Sitting in Mr. Purser’s Marriage and Family class last semester, he raised a very interesting question, “Is the practice of judging other cultures by our own standards right or wrong?” Mr Purser continued by bringing up controversial topics and asking the class our personal opinions on the topics. These topics, which ranged from arranged marriage to female genital mutilation, all brought responses from my classmates.
After everyone had given their opinion, Mr. Purser did not agree or disagree with anyone, but simply posed the question to all of us, “What right do we have to judge other culture’s traditions and customs?” I was compelled to write this article on the basis of that question and look into the prevailing judgments of most Americans on other cultures.
A very close friend of mine for three years now is a girl who we will call “Sylvia”. She was born in a Middle Eastern country and immigrated to the United States when she was elementary age. Her years growing up in the United States have stripped her of almost every recognizable Middle Eastern trait: she does not wear the hijab, standard for most Muslim women, and wears her hair short.
Sylvia exhibits all the traits of your average American girl except for one thing: her arranged marriage. Sylvia’s family holds the top caste position in the Muslim faith and a great amount of pressure is placed on her by not only her family, but the religion at large to conform to this tradition.
People’s general reaction to this aspect of Sylvia’s life was typical. “Really?!” was usually followed by, “I would NEVER allow my parents to do that to me!”
But, as Sylvia explained it to me once, how could you go against a tradition your entire culture and religion vehemently support? Failing to agree to an arranged marriage could resort in humiliation to her entire family and her exile from her family. Now, faced with this type of pressure flowing not only from your entire family but religious community as well, would you be able to say no?
There are of course many of you who are shaking your head yes. The culture of the United States praises choosing your own partner for love over anything else. Even though choosing a potential spouse for the reason of love is a relatively new practice among the modern Western world (different texts give an estimate that the practice of choosing your spouse has been in practice for 150 – 200 years), how quickly we look down on cultures who still practice arranged marriages as our own ancestors did.
The point of this article isn’t to argue the validity or morality of these practices, but to urge readers not to jump quickly into judging other cultures as “barbaric” or “inferior” because they differ from our own standards. When approaching the sensitive cultural differences, the line between being caring and being judgmental is fine.
Numerous other topics around the world have caught the eyes of the western hemisphere: female genital mutilation in Africa, the consumption of dog in Asian cultures and whale hunting in Japan. All of these issues have been highly debated in the American media and other media outlets around the world. One side argues the practices are barbaric and outdated, while the other side protests these labels and says that the practices are culturally or historically significant. No matter which side you take or how you feel about the practice in and of itself, we must always be careful in how we approach these issues. It bothered me when one day while on the Internet I ran into a public service announcement from Hayden Panettiere denouncing the hunting of whales for consumption in Japan. Yes, the cheerleader from “Heroes” decides to take time from her busy life to denounce an entire country for a practice dating back centuries before her time. Ironically, Hayden has no problem wearing the skin of land-dwelling animals for fashion. Japan has for centuries depended on the sea for a majority of it’s diet. As a country with the third largest land mass, how can the U.S. criticize Japan for not using less attractive animals such as cows or chickens to substantiate their appetite? It’s okay to slaughter cows and chicken -they can’t jump through hoops and balance a ball on their nose.
As always in these cultural debates, there are two sides to the story. Sylvia’s marriage may seem horrific to others, but the divorce rate among arranged marriages is dramatically lower than our “choose love” national philosophy. In Asia, the consumption of dog seems barbaric to the United States (during the Beijing Olympics the government went so far as to ask local restaurants to stop serving dog during the Olympics), but in countries where Hindu religion is practiced the consumption of cow is strictly prohibited and seen as unfavorable to the gods. They in turn view the United States in poor light because our vast consumption of their holy animal.
See what I am getting at? Two sides to every story. Whenever you are presented with another culture’s practice, no matter how odd or un-modern it may seem, be careful of casting it into a negative light because it does not conform to our society’s beliefs, and always remember there are those who view our own customs as strange and obtuse. In an ever increasing global world, we must be careful not to alienate other countries just because of our differences.
Joshua Bryant is a freshman
majoring in political science.
He can be contacted at
[email protected].