During class last week, we watched three video clips concerning practices in other countries that most Americans find atrocious. The subjects of the videos were: the Untouchables and the caste system in India, honor killings, and suicide bombers. All three practices are, on the most part, accepted as tradition and occur frequently within the countries in which they originated. .
Immediately after watching the videos, the first thoughts that came to my mind, having never seen such horrifying practices, were "How could people allow such tyranny to take place in their own country?", " How did these people come to believe that murder and suicide could lead to paradise?", "Don't these people have any morals?" Etc. After later reading the chapters on cultural relativism and ethnocentrism, it became clear; morality is relative. My upbringing and morals will never allow me to believe that these opposing practices and moral views are "correct" or "right", but I must take into consideration that these people are only doing what is tradition in their countries and/or religions. They were raised to believe that certain actions that I think are morally wrong are normal. .
Taking the three subjects one at a time, I"ll start with the Untouchables in India. Most countries have some sort of social rank that may separate one group of people from another. In America, we often take for granted that with our freedom and educational system, it is relatively easy to change one's social status to become part of a higher class. In India, however, they have a rigid social system called the "caste system" in which social status is maintained generation after generation, and there is little or no mobility out of the position into which one is born. The Untouchables occupy the lowest part of the caste system. The Untouchables have almost no rights in their society. They are not allowed to touch people of higher class, use the same wells as them, or even enter the temples.