Cultural Relativism and Photography
Dec. 22nd, 2007 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caitriJust in time for Christmas! Spiegal Online discusses Unicef's photo of the year, which, in case you haven't seen it yet, is the wedding portrait of a forty year old Afghani man and his eleven year old bride.
Our eyes behold an abomination. Our eyes have learned to see the world from the perspective of a slowly acquired sense for humanity. And although more and more voices tell us that we -- the former colonialists and imperialists -- have lost the right to judge other cultures, we know just as well as this girl that this marriage is wrong..
I think cultural relativism is an interesting subject. I'm one of those people who has what I call Captain Kirk morality: I'm accepting of other people until I see their actions hurting others, in which case I'm ready to photon torpedo some asses.
In fairness, I don't think I've ever had a conversation where relativism wasn't easily rebutted. All one generally has to do is bring up FGM or black tire executions.
Our eyes behold an abomination. Our eyes have learned to see the world from the perspective of a slowly acquired sense for humanity. And although more and more voices tell us that we -- the former colonialists and imperialists -- have lost the right to judge other cultures, we know just as well as this girl that this marriage is wrong..
I think cultural relativism is an interesting subject. I'm one of those people who has what I call Captain Kirk morality: I'm accepting of other people until I see their actions hurting others, in which case I'm ready to photon torpedo some asses.
In fairness, I don't think I've ever had a conversation where relativism wasn't easily rebutted. All one generally has to do is bring up FGM or black tire executions.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-22 10:51 pm (UTC)*is clueless*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-22 11:18 pm (UTC)Black tire executions = killing someone by putting a tire around their neck, filling it with petrol, and lighting it on fire. Used quite often on women, children, and elders in South Africa and roundabouts during their periodic witch-hunting crazes.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-22 11:20 pm (UTC)Oh.
Yeah, that puts cultural relativism in a somewhat different perspective.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-22 11:23 pm (UTC)