Are all cultures equal?

[AceChilla]

Do you think all cultures around the world are equal to one another, like cultural relativist tend to say? Or do you think that there are universal values on which you can measure all cultures around the world and say this one is better than the other?

 

[CivCube]

Subjectivity is equal for everyone.

 

[stormbind]

Culture is beliefs, way of life, labelling what is acceptable or taboo.

The western culture elects representives, has trial by peers, civilian police, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free market, classless society, monogomous marriage, etc., etc., etc..

The arab culture has appointed representatives, controlled speech, controlled movements for women, polygomous marriages, etc., etc., etc..

The chinese culture has other things. And there are some seriously wierd things in some lost cultures!

Which brings me to the end of my statement: "Wierd" way of life is what distinguishes between cultures. What one person considers wierd, another considers acceptable.

All Arabs and Westerners would consider the Mongol, Egyptian, Maya cultures wierd... and it's the same when any of those look at each other.

Every culture thinks the other ones are barbaric, ignorant, or unenlightened. There is no superior/inferior, only perceptions.

 

[crystal]

Cultures are products of the environment surrounding them. And if I were to answer the question whether all cultures are equal, I would need to know how this is defined.

 

[JohnRM]

radioactive monkey/panda option...

 

[The Last Conformist]

What's equal?

 

[Dell19]

Wheres the different option, not necessarily better option?

 

[~Corsair#01~]

Culture isn't a product of the environment so much as the people in it, and often, luck.
The fact that West culture is currently spreading across the world like wildfire (usually caused by napalm bombing), this would imply that some cultures are weaker, either that or it depends on how much firepower your country has. I think culture is a fragile thing- it can be created only once, but can be destroyed and never rebulit, for instance Russia's peasant culture was destroyed in 1991 and is coming closer and closer to a carboncopy of Americas (only with er... budget problems), just as all of Europe's culture has simply ceased to exist, dividing the world in 2- East, where the countries are divided in culture and West, where there is one culture alone.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Russia's peasant culture destroyed in 1991? I'd set the date about sixty years earlier ...

 

[LesCanadiens]

No culture can be compared to any other culture....it's like comparing rice with bread....

 

[Perfection]

Here's the real question, does it really matter if any culture is superior?

As I see it every culture has some strong points that is "better" than that of other cultures. And every culture has some weak points that are "worse" than that of other cultures. So rather than trying to go about some massive process to try to determine moral superority and using it to feed the ego of whichever culture "wins", why don't we try to understand other cultures so we can use their strong points to help overcome our weak points? Seems to me, trying to quantify who's morally superior to one another is a lot less attractive than accepting that all cultures deserve some recognition and all deserve some criticism. It doesn't matter which culture is better than which other cultures; what matters is how can we improve our own culture and the culture of others!

 

[newfangle]

Some cultures are significantly worse than others.

 

[Tomoyo]

No culture can be compared to any other culture....it's like comparing rice with bread....

AFAIK, I can compare rice with bread. Bread is shapeable, and quality depends on shape (but only when compariing to rice), Rice is more liquid.

 

[LesCanadiens]

AFAIK, I can compare rice with bread. Bread is shapeable, and quality depends on shape (but only when compariing to rice), Rice is more liquid.

You missed the point by a mile.

 

[Bigfoot]

Yes, but some cultures are more equal than others...

Seriously though, I would suggest that some cultures are manifestly better than others because they foster higher and more advanced expressions of human potential. Rennaisance Italy produced more works of genius than, say, a remote tribe still stuck in the stone age.

 

[amadeus]

Some cultures are in an overall sense superior to others.

 

[stormbind]

In your opinion! Emphasis

Answer me this, why is it superior to allow uneducated folk vote for an ignorant peasant... when you can have an unelected political genius who endured a lifetime of education specifically for the role?

You can argue about freedom to choose until you can blue in the face, but it won't change the mind of someone who thinks accademic achievement is more valuable than acting skills

 

[WillJ]

"Better" is a subjective term, and thus there is no way to undeniably demonstrate how something is better than anything else, whether it be cultures or ice cream flavors.

Some cultures are in an overall sense superior to others.

What is the "overall sense" you are using, and what justification do you have for using it?

Try as you might, but you cannot take anything objective (for example, level of technological advancement) and make it equal "better" or "worse." What is better to you might be worse to someone else, and irrelevant to a third person.

Edit: Note that I do NOT think all cultures are equal. Such thinking is silly; all cultures are obviously different.

 

[Double Barrel]

When given the chance, just about everyone wants blue jeans, air conditioning, television, DVD's, music, computers, video games, refrigerators, good medical care, and / or all the other perks that have come from the consumer-driven free-enterprise Western culture. We rock!

 

[Uncle Sam]

When given the chance, just about everyone wants blue jeans, air conditioning, television, DVD's, music, computers, video games, refrigerators, good medical care, and / or all the other perks that have come from the consumer-driven free-enterprise Western culture. We rock!

You summed it up quite well. While some aspects of culture can't be compared in better/worse terms, like most popular religion etc. there are certain things that can. Like technology and attitude towards human rights and equality amongst sexes/races/religions. I'm not trying to single any group out or be insulting but there are many places in the world where people still live like it's 1000 AD.