While the word ‘‘culture’’ was first used in 1877 by Edward Tylor to describe the totality of humans’ behavioral, material, intellectual, and spiritual products, it was Franz Boas who gave the term one of its most distinctive elaborations. Unlike some other anthropologists (e.g., Malinowski), Boas refused to devalue cultures regardless of how primitive they might
Cultural relativism is the idea that beliefs are affected by and best understood within the context of culture. It is a theory and a tool used by anthropologists and social scientists for recognizing the natural tendency to judge other cultures in comparison to their own and for adequately collecting and analyzing information about other cultures
Cultural relativism, a highly complex doctrine surrounded by various epistemological, political, and ethical controversies, can be broadly defined as the view that culture is the key variable to explain human diversity and that an individual’s behavior, thought, emotion, perception, and sensation are relative to and bound by the culture of the group he or she
Cultural relativism maintains the view that all cultures are equal in value and therefore should not be judged on the basis of another cultural perspective. The cultural values and beliefs connected to religious, ethical, normative behaviors, customs, and political tenets are specific to the individuals within a given human society. Culture is considered to be