<< Ethnocentrism	<Contents>	Acculturation >>

 
Cultural Diversity - Demography and Statistics (3)

Cultural relativism

Baker (1997, p. 3) has suggested that cultural relativism is ‘an implicit principle underlying the conceptual approaches developed by the nurse to guide cross-cultural caregiving’. Furthermore, cultural relativism refers to ‘the perspective that the behaviors of individuals should be judged only from the context of their own cultural system’. Baker argues that although its proponents propose that it allows for openness and flexibility in cross-cultural encounters, and understanding, cultural relativism undermines the inequalities, oppression and violation of human rights.

In health care across cultures, care professionals can be drawn into conflicts with certain practices such as circumcision (male or female), although viewed as traditions in some ethnic groups.