Cultural Pluralism refers to a situation where different society groups with distinctive cultures peacefully coexist together with a dominant group. Cultural pluralism gives individual ethnic groups the right to live by their terms and cultural heritages (Weisbrod and carol, 29). The concept of cultural pluralism enhances cooperation among endogenous groups of diverse lifestyles and family structures. In the united state of America, cultural pluralists have paid tribute to the significance of this concept in enriching the citizens’ way of life. Immigrants and native-born Americans have learned a lot from each other. This has broaden their views on education, art, history, cuisine, music and other life aspects that are essential to social and economic development.
Cultural pluralism also poses threats and ethical challenges. They include cultural/ethical relativism and moral absolution. Ethical relativism is the view that ethical systems of different cultural subgroups are a product of the greater society. This leads to the overall acceptance of all cultural actions regardless of whether they are right or wrong, have a good or bad consequences. The concept entirely relies on cultural will as per each social subgroup. Every aspect of culture one individual social group has, must be accepted by another group in the larger society. This is not always the case for all people in a society simply because some cultural actions are considered evil or things of the past. They cannot be accepted in the general modern world. For example a female genital mutilation was somehow exercised by some communities in the past and not acceptable in the life today.
Cultural pluralism presents no particular formulae or an ultimate measure of what can be considered bad or good behavior among members of the society. It encourages all people to cope with all human actions provided they are ethical.
Moral absolutism is another challenge caused by cultural pluralism. Moral absolutism is the ethical view that certain actions in the society are absolutely right or wrong. For instance, an act of stealing or cheating is always considered immoral even if it is intentionally made to prevent an undesired action from happening. A good example is when someone steals food to help feeding a starving family.
There can be a solution to cultural relativism and absolutism. Some practices that are not of benefit to the great society must be abolished. A possible standard measure of good or bad behavior should be set as a reference to judge human action. This involves forcing some society members to eradicate their cultural practices that are generally evil. This can be a good solution to cultural relativism.
Works Cited
Weisbrod, Carol. Emblems of Pluralism: Cultural Differences and the State. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002. Print.
