The relativity of cultural relativism

Summary Although the author in an earlier publication (1971) has argued in favour of cultural relativism, recently he has become more critical of the concept, as it inevitably leads to an aporia. The concept of intercultural relativism has become blurred with intracultural relativism. The sharply increased communication between the various cultures has led to an increasing differentiation within these cultures and less differentiation between cultures. The other cultural conventions can be found next door, in another cultural community, in another subculture or in another social class. (This pertains to South Africa as well as Northwest‐Europe). Geographically based typologies do no longer apply to culture and literature in our century. Moreover, the notion of cultural relativism contains an internal contradiction. As Ruth Benedict (1935) argued, cultural relativism itself is the expression of a value; it means that my values are not necessarily better than the values maintained by someone else belonging to a different culture. Being a western invention going back to the eighteenth century, cultural relativism, by its own standards, cannot be applied to cultures which do not share the notion of tolerance vis‐à‐vis the values of other cultures. This paradoxical consequence prevents any rigorous application of cultural relativism. Finally, with reference to Tzvetan Todorov (1991) and the human rights discussion, it is argued that certain values can be declared to have universal validity.