Cultural Relativism, By Lila Abu Lughod - 1359 Words

Cultural relativism is the view that we should seek to understand other cultures within their own context, rather than through the biased understanding of our own cultural beliefs. When Americans see Bedouin women wearing veils, they are likely to view this practice in the context of their own culture and see it purely as an act of male oppression—an idea that would be very confounding and offensive to Bedouin women themselves. To say that, in the future, Bedouin women might â€Å"be free to not be veiled† undermines Bedouin culture because it fundamentally misunderstands the practice of veiling, speaking about it in an American context rather than a Bedouin context. So in order to understand the practice of veiling, we must think in terms of†¦show more content†¦The Bedouin believe that showing these things to others is a form of exposure. For this reason, they value extreme modesty, and find sexuality to be very shameful. Because they can bear children, women are directly tied to ideas of fertility, which is both valued and looked down upon in Bedouin life. Because of menstruation, which cannot be controlled, a woman cannot ever fully have ‘agl. This is one part of why women in Bedouin culture are considered inferior to men. Another concept at the core of Bedouin ethics, which is linked to aá ¹ £l in some ways, is kinship. Bedouin people have an ideology of very strong, natural, unbreakable bonds of blood, especially through agnates (those in the same male bloodline). The concept of kinship is not restricted to blood, but also extends to those who live together, sharing a type of temporary bond. Loyalty to friends and family is very important to the Bedouin, and so the concept of kinship ties directly back into their sense of honor. Within Bedouin culture, directly connected to the concept of kin, is a complex hierarchical social structure of superiors and dependents. It is true that Bedouin men are generally dominant over Bedouin women, but for the Bedouin the concept of authority is derived from moral worthiness. If someone is deserving of authority, they are also considered honorable (which is not to say that this is always theShow MoreRelatedUnder the Desguise of a Passageway to Happiness: Assimiliation779 Words   |  3 Pagescrucial for all people. Ahmed’s article can also be related to Lila Abu Lughod’s article about â€Å"Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.† In Abu Lughod’s article, Westerners use the excuse of liberating Muslim women from terrorists, to assimilate them into the Western culture (786). While Ahmed challenges the British’s arrogant need to assimilate Indians into their culture, Abu Lughod does the same in her article by exposing that Muslim womenRead MoreThe Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment980 Words   |  4 Pagesthemselves further susceptible to being repressed and mistreated. 3. Cultural relativism occurs when an individual believes that his or hers beliefs and traditions should be understood by other persons or cultures based on that individual s values and perceptions. In Abu-Lughod s essay, the author investigates whether the American intervention in Afghanistan is a proper way to liberate and free Afghan women from being oppressed. Abu-Lughod compares some of the aspects of the mission in Afghanistan toRead More`` It s All On The Family : Intersections Of Gender, Race, And Nation1185 Words   |  5 PagesI’m left to wonder if we’ve taken the same approach in regards to feminist ideals. It seems today, feminism’s mantra is that all women are equal, but Western women are still somehow superior. Lila Abu- Lughod’s piece titled â€Å"Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others† intrigued me due to its title asking a question which at one point (at least for me) had an obvious response. To see if the answer to this was truly palpable, I decided to askRead MorePersepolis : The Story Of A Childhood1654 Words   |  7 PagesThanks to her slightly alternative lifestyle, she is able to reconstruct gender norms that society has set by depicting the different ways women resist them. â€Å"Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others† by Lila Abu-Lughod is an essay detailing the misconceptions surrounding the veil. Through this essay we can see how colonial feminism, the form of feminism in which western women push for a western way of living on their third world counterpartsRead MoreDo Muslim Women Really Need Saving?7400 Words   |  30 PagesDo M uslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others Author(s): Lila Abu-Lughod Reviewed work(s): Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 104, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), pp. 783-790 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3567256 . Accessed: 18/01/2012 15:55 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms Conditions of Use, available atRead MoreAnthà ­a Muà ±oz April 23, 2014 WMST 3100-001 Final Exam IV: Feminist scholarship extensively2200 Words   |  9 Pagesnot be limited to western ideals of liberation. Discourse, Power and Resistance Embedded in intricate systems of privilege and oppression, we are both subjects and agents of social control. As institutional forces construct and maintain social-cultural hierarchies in which power relations inevitably structure an individuals interpretation of not only their environment but also their self-identity. These power relations exercised through discourse, enacted through social institutions (i.e., education