Editing Cultural anthropology (section)

===Cultural relativism===
{{main|Cultural relativism}}
Cultural relativism is a principle that was established as [[axiom]]atic in [[anthropology|anthropological]] research by [[Franz Boas]] and later popularized by his students.  Boas first articulated the idea in 1887: "...civilization is not something absolute, but ... is relative, and ... our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes."<ref name="Levitsky 2009 115–133">{{Cite journal|last1=Levitsky|first1=Steven|last2=Murillo|first2=Maria|s2cid=55981325|date=2009|title=Variation in Institutional Strength|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|volume=12|pages=115–33|doi=10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.091106.121756|doi-access=free}}</ref> Although Boas did not coin the term, it became common among anthropologists after Boas' death in 1942, to express their synthesis of a number of ideas Boas had developed. Boas believed that the sweep of cultures, to be found in connection with any sub-species, is so vast and pervasive that there cannot be a relationship between culture and [[Race (classification of humans)|race]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.utpa.edu/faculty/mglazer/theory/cultural_relativism.htm |title=Cultural Relativism |access-date=2007-06-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613222929/http://www.utpa.edu/faculty/mglazer/Theory/cultural_relativism.htm |archive-date=2007-06-13 }}</ref> Cultural relativism involves specific [[epistemology|epistemological]] and methodological claims.  Whether or not these claims require a specific [[ethics|ethical]] stance is a matter of debate. This principle should not be confused with [[moral relativism]].

Cultural relativism was in part a response to Western [[ethnocentrism]]. Ethnocentrism may take obvious forms, in which one consciously believes that one's people's arts are the most beautiful, values the most virtuous, and beliefs the most truthful. Boas, originally trained in [[physics]] and [[geography]], and heavily influenced by the thought of [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]], [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]], and [[Alexander von Humboldt|von Humboldt]], argued that one's culture may mediate and thus limit one's perceptions in less obvious ways. This understanding of culture confronts anthropologists with two problems: first, how to escape the unconscious bonds of one's own culture, which inevitably bias our perceptions of and reactions to the world, and second, how to make sense of an unfamiliar culture.  The principle of cultural relativism thus forced anthropologists to develop innovative methods and heuristic strategies.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

Boas and his students realized that if they were to conduct scientific research in other cultures, they would need to employ methods that would help them escape the limits of their own ethnocentrism.  One such method is that of [[ethnography]]. This method advocates living with people of another culture for an extended period of time to learn the local language and be enculturated, at least partially, into that culture. In this context, cultural relativism is of fundamental methodological importance, because it calls attention to the importance of the local context in understanding the meaning of particular human beliefs and activities.  Thus, in 1948 Virginia Heyer wrote, "Cultural relativity, to phrase it in starkest abstraction, states the relativity of the part to the whole.  The part gains its cultural significance by its place in the whole, and cannot retain its integrity in a different situation."<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Heyer | first1 = Virginia | year = 1948 | title = In Reply to Elgin Williams | journal = American Anthropologist | volume = 50 | issue = 1| pages = 163–66 | doi=10.1525/aa.1948.50.1.02a00290| s2cid = 161978412 | doi-access =  }}</ref>