Human Rights and Culture Change

Abstract

A historical bias toward cultural relativism has led to a general unwillingness by anthropologists to deal with questions of human rights. A descriptive science, anthropology is concerned with the various lifeways of humans, eschewing value judgements. Thus, anthropologists face something of a dilemma in developing a concept of universal morality. Some attention has been given to possible moral universals, such as the incest taboo and strictures on in-group assault and homicide. While these moral precepts approach universality, incest and homicide receive positive sanction in specific situations in societies. Likewise, while rape, for example, is one of the most heavily sanctioned crimes cross-culturally (Brown, 1952), institutionalized rape is not uncommon as a punitive or ritual cultural practice (Webster, 1979).