Cultural Relativism In Child Marriage

In anthropology, there is a concept called Cultural Relativism. This idea is that you cannot judge another culture based on your experiences within your own culture. Meaning that just because something is bad in your culture it may be the norm in another. That concept is very important when you are studying another culture. It helps prevent bad or unfair judgments from forming. An example of this could be if you are working in an area where they eat dogs. As an American who views dogs as pets, you would not agree with the practice, but you can understand why those people would choose to eat dogs. Unfortunately, cultural relativism is not always so clear cut. In some cases, it is hard to know whether or not it is appropriate to step in. Such is the issue of child marriage. …show more content…
One that affects millions of young girls every day. While, you should never interfere with another culture because you disagree but when it comes to preventing tragedies such as child marriage, it is a must to intervene on the children’s behalf. There are numerous organizations that have been created for the sole purpose of preventing child marriages. According to studies done by UNICEF, 10 million underage girls are married every year (8). India, in particular, has some of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. It is estimated that up to 44.5% of girls are married as children (5). This begs the question of how is that even possible in such a rapidly developing country. A country that is on the road of becoming a