Global citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism

Do human beings live in a shared world or in several? The traditional answer from social and cultural anthropology has been that although the physical world is uniform, the world as it is perceived by humans is fundamentally and irreducibly diverse, since human worlds are culturally constructed and...

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Autor principal:	Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR SR
Publicado:	University of Belgrade 2017
Materias:	anthropology – universalism anthropology and globalisation anthropology – human rights Anthropology GN1-890
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/2256c79adb6e4b50a3d3aea6c878bae1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:2256c79adb6e4b50a3d3aea6c878bae12021-12-02T06:21:15ZGlobal citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism10.21301/eap.v12i4.70353-15892334-8801https://doaj.org/article/2256c79adb6e4b50a3d3aea6c878bae12017-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.eap-iea.org/novi-ojs/index.php/eap/article/view/797https://doaj.org/toc/0353-1589https://doaj.org/toc/2334-8801 Do human beings live in a shared world or in several? The traditional answer from social and cultural anthropology has been that although the physical world is uniform, the world as it is perceived by humans is fundamentally and irreducibly diverse, since human worlds are culturally constructed and cultures are unique and particular in character. As a result of this perspective, there has always been a tense relationship between anthropology and universalist claims, as in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. This chapter charts the dialogue and tension between the cultural relativism of classic anthropology and human rights universalism, but the main focus is on the consequences of globalisation for anthropological thinking about diversity and human universals. It is argued that as a direct result of the increased interconnectedness of human societies, classic cultural relativism has become both epistemologically obsolete and normatively objectionable. Although the moral worlds inhabited by humans are still diverse, they are now connected in ways which have implications for the ethics of anthropological research. By discussing a handful of examples, the analytical and moral dilemmas are exposed, and the contrast with mid-20th century anthropology, when the world was still widely seen as ‘an archipelago of cultures’, is made abundantly clear. Thomas Hylland EriksenUniversity of Belgradearticleanthropology – universalismanthropology and globalisationanthropology – human rightsAnthropologyGN1-890ENFRSREtnoantropološki Problemi, Vol 12, Iss 4 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR SR
topic	anthropology – universalism anthropology and globalisation anthropology – human rights Anthropology GN1-890
spellingShingle	anthropology – universalism anthropology and globalisation anthropology – human rights Anthropology GN1-890 Thomas Hylland Eriksen Global citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism
description	Do human beings live in a shared world or in several? The traditional answer from social and cultural anthropology has been that although the physical world is uniform, the world as it is perceived by humans is fundamentally and irreducibly diverse, since human worlds are culturally constructed and cultures are unique and particular in character. As a result of this perspective, there has always been a tense relationship between anthropology and universalist claims, as in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. This chapter charts the dialogue and tension between the cultural relativism of classic anthropology and human rights universalism, but the main focus is on the consequences of globalisation for anthropological thinking about diversity and human universals. It is argued that as a direct result of the increased interconnectedness of human societies, classic cultural relativism has become both epistemologically obsolete and normatively objectionable. Although the moral worlds inhabited by humans are still diverse, they are now connected in ways which have implications for the ethics of anthropological research. By discussing a handful of examples, the analytical and moral dilemmas are exposed, and the contrast with mid-20th century anthropology, when the world was still widely seen as ‘an archipelago of cultures’, is made abundantly clear.
format	article
author	Thomas Hylland Eriksen
author_facet	Thomas Hylland Eriksen
author_sort	Thomas Hylland Eriksen
title	Global citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism
title_short	Global citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism
title_full	Global citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism
title_fullStr	Global citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism
title_full_unstemmed	Global citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism
title_sort	global citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism
publisher	University of Belgrade
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/2256c79adb6e4b50a3d3aea6c878bae1
work_keys_str_mv	AT thomashyllanderiksen globalcitizenshipandthechallengefromculturalrelativism
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Global citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism

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