscapes. By analyzing concrete cases and theoretical perspectives, the paper explores how cultural relativism can challenge and enrich the discourse on human rights. It highlights the potential for cultural relativism to undermine universal human rights protections by justifying practices that violate fundamental rights. Conversely, it argues that a nuanced understanding of cultural contexts can enhance the legitimacy and effectiveness of human rights interventions. The paper concludes by advocating for a balanced approach that respects cultural diversity while upholding the core human rights principles, emphasizing the need for dialogue and adaptability in the international human rights regime. The paper examines how instruments like the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights offer pathways to reconcile universal human rights with cultural diversity through adaptive frameworks.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a chronic, debilitating disease that disproportionally affects the Hispanic/Latino community residing in the United States. Optimal nutrition therapy is fundamental to the proper management of T2D and must be culturally adapted to facilitate permanent behavior change in this population. This review selected and assessed the nutrition components of interventions aimed to improve T2D outcomes in US-based Latinos/Hispanics, published from 2002 to 2023. An overview of the participant characteristics, nutrition intervention, and dietary assessment and outcomes is included. Nutrition interventions in this community benefit from the inclusion of bicultural registered dietitian nutritionist (RDNs) to assure the counseling team promotes culturally tailored nutrition recommendations based on current dietary guidelines. Nutrition assessment and outcomes should be captured with the use of validated dietary assessment tools and dietary quality indices appropriate to their target population. Standardizing these practices will facilitate intervention comparability and replicability and ultimately better target the needs of this community.

本文整理三位文化人類學家對教育的觀點。C. Geertz認為教育即文化限 縮，J. Henry認為教育即文化綑綁，G. D. Spindler則認為教育即文化干預、 文化壓縮，三者皆強調文化依賴教育擔負傳遞的功能，卻同時框限教育的內涵與運作。延伸討論的結果指出，教育的框限並非絕對的，教育不會被全然的文化所決定，在特定文化範圍內仍允許學校實施的彈性與個人抉擇的自由，也容許相對程度的創造；從文化相對論推論出教育的相對論，教育皆有其文化框限，各有其優缺點；每種教育模式都只是適應文化環境的文化選擇，沒有優劣差別，亦無放諸四海皆準的教育。在結論中，引用Spindler創用之文化治療概念，期待教育工作者從文化觀點進行質疑與批判，不需盲從於特定時空的教育模式，勇於發掘文化框限的機制與效應，以獲得教育的相對主體性，促成文化與教育的覺醒來支持合理教育的運作。 This article synthesizes the viewpoints of three cultural anthropologists on education. C. Geertz regards education as cultural reduction, J. Henry views it as cultural binding or fettering, and G. D. Spindler sees it as cultural intervention and compression. They all emphasize the reliance of culture on education for its transmission, yet at the same time, note how cultural also confines the operation of education. The extended discussion suggests that the limitations of education are not absolute. Education is not entirely determined by culture; there is still room for flexibility in implementation within the broader cultural space and freedom for individual choice, as well as opportunities for relative creativity. Derived from cultural relativism, the perspective adopted in this paper argues that all forms of education have their own cultural limitations, each with its advantages and disadvantages, and that every educational model is merely a cultural choice, adapted to its environment, with no superior or inferior models. In conclusion, drawing on Spindler’s concept of ‘cultural therapy,’ the paper calls for educators to critically question educational models from a cultural perspective, and to avoid blind adherence to specific educational models found in a particular time or place. It encourages the exploration of the mechanisms and effects of cultural constraints, with the goal of achieving relative subjectivity in education, and thereby fostering a better understanding of the interplay between culture and education that supports the rational operation of education.

The public release of ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence language model, caused wide-spread public interest in its abilities but also concern about the implications of the application on academia, depending on whether it was deemed benevolent (e.g., supporting analysis and simplification of tasks) or malevolent (e.g., assignment writing and academic misconduct). While ChatGPT has been shown to provide answers of sufficient quality to pass some university exams, its capacity to write essays that require an exploration of value concepts is unknown. This paper presents the results of a study where ChatGPT-4 (released May 2023) was tasked with writing a 1500-word essay to discuss the nature of values used in the assessment of cultural heritage significance. Based on an analysis of 36 iterations, ChatGPT wrote essays of limited length with about 50% of the stipulated word count being primarily descriptive and without any depth or complexity. The concepts, which are often flawed and suffer from inverted logic, are presented in an arbitrary sequence with limited coherence and without any defined line of argument. Given that it is a generative language model, ChatGPT often splits concepts and uses one or more words to develop tangential arguments. While ChatGPT provides references as tasked, many are fictitious, albeit with plausible authors and titles. At present, ChatGPT has the ability to critique its own work but seems unable to incorporate that critique in a meaningful way to improve a previous draft. Setting aside conceptual flaws such as inverted logic, several of the essays could possibly pass as a junior high school assignment but fall short of what would be expected in senior school, let alone at a college or university level.

The COVID-19 pandemic has generally affected the attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles of people and states. Although there is still no definitive position on the causes of the new species from the coronavirus family, there have been articles and discussions leading to the blaming of Chinese cultural tradition of eating the meat of bats - mammals which were also considered by scientists as potential transmitters of SARS-CoV-2. To measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the changing attitudes towards the doctrine of cultural relativism, in anthropological and sociological terms and state sovereignty in political terms, respondents from several Western Balkan countries, such as Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina answered a series of questions. The research findings show that changing the attitudes towards cultural relativism and state sovereignty is significantly dependent on bilateral relations between the Western Balkan nations with Chinese Foreign Policy rather than the COVID-19 pandemic.

The article addresses the issue of normative conflicts from the theoretical perspective of philosophy of values and socio-cultural anthropology and in the context of the current culture wars in Western societies, instigated by radical ideologies that colonize all spheres of life, reversing normative axiological hierarchies and thus causing anthropological, societal and epistemic upheavals. Their sources and manifestations are described and certain paradigmatic effects on humanistic knowledge, language and literature are analyzed.

Like Meursault in The Stranger (1942) by Albert Camus, the 34-year-old protagonist of Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery (1969) is almost certain of having killed an Arab in self-defence but feels no remorse for the deed except as it is judged by other Americans within his orbit of Western influence. While visiting Tunisia on what is apparently his first trip overseas, novelist Howard Ingham wrestles with the alterity of an Arab culture during the Six-Day War in the Middle East while at the same time criticizing the parochialism of a countryman who broadcasts propaganda about “Our Way of Life.” Ingham soon embraces, albeit equivocally, a perspective of cultural relativism, but his doing so is largely the dodge of a doubly dispossessed stranger in a strange land. Tremor thus figures as one of Highsmith’s “texts of exile,” as Fiona Peters has called it, that ends with Ingham’s anticlimactic return home to renew a relationship with his former wife.

According to the current interpretation, Wittgenstein in "Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough" takes an expressive approach to religious rituals and cultural practices. Relying on this approach, he criticizes Frazer's view. Moyal-Sharrock, relying on this interpretation, considers Wittgenstein as a proponent of a kind of cultural relativism. But cultural relativism is subject to objections from the perspective of naturalism and the theory of evolution. In this article, we will review Brian Clack's interpretation of Wittgenstein. Clack considers Wittgenstein's view of ritual practices to be compatible with naturalism and an evolutionary account of the social and cultural life of humans. We will then examine Emily Heckel's account of cultural relativism in Wittgenstein's reflections on religious rituals and cultural practices. We will show: (1) how Heckel defends that Wittgenstein is a cultural relativist in these reflections, and (2) how Heckel rejects objections of some naturalists and evolutionists to Wittgenstein's cultural relativism. Finally, we defend the position that, (a) Wittgenstein is not an epistemological cultural relativist, (b) from Wittgenstein's point of view, cultural and religious rituals are not alternatives to science, but they are present in all cultures—including modern culture—beside science, (c) Wittgenstein is a semantic relativist about cultural rituals, and (d) Wittgenstein's defense of the significance of rituals in the social life of human does not conflict with naturalistic study about human, language, and culture, and one can defend Wittgenstein's position about cultural rituals from some naturalistic point of view.

This study aims to investigate three things. First, how is the tendency of the perspective used in discussing the issue of female circumcision in society; second, what is the value base that distinguishes the practice of female circumcision in one society from another; and third, how each value base in the practice of female circumcision is realized or transformed in the feminist movement. The research was carried out with a qualitative approach where data were obtained using a literature study method by reading books, journal articles and various reports on the practice of female circumcision. The results show that studies that discuss the practice of female circumcision tend to be discussed in five perspectives, namely in the perspective of gender, culture, health, religion and law. In practice, female circumcision has a different value base from one society to another. The value bases used in female circumcision include women's initiation into adulthood; purification or cleansing, beautification; and female fertility. Different value bases become the basis for feminists to make efforts to prevent the practice of female circumcision, starting from the level of binding regulations to prevent the practice of female circumcision, community participatory dialogue to abandon the practice of female circumcision, and empowering women through education and the economy.

Development, in a new purport, requires its own special culture; in a way that it arises from within a particular culture and the same is its backer and supporter. Based on this statement, any state that pursues one of the forms of this development, it must inevitably also provide its cultural context otherwise; development turns into its antithesis. But development-oriented cultural transformation is sometimes accompanied by the omission of some of the pre-existing cultural variables. Cultural anthropology - a study of culture in general meaning – is in the process to recognize, on the one hand, the plurality of cultures by accepting the principle of cultural relativism, and the other hand, consider cultural necessities of development based on a new wave of development and requirement with a value-based approach. With a new branch of anthropology called developmental anthropology, this study with the help of the logic of the lower natives, tries to challenge the developmental elites and make them aware of the consequences of their hasty decisions. In other words, this article intends to analyze the challenge of cultural anthropology and propose some solutions. Today, anthropology seeks to bridge multiple realities of the human world on the one hand, and preserve cultural pluralism as a source of cultural creativity on the other.

There is a dearth of reliable literature that appropriately coined and conveyed the conceptual framework of federalism, scarcity of reliable information that analytically x-rayed the structural arrangement of Nigerian federalism, and challenges militating against the expected gains of federalism and the prospects thereof. The paper relied on qualitative methods like document analyses, personal experiences, key informant interviews, and discussions in generating relevant data that were thematically presented and resultantly analyzed using content analysis. The results show that there are works of literature that wrongly conceptualized federalism. Police brutality, political godfatherism, corruption, secession, revenue allocation problem, sectionalism, and conflicts were among the predominant challenges facing Nigerian federalism. Furthermore, the results show that sustainable development and efficient service delivery are part of the prospects. The paper concluded that many Nigerians do not have an adequate understanding of the nitty-gritty of federalism. As a corollary to this, destructive tendencies have troubled Nigerian federalism, making the center epileptic. The study for policy and practice implies that Nigeria, the largest populated country of Africa, has continued its federalist operations on the side of very low cohesion and unification of existing ethnic groups.

In South Africa, there is no adequate research that explored mathematics learning and teaching within rural schools and classrooms. Various literature posits that mathematics education research has virtually over-concentrated on urban and township schools and consistently ignored rural contexts and schools. Arguments exist that rural education and rural education research have been understudied in South Africa. Presumably, this would include mathematics education research as well. This paper explores the relationship between witchcraft beliefs, which is considered as an entrenched cultural phenomenon, and learners' mathematics learning within rural classrooms. In this paper, the local influences include that the learners end up not demonstrating their full understanding of mathematics contents because of the beliefs that if they exhibit their knowledge of the subject, they may be bewitched. Cultural Relativism was used to theorise the study within qualitative critical phenomenology as a methodology for the study. The study comprises 12 mathematics learners from a rural Acornhoek region in Mpumalanga Province, and data were collected using individual semi-structured interviews while the collected data were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis. Findings from this study illuminated that local beliefs and knowledge such as witchcraft exert significant influence on schools and learners' learning, including learners' not demonstrating their optimum understanding of mathematics.

Debates on the universality of human rights and cultural relativism seem to be eternal and will continue to exist as societal dynamics bring different views, concepts, and understandings of human rights and culture. However, it cannot be denied that modern international human rights law which is currently being referred to and adopted by the international community, still creates gaps in the protection of human rights. Meanwhile, the development of cultural relativism in the 20th century is quite successful in bridging the gap between the two and contributing positively to the implementation of international human rights law at the domestic level. Nonetheless, the cultural relativism approach presents critiques and challenges. By using various secondary resources, this paper begins with the concept of, debates between, and challenges of cultural relativism and universality of human rights. The paper indicates that the contribution of cultural relativism can be seen from building tolerance and protection of communal rights, the rights of marginal groups, and the optimization of domestic law when dealing with some competing’s rights. This is a good opportunity to reduce discriminatory actions against marginalized groups for maintaining tolerance and harmony in a plural society. The effectiveness of the application of "margin appreciation" in Europe should be the best practice to actualize "Asian values" or "African values" in formulating the concepts of "public morality" or "public order" clearly and precisely. The cultural relativism approach may not be used by a government to justify any human rights violation. Both of these are important considerations for Indonesia because of its ambiguous attitude in placing these two theories appropriately and purposefully.

Ever since the famous article “Système de la coutume” by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (Annales, 1972), the customary geographies issue has become a common ground for historians, ethnologists and legal historians. The present paper explores the intellectual origins of this problematic in historiography and stresses three major underlying aspects: the principle of autonomy of kinship systems, the “photographical” character of legal sources and the cultural relativity associated with the structures which the study of inheritance patterns allows to indentify. Thus, the culturalist paradigm leads, from Herder to Savigny, from Klimrath to Yver and Le Roy Ladurie himself, to a questioning of the mere idea of culture, altogether as a sign and a cause of the geographical differentiations of the norms of social organisation.

The evolution of the discourse surrounding human rights has led to calls for multiculturalism in modern society. While human rights originate from a perceived universal need to protect the rights of the individual, their appeal has not been universal, as they are perceived to be a threat to cultural rights by some. This is because of the perceived conflict or dilemma of negotiating both as entitlements. While arguments for both human rights and cultural rights are compelling, they expose a tension or conflict of rights. Calls for multiculturalism emerged in defense of cultural diversity and other forms of rights. The central question surrounding this tension is as follows: Can human and cultural rights be reconciled without compromising basic individual rights? Attempts to answer this question have occupied scholarship for several decades, with works on cross-cultural universalism and intersectionality emerging as a bridge for the seeming unbridgeable controversy. This essay explores some of these works that relate to the question of women’s rights and the implications for the controversial practice of female genital cutting (FGC).

The 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights presents an opportunity for critical reflections from the Global South on why the dream of universalising the rights contained in this ground-breaking document is still just a dream. Shaped by a rigorous interrogation of African experiences as narrated by practitioners and scholars, this paper revisits some of the leading contentious issues which, undoubtedly, have impacted on the realisation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the African continent. The paper revisits the issue of meaning, and how uncertainties surrounding it have triggered controversial perceptions and constructions of the notion of human rights, aggravated by adjectival calibrations. Capturing the views of scholars and practitioners, this paper takes an evidence-based approach to the matter as it identifies and discusses some of the common, recurrent challenges that have compromised the aspiration of universalising the ideals articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These include, amongst other things, the impact of slavery and the slave trade, colonialism and neo-colonialism, the nature and impact of western hypocrisy, double-standards, bias and inconsistency – factors that not only dilute the recognition of human rights but further deepen the mistrust and misgivings Africans have about human rights. Lastly, the paper appraises the adverse impact of corruption on the realisation of human rights on the African continent. It is argued that all these factors, cumulatively, adversely impact on the perception and realisation of human rights on the African continent.

The consolidation of relations of global society requires the progressive establishment of a global legal system, consisting of a system of rules - precisely, human rights - as the source and evaluation criteria of positive national rights. This essay aims to contribute to some extent using reflective dialectical methodology, establishing logical- argumentative criteria, based on the dialogue between authors to exercise a critical reflection of the official narrative on the universality of human rights, in addition overcoming the universalism/relativism dichotomy eurocentricaly established by a theory of human rights between universalism and cultural relativism.

Relatively little is known about how ordinary non-Amish citizens interact with and perceive their Old Order Amish neighbors. This study used interpretive and semi-inductive approaches with in-depth interviews to describe and analyze interactions and perceptions of non-Amish research participants. Sixteen subjects were identified from purposive, snowball and theoretical sampling in a region near a sizeable, very tradition-minded Old Order settlement. All participants engaged in secondary relationships, while several individuals had intimate and enduring relationships with a small number of Amish individuals and families. While most participants perceived their Amish acquaintances and friends as honest, hard-working, caring and community-minded, some expressed negative views about racial and ethnic prejudice, rejection of safety devices, hygiene, sanitation and treatment of animals and an overly-restrictive culture. While no definitive conclusions were reached, negative perceptions were analyzed with attention to the preferred stance of cultural relativism for cross-cultural evaluation, while more universal human and animal rights considerations were also articulated.

SAMMENDRAG For antropologer med anlegg for nostalgi vil årene mellom Berlinmurens og Twin Towers’ fall lett fortone seg som fagets gullalder hva samfunnsinnflytelse angår. Gjennom Arne Martin Klausens og Fredrik Barths formidlingstrang, -iver og -evner hadde norsk offentlighet allerede over lengre tid blitt introdusert for den systematiske lekenheten antropologiens komparative og kulturrelativistiske metodeverktøy inviterer til. På nittitallet slo dette ut i full blomst, i et unikt samspill mellom fagets lettsinn og selveste Tidsånden: Helt andre verdener var selvsagt mulige – for en ny verden hadde nettopp åpenbart seg. Med 9/11 kom en ny form for alvor, og stadig flere vendte ryggen til leken og til antropologiens innsikter og perspektiver. Gjennom en blanding av databasesøk, medieeksempler og egen fagformidlingserfaring viser jeg hvordan omtalen av kulturrelativisme har beveget seg fra å være en dannelsesdyd til å bli synonymt med prinsippløshet, der vesensskillet mellom kulturrelativisme og moralsk relativisme er utvisket. Har vi selv bidratt til å svekke kulturrelativismens omdømme, gjennom det jeg kaller en moralistisk relativisme, i kombinasjon med ukritisk import av kulturspesifikke identitetsteorier, hovedsakelig av amerikansk opphav? Og hva kan vi gjøre for å gjenopprette antropologiens kritiske potensial i en tid der forståelse later til å ha trange kår, men samtidig er mer påkrevet enn noensinne?

This paper is an attempt to analyze various types of the reception of Vygotsky’s theory in the international academic communities. The paper develops a critical analysis of three widespread theoretical frameworks of interpretation of Vygotsky’s theory: cognitivism, culturalism, cultural-historical activity theory. It is argues that fragmented readings of particular ideas of Vygotsky, without enough understanding of the theoretical programme in which these ideas have been included dominates in North-Atlantic research. The paper proposes the reconstruction of the theoretical programme of cultural-historical psychology in the social and scientific context of its formation.

By animal-based tourism, a host of activities offering passive viewing or active interaction with wild, semi-wild or captive animals is included. The multibillion dollar industry is on the rise globally today, offering modes of engagement with animals that trade on increasingly embodied close encounters with non-human animals. As new modes of animal-based tourism proliferate, such as sloth selfies, visiting cat cafes, swimming with sharks and agri-tourism petting zoos, animal welfare standards risk deteriorating. In the following paper, we collate concerns over animal welfare into a discussion on the challenges facing animal-based tourism. Our synthesis is the first to consider the full spectrum of such animal-based tourism: across agri-, hunting, zoo and safari tourism, to name a few, and crossing consumptive and non-consumptive boundaries. A literature review is first provided. Findings are then presented thematically following workshops at an international interdisciplinary symposium of leading tourism, animal welfare, ethics and leisure sciences scholars together with practitioners of the industry. It discusses macrolevel drivers to animal-based tourism as an industry, the problem of cultural relativism and the role of technology in enhancing or promoting the experience. We indicate ways forward toward implementing a compassionate animal-based tourism.

Jurists have expressed various propositions about the true nature of Margin of Appreciation Doctrine. Some believe that although application of the doctrine allows for exercise of human rights with having local cultural diversities in consideration, following up with cited doctrine in practice by European Court of Human Rights has not been amounted yet to relativism. This paper however, suggests that the doctrine sits on shaky relativism but rather strong universalism. It further argues that the study of rational behind the application of the doctrine in European Court of Human Rights practice, the Court’s decisions wherein similar reference has been made and the study of available academic literature on this topic show that Margin of Appreciation Doctrine emanates from cultural relativism. On the other hand, quantitative and qualitative study of the diversities are accepted by the doctrine – in terms of scope, field of reference and application standards – leads to the conclusion that the Margin of Appreciation may be regarded as ‘Weak Cultural Relativism.

While human rights are meant to represent a secular morality, there are surprising parallels to be drawn with religions. Perhaps most striking is the realization that human rights are actually based on faith, as was already recognized at the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This dependence on faith has deep implications for the way we understand and propagate them, because it puts rights in situations of epistemological stalemate vis-à-vis other cultural, religious, or ideological moral systems. This paper proposes to compare human rights doctrine to a religion to identify potential threats to its long-term credibility, and how to address them. In particular, it explains why coercive propagation of rights risks degenerating into a form of self-contradictory fundamentalism. Ultimately, the article argues for a return to the values of tolerance and mutual respect that rights actually stand for.

Abstrak : Islam memahami konsep kehidupan bermoral dalam rangka olah jiwa demi memenuhi syarat menjadi dekat dengan Tuhan, yang transenden. Untuk itu, alih-alih memahami realisasi-diri seseorang sebagai alasan untuk mewujudkan atau selaras dengan hasrat dirinya, sebagaimana telah umum diterima di dunia modern, Islam memandang realisasi diri sebagai hasil dari upaya kontrol diri, dengan mengatasi hasrat aktual dan meningkatkan kehendaknya dalam mewujudkan keselarasan antara aspek psikis (jiwa) --mencakup aktivitas emosional (hati) dan teoritis (nalar) dan aspek fisik (raga)-- berupa tindakan praktis (aksi). Kondisi yang diperlukan bagi kedua aspek tersebut terumuskan dalam istilah “iman” dan “amal saleh.”Kata kunci: ibadah, moralitas (akhlaq) Islam, iman, amal salih, olah jiwa, subjektifisme, relativisme cultural, keraguan, sektarianisme, ketidakadilan.Abstract : Islam comprehends the concept of moral life in the term of cultivate of soul to be eligible for drawing near to the transcendent reality, Allah. For that aim, instead of understanding self-realization as permission to submit to one’s appetites, as commonly accepted in modern world, Islam considers self-realization as fruit of self-control by transcending his actual desires and improving his will to make a harmony between psychial aspect (soul) --that covers emotional (heart) and theoretical (reason) activity - and physical aspect (body) – i.e. practical activity (action). The required state of both aspect are formulated in the term “faith” (iman) and “righteous deeds” (amal Salih). Keywords : worship of God (ibadah), Islamic morality (akhlaq), faith (iman), righteous deeds (amal salih), cultivation of soul, subjectivism, cultural relativism, doubt, sectarianism, injustice.

This paper describes an approach to teaching ethical intercultural communication. This approach helps students become aware of their own ethnocentric attitudes and helps them move beyond those perspectives to develop a mindful approach to intercultural communication. The paper begins by introducing the concept of mindful communication and the challenges of developing of a code of ethical behavior for communicating across cultures. Then, strategies for reconciling cultural relativism and universalism are offered. Finally, the paper provides a set of guidelines for ethical behavior in intercultural encounters.

Este artigo explora a ética da atual "Guerra ao Terrorismo", perguntando se a antropologia, disciplina dedicada a entender a diferença cultural e a lidar com ela, pode nos fornecer apoio crítico para as justificações feitas sobre a intervenção no Afeganistão em termos de liberar ou salvar mulheres afegãs. Eu observo primeiramente os perigos da cultura de reificação, aparente nas tendências de afixar ícones culturais claros como as mulheres muçulmanas sobre confusas dinâmicas históricas e políticas. Posteriormente, chamando atenção para as ressonâncias entre discursos contemporâneos sobre igualdade, liberdade e direitos com antigos discursos coloniais e retórica missionária sobre mulheres muçulmanas, eu argumento que, em vez disso, nós precisamos desenvolver uma séria avaliação das diferenças entre as mulheres no mundo - como produtos de histórias diferentes, expressões de diferentes circunstâncias e manifestações de desejos distintamente estruturados. Além disso, eu argumento que, em vez de buscar "salvar" outros (com a superioridade que isso implica e as violências que acarretaria), talvez fosse melhor pensarmos em termos de (1) trabalhar com elas nas situações que reconhecemos como sempre sujeitas a transformações históricas e (2) considerar nossas próprias e maiores responsabilidades para indicar as formas de injustiça global que são poderosas formadoras dos mundos nas quais elas se encontram. Eu desenvolvo muito desses argumentos a respeito dos limites do "relativismo cultural" através de uma consideração da burca e dos vários significados dos véus no mundo muçulmano.This article explores the ethics of the current "War on Terrorism", asking whether anthropology, the discipline devoted to understanding and dealing with cultural difference, can provide us with critical purchase on the justifications made for American intervention in Afghanistan in terms of liberating, or saving, Afghan women. I look first at the dangers of reifying culture, apparent in the tendencies to plaster neat cultural icons like the Muslim woman over messy historical and political dynamics. Then, calling attention to the resonances of contemporary discourses on equality, freedom, and rights with earlier colonial and missionary rhetoric on Muslim women, I argue that we need to develop, instead, a serious appreciation of differences among women in the world - as products of different histories, expressions of different circumstances, and manifestations of differently structured desires. Further, I argue that rather than seeking to "save" others (with the superiority it implies and the violences it would entail) we might better think in terms of (1) working with them in situations that we recognize as always subject to historical transformation and (2) considering our own larger responsibilities to address the forms of global injustice that are powerful shapers of the worlds in which they find themselves. I develop many of these arguments about the limits of "cultural relativism" through a consideration of the burqa and the many meanings of veiling in the Muslim world.

Today many countries have taken measures to recognize the values, principles, rules and norms of human rights, adopting appropriate mechanisms to ensure their implementation and monitoring through a set of documents, doctrines, practices and institutions which are known as the international system of human rights. Under this system, in light of all rules of international law related to human rights, a protection system has been established which with all its principles and institutions seeks the ways to provide general public to benefit from the common global values ​​and to ensure respect for the human beings. The development of this system and consensus on the values, principles, rules and norms of human rights provide grounds for the universality of human rights which has its roots in inherent human dignity of people all over the world more than anything else. Thereupon the development of the international system of human rights of children, special protection of children in general and against acts that violate their rights in particular, has been recognized and universally accepted. This principle has been written into the constitutions of many countries but the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran is yet to integrate it. Mandatory family responsibilities, differential criminalization and passing specific penalization for behaviors that violate the rights of children, are the most important illustrations of the principle of special protection of children in public welfare, civil and criminal laws. People who are involved in the child's life the most are parents. Hence, the family is the most important factor in child protection. But can such a role and relation be considered as a justification for granting special rights and privileges to parents and other caregivers and consequently pave the way for deviating from the universal principle of prohibiting discrimination against children? Striking a balance between parental rights and children's rights in the family is the most challenging area related to child protection against victimizing within the family of which corporal punishment of children is one. Referring to cultural relativism in countries that are committed to the implementation of United Nations documents in the context of criminal legislation on the one hand and being obliged to observe the religious rulings in this context on the other hand, make the balance very difficult to maintain. This article examines this issue in the light of international human rights and in general and specific documents about children in global and regional levels. امروزه کشورهای دنیا نسبت به شناسایی ارزش‌ها، اصول، قواعد و هنجارهای حقوق بشر، راهکاری تضمین، اجرا و نظارت بر آن‌ها از رهگذر مجموعه‌ای از اسناد، آموزه‌ها، رویه‌ها و نهادها اقدام کرد ه‌اند که از آن تحت عنوان نظام بین‌المللی حقوق بشر یاد می‌کنند. بر اساس این نظام، در پرتو مجموع مقررات بین‌المللی مربوط به حقوق بشر، یک نظام حمایتی به وجود آمده که با تمام اصول و نهادهایش درصدد استفاده همگان از ارزش‌های مشترک جهانی و تضمین احترام به آن‌ها برای افراد بشر است. شکل‌گیری این نظام و اجماع جهانی بر سر ارزش‌ها، اصول، قواعد و هنجارهای حقوق بشر موجبات جهان‌شمولی حقوق بشر را فراهم کرده است که بیش از هر چیز در کرامت انسانی ذاتی مردمان سراسر گیتی ریشه دارد. در نتیجه شکل‌گیری نظام بین‌المللی حقوق بشر کودکان، حمایت ویژه از کودکان به صورت عام و در برابر رفتارهای ناقض حقوق آن‌ها به صورت خاص، مورد شناسایی و پذیرش جهانی قرار گرفته است. همچنین این اصل در قوانین اساسی اکثر کشورهای جهان برخلاف قانون اساسی جمهوری اسلامی ایران مورد پذیرش قرارگرفته است. مسئولیت‌های خانوادگی اجباری ، جرم‌انگاری افتراقی و کیفرگزاری ویژه رفتارهای ناقض حقوق کودکان از مهم‌ترین جلوه‌های اصل حمایت ویژه از کودکان در حقوق رفاهی، مدنی و کیفری می‌باشد. مهم‌ترین اشخاص که در زندگی کودک نقش دارند، والدین هستند. از این رو، خانواده مهم‌ترین عامل تعیین‌کننده در حمایت از کودک است. اما آیا این نقش و رابطه می‌تواند به عنوان عاملی در جهت اعطای حقوق و امتیازات ویژه به والدین و سایر مراقبان محسوب شده و در نتیجه زمینه عدول از اصل جهانی منع تبعیض ضد کودکان را فراهم سازد. ایجاد توازن مابین حقوق کودک و حقوق والدین در خانواده از چالش برانگیز‌ترین حوزه‌های مربوط به حمایت از کودکان در برابر بزه‌دیدگی درون خانوادگی است که نتبیه کودکان یکی از آن‌هاست. استناد به نسبیت گرایی فرهنگی در کشورهایی که از یک سو به اجرای اسناد سازمان ملل متحد در این زمینه متعهد‌اند و از سوی دیگر به رعایت احکام شرعی در قانونگذاری کیفری مکلف‌اند این توازن را بسیار دشوار ساخته است. مقاله پیش رو به بررسی این موضوعدر پرتو نظام بین‌المللی حقوق بشر و بررسی اسناد خاص و عام راجع به کودکان در سطح جهانی و منطقه‌ای می‌پردازد.

Young adult literature can help readers look beyond tolerance toward a cosmopolitan ethics of difference as a more sophisticated position for combating hatred. In popular discourse, the ideal of tolerance is generally presented uncritically and deployed as the best response to a perceived difference in another. However, the ideal of tolerance presents many problems. Rather than discouraging hatred, tolerance merely asks us not to act upon related feelings. Additionally, tolerance is often deployed not only as an idealized set of behaviors, but also as a moral imperative. Thus tolerance encourages cultural relativism where we are expected to be tolerant of all views, no matter how troubling. This essay argues that to discourage hate and violence, we must criticize underlying values that evoke them. Young adult fiction that deals with white supremacist characters creates an interesting lens for evaluating how neo-Nazis can be seen as standing at the very limits of tolerance, as well as how texts with neo-Nazi characters can be used as tools to assess values that are not worth living by. Reading these fictional texts may help to discourage in young adults the development of hatred while fostering a cosmopolitan ethics of difference that stands in opposition to the presumed morality of tolerance.

Il multiculturalismo è un modello culturale e politico-istituzionale per la gestione della diversità in una società multietnica, la cui base teorica viene dal relativismo culturale. Come nessuna cultura può pretendere una validità universale, il processo di storicizzazione della razionalità occidentale segna la fine della pretesa metafisica di dire la verità dell’uomo e del mondo, nononstante si crede che il fare della scienza è l’accadere della verità. Nel gestire la diversità e nell’assicurare la tolleranza risiede la «necessità» del multiculturalismo. Sua debolezza teorica risiede paradossalmente nell’incapacità di pensare la differenza. Universale non è la cultura, che è sempre particolare, ma l’umano. Solo l’affermazione di questa dimensione universale dell’esperienza può fondare il rispetto della singolarità dell’altro, di sua infinita alterità e differenza. L’umano si dice sempre in una cultura determinata. La struttura universale dell’esperienza è al tempo stesso in e al di là di ogni cultura, insieme trascendente e immanente, trans-immanente. Questa identità strutturale è costitutivamente assegnata a una emergenza molteplice. In questo contesto, si può parlare di una ragione che, in nome di una fedeltà all’esperienza, si dispone a ripensare il problema dell’universalità, il rapporto tra il singolare e l’universale. Palavras-chave: Multiculturalismo, relativismo culturale, cultura, Universale, singolare ResumoO multiculturalismo é um modelo cultural e político-institucional para a gestão da diversidade numa sociedade multiétnica, cuja base teórica procede do relativismo cultural. Como nenhuma cultura pode pretender uma validade universal, o processo de historicização da racionalidade ocidental marca o fim da pretensão metafísica de dizer a verdade do homem e do mundo, não obstante se acredite que fazer ciência já seja o acontecer da verdade. A necessidade do multiculturalismo reside no administrar a diversidade e no assegurar a tolerância. Sua fraqueza teórica se encontra paradoxalmente na incapacidade de pensar a própria diferença. Universal não é a cultura, que é sempre particular, mas o humano. Somente a afirmação desta dimensão universal da experiência pode fundar o respeito da singularidade do outro, de sua infinita alteridade e diferença. O humano se diz sempre numa cultura determinada. A estrutura universal da experiência está, ao mesmo tempo, em e além de cada cultura, ao mesmo tempo transcendente e imanente, trans-imanente. Esta identidade estrutural é constitutivamente assinalada a uma experiência múltipla. Nesse contexto, pode-se falar de uma razão que, em nome da fidelidada à experiência, dispõe-se a repensar o problema da universalidade, a relação entre o singular e o universal.Palavras-chave: Multiculturalismo, relativismo cultural, cultura, Universal, singular AbstractMulticulturalism is a cultural and political-institutional framework for managing diversity in a multiethnic society, whose theoretical basis proceeds of cultural relativism. As no culture can claim to universal validity, the historicizing process of western rationality points out the end of metaphysical pretension of telling the truth about man and the world, although one believe that doing science is already the case for truth. The necessity of multiculturalism lies in managing diversity and in ensuring tolerance. Its theoretical weakness is paradoxically unable to think of difference itself. Culture always emerges as being the particular as the human appears as being the universal. Only the statement of this universal dimension of experience can establish the respect of other's uniqueness, of his infinite otherness and difference. The human is always understood within a specific culture. The universal structure of experience is at the same time, in and beyond each culture in particular, at the same time immanent and transcendent, there is to say, trans-immanent. This structural identity is constitutively marked by a multiple experience. In this context, one can speak of a reason that in the name of fidelity to experience is willing to rethink the problem of universality, the relationship between the singular and universal.Key words: Multiculturalism, cultural relativism, culture, Universal, singular

The paper argues that an approach to democracy that combines an anti-foundationalist epistemology and a deliberative political and moral stance will enable us to solve the increasing tensions between the universalistic claims of human rights and the particularistic claims to autonomy coming from different cultural groups. The anti-foundationalist conception of normative authority I put forth is centered on the distinction between universal grounds for and universal scope of normativity. It maintains that the universalistic normative force of our norms and practices remains uncompromised by the acknowledgment of the ultimate circularity of our justifications, thus eschewing the pitfalls of both foundationalism and relativism. My main contention is that only by ensuring inclusive and self-reflexive practices of collective decision-making we will be able to address the tensions between universalism and cultural relativism, and produce more flexible models of democratic governance, citizenship and cultural membership suitable to face the challenges of the global processes of integration and differentiation. این مقاله استدلال می‌نماید که رویکردی به دموکراسی که معرفت‌شناسی ضد مبناگرایانه را با دیدگاه اخلاقی و سیاسی مشورتی ترکیب می‌نماید، ما را قادر خواهد ساخت تنش‌های فزآینده بین مطالبات عام‌گرایانه حقوق بشر و مطالبات خاص‌گرایانه استقلال را که از سوی گروه‌های مختلف فرهنگی مطرح می گردد، حل و فصل نماییم. برداشت ضد مبناگرایانه از اعتبار اقتدار هنجاری که من ارائه می‌نمایم، حول محور تمایز بین زمینه‌های جهانی هنجار محوری و گسترة جهانی آن می‌گردد. این ایده معتقد است که نیروی هنجاری عام گرایانه هنجارها و رویه‌های ما با اعتراف به دورِ باطل توجیهات ما محکم و استوار باقی می‌ماند، بنابراین هم از اشکالات مبناگرایی و هم نسبیت‌گرایی به دور می‌ماند. بحث اصلی این است که تنها با تضمین رویه‌های خوداندیشانه و فراگیر تصمیم‌گیری جمعی، ما قادر خواهیم بود تا به تنش‌های بین جهانشمولی و نسبیت‌گرایی فرهنگی بپردازیم و الگوهای انعطاف‌پذیرتری از حاکمیت دموکراتیک، شهروندی و عضویت فرهنگی ایجاد نمائیم که متناسب با چالش‌های فرآیندهای جهانی تلفیق و تفکیک باشد.

The authors argue that the ideas found in the harder versions of multiculturalism have already been supported by the mid-20th century social-cultural anthropology - both in the scholarly works and in the political activism of its proponents. This form of cultural relativism, making the leap from anthropological method to ontological claims about the organic essence of cultures, is hereby named “culturalism”. By this notion the authors understand a theory of culture that includes central anthropological ideas: a culture precedes and determines individuals belonging to it; cultures have unlimited freedom to generate differences, uninhibited by any human nature; cultures form closed, organic units where all their different articulations, from gastronomy to theology, form an unbreakable whole which implies that these value systems are unique and in no way may be compared with, or judged against, other value systems. Cultural relativism formulated in the American anthropology of the 1940’s and onwards is far from being a simple doctrine. It consists of a whole cluster of loosely connected facts, axioms, propositions, ranging from the completely unproblematic, to strongly problematic and even hardly understandable ideas. All those statements have been critically scrutinized in this paper.

The author of this paper has the intention to reach the new meaning and sense of the primitive mentality by analyzing it in early social communities. He also wants to point out the possible reflections of the spirit and consciousness of our ancestors on us, here and now. The first part of the paper is dedicated to a critical deliberation on anthropological conflicts which have arisen concerning the reasoning power of the so-called primitives. The crucial question lies in the following: Is the difference between the “primitive” and the “civilized” mentality fundamental or is it possible only to a certain degree. The author takes the notion of primitive mentality through time and points to the medieval understandings, which are occupied by teratological themes, then to the renaissance comprehension, which relies on the first experiential observations, and, finally, to the enlightenment ideas of exotic peoples out of which the myth of “the good savage” is born. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries introduce the notions of “people’s character” and “national spirit”. The opinions are polarized, on the one hand of ethnocentrism, carried by the prejudice of people and ethnic groups and, on the other hand, of cultural relativism, based on the understanding and appreciation of cultural differences. In the end, the author also recognizes the modern primitive man, one who is not ready to deal with the challenges of his age. The modern primitive recalls the spirits of the past, the surviving and anachronic models of behavior, unaware of the fact that these are the same models that he has ascribed to “savages”. However, while such thinking and acting was justified by the cultural level at which our ancestors had lived, the mental frame of the contemporary primitives is significantly in contrast with the high level of civilization development.

O artigo discute a questão do relativismo cultural que assume caráter polêmico na passagem do milênio, principalmente nas divergências surgidas sobre o que fazer diante dos dilemas postos pelos novos sujeitos-objetos e dos impasses advindos da difusão planetária de posturas universalistas. Novos problemas e dilemas éticos se antepuseram ao fazer antropológico: o que são direitos humanos e qual o seu alcance entre nativos não ocidentais; quem conta como pessoa humana e quem deve ser ouvido nas sociedades estudadas; como lidar com a opressão de pessoas no interior das "sociedade dos nativos" quando os opressores são também nativos. Na etnografia do crime, é possível e preciso o mergulho no mundo do outro a ponto de virar nativo? A antropologia do contemporâneo, praticada em sociedades cada vez mais diferenciadas e em um mundo que nunca foi tão globalizado, exige a multiplicidade de fontes de dados, de planos de abordagem e de perspectivas teóricas, averiguando o que acontece em outras disciplinas, sendo cauteloso e paciente na invenção de novos conceitos e novas pesquisas.The article discusses the question of cultural relativism, an issue that has become increasingly polemical at the turn of the millennium, especially with the diverging opinions on how to respond to the dilemmas posed by the new subjects-objects and the impasses generated by the global diffusion of universalist stances. New ethical problems and dilemmas prevene anthropological practice: what are human rights and what are their reach among non-western natives; who counts as a human person and who should be heard in the societies under study; and how to deal with the oppression of people within the 'native societies' when the oppressors are themselves natives? In the ethnography of crime, is it possible or necessary to submerge oneself in the world of the other to the point of turning native? The anthropology of the contemporary, practiced in increasingly differentiated societies and in an ever more globalized world, demands a multitude of data sources, approaches and theoretical perspectives, verifying what is happening in other disciplines, and remaining cautious and patient in the invention of our concepts and new research.

The article revisits Habermas’s recasting of moral universalism, so as to avoid the aporias of naturalism and cultural relativism, according to a pragmatic-formal perspective that does justice to the complex phenomenon of religion in a postsecular, pluralist world, where believers, atheists, and agnostics can coexist together and actively participate in the construction of a more tolerant, just society.

“Respect for diversity” included in normative and curricular texts on Argentinean educative system represent an opportunity to reflect about cultural relativism in its potential for criticism and its limits as a moral principle. This article analyzes the uses of precepts that emerge at schools as a product of a contradictory bond between contemporary democratic principles for the institution and conceptual frames about social life and learning. Also, this article aims to relocate relativism’s analytic capacity as a tool against ethnocentrism, both in order to both elaborate the inherent conflict on school’s practices and also as a cultural critique –sensitive to that institution’s specific logic–.

Implementation of human rights is often criticized because it is perceived as being imposed on the rest of the world. In this case, human rights start to be seen as a sole abstraction, an empty word. What are the theoretical arguments of these critics and can we determine any historical grounds for them? In this paper, I will try to point at similar critics after the French Revolution – like that of the Historical School and Hegel – and try to show if some of these critics are still relevant. And I will compare these critics with contemporary arguments of cultural relativists. There are different streams and categorizations of human rights theories in today’s world. What differentiates them is basically the source of the human rights. After the French Revolution, the historical school had criticized the individuation and Hegel had criticized the formal freedom which was, according to him, a consequence of the Revolution. In this context Hegel drew a distinction between real freedom and formal freedom. Besides the theory of sources, the theories of implementation such as human rights as a model of learning, human rights as a result of an historical process are worth attention. The crucial point is about integrating human rights as an inner process and not to use them as a tool for intervention in other countries, which we observe in today’s world. And this is the exact point why I find the discussion of the sources more important. This discussion can help us to show how the inner evaluation of a society makes the realization of human rights possible and how we can avoid the above mentioned abstraction and misuse.

International human rights law relies on state sovereignty to localize suggested policy with codification and enforcement in an attempt to reconcile universalism with particularity. However, amidst domestic governance developments from post-conflict state building and self-determination, governmental instability complicates and often overlooks priorities of international human rights for more tangible domestic infrastructure, such as basic human needs rather than seemingly suggested rights ideals. This does not diminish the significance of human rights, though, pertaining to the rights of the child in addressing gender-based violence through the elimination of female genital mutilation, for example. While state-centric localization is currently prioritized for implementing international law, the rule of law is more integrated throughout the realms of societal structure, culture, and institutions in addition to the legal realm. If the legal realm is disrupted with instability, violence, and discontinuity, how does society internalize and integrate international human rights law over time, and can it be sustainable despite instability? This research evaluates the development of the rule of law, and its effectiveness, regarding female genital mutilation (FGM) as a case study in Iraqi Kurdistan from the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988 until 2013, the early years of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s parliament. Comprehensive rule of law evolution can be measured through comparing domestic legal developments through state-centric policy and enforcement, or lack thereof, with cultural internalization and non-governmental engagements. By studying the legal and cultural realms’ interaction with the anti-FGM discourse over Iraqi Kurdistan’s past two decades, this research will determine the role of a continuous society overlaid by intermittent legal structures in the sustainability of negotiating cultural relativity with universal human rights.

International human rights law relies on state sovereignty to localize suggested policy with codification and enforcement in an attempt to reconcile universalism with particularity. However, amidst domestic governance developments from post-conflict state building and self-determination, governmental instability complicates and often overlooks priorities of international human rights for more tangible domestic infrastructure, such as basic human needs rather than seemingly suggested rights ideals. This does not diminish the significance of human rights, though, pertaining to the rights of the child in addressing gender-based violence through the elimination of female genital mutilation, for example. While state-centric localization is currently prioritized for implementing international law, the rule of law is more integrated throughout the realms of societal structure, culture, and institutions in addition to the legal realm. If the legal realm is disrupted with instability, violence, and discontinuity, how does society internalize and integrate international human rights law over time, and can it be sustainable despite instability? This research evaluates the development of the rule of law, and its effectiveness, regarding female genital mutilation (FGM) as a case study in Iraqi Kurdistan from the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988 until 2013, the early years of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s parliament. Comprehensive rule of law evolution can be measured through comparing domestic legal developments through state-centric policy and enforcement, or lack thereof, with cultural internalization and non-governmental engagements. By studying the legal and cultural realms’ interaction with the anti-FGM discourse over Iraqi Kurdistan’s past two decades, this research will determine the role of a continuous society overlaid by intermittent legal structures in the sustainability of negotiating cultural relativity with universal human rights.

A tese do fim das metanarrativas defendida pelo pós-modernismo implica a negação da universalidade da cultura. Não se trata apenas do fato de que a cultura humana ainda não tenha alcançado um estágio de verdadeira universalidade nem mesmo se trata do fato de que a classe dominante tenha até hoje submetido a cultura humana a seus interesses particulares de classe e, para tanto, tenha sufocado e destruído muito da riqueza contida nas culturas locais. Para o pós-modernismo, o problema não reside na visão burguesa de cultura humana, mas sim na própria idéia de que possa haver uma cultura universal. Os pós-modernos afirmam que qualquer projeto educacional pautado na idéia da existência ou da possibilidade de uma cultura universal é um projeto conservador, autoritário e etnocêntrico. O texto defende a tese de que a concepção marxiana acerca do processo histórico de constituição da riqueza humana universal contém os elementos teóricos necessários para a superação da falsa opção, postulada pelas diversas correntes do pós-modernismo, entre o etnocentrismo e o relativismo cultural. Em Marx, a universalização da cultura humana ocorre, na sociedade capitalista, por meio da universalização do valor de troca das mercadorias como mediação fundamental das relações sociais. Trata-se, portanto, de um processo dialético no qual ocorrem ao mesmo tempo a humanização e a alienação do gênero humano e dos indivíduos. O texto conclui com a apresentação dos desafios que, a partir dessa concepção marxiana sobre a riqueza universal, devem ser enfrentados no processo de construção de uma pedagogia marxista.The thesis of the end of the meta-narratives defended by postmodernism implies the negation of the universality of culture. It is not just the fact that human culture has not yet achieved true universality, and not even the fact that the ruling classes have so far subjected human culture to their own private interests and, to that end, have suffocated and destroyed much of the wealth contained in local cultures. To postmodernism the problem does not reside in the bourgeois vision of human culture, but in the very idea that a universal culture can exist. Postmodernists declare that any educational project based on the idea of the existence or possibility of a universal culture is a conservative, authoritarian, ethnocentric project. This text argues for the thesis that the Marxian conception of the historic process of constitution of the universal human wealth incorporates the theoretical elements necessary to overcome the false option, postulated by the various postmodernist trends, between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. In Marx, the universalization of human culture in the capitalist society takes place through the universalization of the exchange value of the goods as the fundamental mediation of social relations. It is, therefore, a dialectical process in which the humanization and the alienation of the human genre and of the individuals occur at the same time. The text concludes with the presentation of the challenges that, based on this Marxian conception of universal wealth, must be faced in the process of constructing a Marxist pedagogy.

This paper focuses on the impact of relativism within anthropology as a discipline. Relativistic conceptions, account for in this analysis, emerged both from philosophy (philosophy of science in particular) and anthropology. These conceptions have influenced the discipline directly, through development of the concept of cultural relativism, and indirectly, through the relativists' approach to the concept of scientific research. The different sources of relativism have shaped several paradigms of culture research, most notably those which accept epistemological cultural relativism. However, normative relativism influenced the discipline more profoundly, and has been present in two separate forms: the first, being more or less consistent with the basic philosophical and anthropological relativistic theses, and the other, basically born out of the general relativistic scheme, implying and in some cases trying to conceptualize the existence of global cultural invariants or cultural universals.

O texto apresenta dois modelos da tradução que caracterizaram o século XVII e XVIII mas que podem ser vistos como paradigmáticos na Teoria da Tradução. 1) O modelo retórico que defende a possibilidade de tradução e enfatiza a adaptação do original ao "gosto" do público de chegada. 2) O modelo que afirma a impossibilidade da tradução, a intraduzibilidade: a) quer porque se valoriza no texto (e sobretudo na escrita dita poética) justamente os seus aspectos mais sensuais e, portanto, indissociáveis da língua de partida; b) quer porque se afirma o relativismo cultural e a intraduzibilidade entre as culturas; c) quer porque se afirma não apenas a impossibilidade de separação entre os significados e os significantes, mas se define o próprio significante e as identidades de um modo geral como sendo um resultado de um jogo diferencial.The article presents two translation models that were typical in the XVII and XVIII centuries, but can also be seen as paradigmatics in the field of Translation Studies: 1) The rhetorical model that defends the possibility of translation and emphasizes the necessity of adapting the "original" to the "taste" of the target public. 2) The model that affirms the impossibility of translation, the non-translatability: a) because the sensual elements that are linked to the language of the "original" are praised; b) because there is a defense of the cultural relativism and of the non-translatability between cultures; c) or because there is a defense not only of the impossibility to separate signifiers and meaning, but also because there is a definition of the signifier and of all identities as being the result of a differential game.

A celebration and critical evaluation of Sthaneshwar Timalsina’s brilliant book, Tantric Visual Culture: A Cognitive Approach. In this groundbreaking work, Timalsina utilizes the lens of cognitive studies to shed interpretive light on the Tantric visualization practices that he knows both as a scholar and lifetime practitioner. Timalsina argues that mastery of Tantric practice requires immersion in the culturally relative metonymic and holographic logic framed by the Tantric ritual texts. The conclusion that arises from his analysis is that Tantric “truths” are bound to the linguistic and cultural systems that frame them. In response, I herewith offer a perennialist critique and argument for a more nuanced consideration of the transcendent “truth” or “being” that is the stated aim of Tantric practice.

The current scientific debate about the universality of human rights can be structured into a horizontal and a vertical dimension. Whereas the horizontal dimension is about the different ways one can approach the topic “human rights” from different disciplines, the vertical dimension is dealing with the fundamental question whether human rights are universal or particularistic. However, the debate lacks the view of the most important group: the individual human being. Consequently, this paper aims to bring the individual’s perspective on universal human rights into focus by a) striking a balance between universal and particularistic views on human rights and b) building on a realistic human nature in order to understand and embrace the individual’s conviction. The approach meeting these two criteria is a combination of Rainer Forst’s “right to justification” and Richard Rorty’s “sentimental education”. This is the only way to an individually backed and culturally sensitive universality.

There is much more involved in the nature/nurture debate than an abstract theoretical disagreement among dispassionate scientists. Each side of the debate leads logically to significantly different views of the social order and holds different implications for social policy. In this paper I shall argue that Boas' Anthropology with its emphasis on cultural relativism was as much a social and political agenda as it was a scientific theory. The positions on public policy issues he opposed were informed (and rationalized) by what its advocates claimed to be science. To be able to counter the discriminatory policy proposals that followed from this science, it was necessary for Boas both to challenge its validity and then replace it with an alternative that would support a more liberal political agenda. This chapter of anthropology's history gains relevance in today's context as neoevolutionary, reductionist theories once more provide "scientific" support for conservative, separatist and often discriminatory social policies.O debate natureza/cultura é muito mais do que um desentendimento teórico e abstrato entre cientistas desapaixonados. Cada lado do debate leva a visões diferentes da ordem social e traz implicações diferentes para políticas sociais. Neste artigo, sugiro que a Antropologia de Boas, com sua ênfase no relativismo cultural, tanto quanto uma teoria científica, foi um programa social e político. As posturas de política pública às quais ele se opunha eram informadas (e racionalizadas) por algo apresentado por seus proponentes como ciência. Para combater as propostas discriminatórias que decorriam desta ciência, cabia a Boas desafiar sua validade e substituí-la por uma alternativa que daria apoio a uma agenda política mais liberal. Esse capítulo da história da antropologia assume maior relevância no contexto atual em que teorias néo-evolucionistas e reducionistas mais uma vez fornecem uma base "científica" para políticas sociais conservadoras, separatistas e freqüentemente discriminatórias.

Western science has often been thought of as an universally applicable, dominant and neutral knowledge system. Recently this view has been challenged by various scientists, who try to revalue the subjugated knowledge systems of local people by appreciating its characteristics. But this upgrading of endogenous knowledge often is but another example of the hegemonie position of Western science : it evaluates local situations with Western criteria, neglecting the cultural paradigms of the people involved. This article is a plea for a new multidisciplinary and intercultural research approach which takes as its foundation an understanding of the local culture and paradigms on which selected topics can be analysed, rather than a traditional disciplinary approach in which, afterwards, a foreign cultural component is being inscribed. This appeal is supported by material from a local market in North-western Ghana, where the Lobi peasants sell their harvest to the Wala traders.

Physiotherapists in South Africa are often confronted with ethical issues, which arise from the multi-cultural nature of the society. This paper discusses the ethical theory of cultural relativism in an attempt to highlight the complexities of making moral judgements across cultural, ethnic and religious boundaries.

In the article there are outlined the prospects of global economic development. There was built an evolutional model of theoretical studies of the phenomenon “culture” in the context of universal, system and value approaches. It gives the brief characteristics of the cultural assimilation model “melting crucible”. There have been determined the indicators of the successfulness verticals of the U.S. ethnic groups and made their assessment. By virtue of the author’s method is given the assessment of the comparative significance of the heterogeneous cultural codes of maternal (immigration) and hosting environment of the USA, which gave the possibility to determine the factors that ensure the economic success of the American ethnic groups. The results of the research provide reasoning for the change of traditional vector of the cultures’ typology and confirm the existence of the progressive cultural codes.

The objective of this analysis is to introduce the concept of Asian values and, more particularly, the Asian concept of human rights. The Asian debate on human rights centres around issues such as the human rights generations, individual versus collective rights, rights of states, and the relationship between rights and duties. The criticism of the Western concept of human rights constitutes an inseparable part of this debate. This analysis thus aims at bringing forth a greater understanding of this issue through the study of cultural relativism, which is prominent in the criticism levelled at Western societes. This study starts with defining two core theoretical concepts of human rights – universalism and cultural relativism. Consequently it presents the major features of the Asian values debate and Asian criticism, illustrating them on the case of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Problems posed by the existence of many minorities in Europe, whether they be linguistic, ethnic or national, posit the absolute need for a fundamental revolution. For a chance to build the bases of a lasting peace, the onto-theological fantasies of an indivisible sovereign state and the metaphysics of Nation-states should first be deconstructed. So-called universal values pertaining in reality to individual cultures should no longer be imposed. However the illusions of an irresponsible cultural relativism must be avoided. What is involved is the conquest of an individual's freedom to adhere to the values susceptible to contribute to the gradual definition of universal values. If it can be implemented, this approach could form the groundwork for a type of «consensual universalism»