Etnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

I think that there are universal standards of conduct for our species, but only for specific subjects like prohibition of incest, and the respect of the laws of the country where we live. There are no others standards because codes of conducts differ a lot from a country to another and between our civilizations. Cultures and religions generally have the most important influence on the code of conduct of a population. A certain way of behaving can be acceptable in a part of the world, but totally inacceptable in another place. For example eating with fingers is acceptable in India and in some Arabic countries, but not in the rest of the world. Kissing and other tokens of affection are not permitted in all countries, and are sometimes considered as indecent. It concerns also the laws, and the ways that a country is ruled.

The respect of human life is appropriate to judge other cultures, because it’s a right that every human being should have. When a country decide to execute a person in the name of religion, political opinions or with a false pretext, it is appropriate to judge. As an example, two gay men were executed in Iran in 2005 because of their homosexuality. A lot of people judged it as inhuman, but Iran declared that it was not acceptable in their culture. Ethnocentrism is justified in this case, because we know that a different sexual orientation is not a crime. In China, 4000 people were executed in 2011, mostly because of political disagreements. Associations around the words criticized the government, and this is another justified case of ethnocentrism, because having a different opinion is considered as a crime.

It is not always appropriate to judge other cultures by the standards of ours. A culture is based on history, the economy, religions and traditions. When we don’t live in a country or when we are just tourists, I think that it’s not clever to judge immediately with our own standards, because people are used to live in a certain way that...