Cultural Relativism: Examining Fiji Adolescents and American Families

Cultural Relativism: Examining Fiji Adolescents and American Families

Intro to Cultural Anthropology-Ant 101

Instructor Teri Myers

Feb 1, 2016

Cultural relativism is about accepting and understanding a culture without inserting our own biases, opinions or preconceptions.  I understand it to be somewhat like peering through a crystal clear looking lens, not rose-tinted or sunlit-yellow. It is invalid to evaluate someone else’s culture, based on moral and values of one’s own (Crapo, 2013). It is a difficult task, to not view your own culture as superior. It is also difficult to view other culture’s standards, values, and beliefs as anything other than odd or unnatural.  In order to better practice this process of relativism, I will be evaluating my own culture from an etic perspective, this will allow me to view my own culture un-biased,  from an outsiders view--and another culture from an emic perspective, which will give an insider’s look. More specifically, I will discuss balancing parenting and work for Americans, and examining the Fiji culture and its introduction to television. As an American, most of us have been very engaged with television and many other forms of media from a very young age, and watching it newly introduced to young adolescent females in Fiji is astounding. It’s hard to understand the impact it may have; I will discuss the positive and negative effects of television on female adolescents in Fiji.

Part 1

In this section I will be discussing how Americans balance work and parenting from an etic perspective. It’s important to understand what “etic” means first. Describing a culture from an etic standpoint is like an objective account, it describes it in a way that makes it seem alien to one’s own culture (Crapo, 2013).  In Miner’s article, Body Ritual among the Nacirema, Miner (1956) does a thorough job at capturing American culture from an outsider perspective, making it feel very alien to his own. Seemingly, describing tooth brushing or dental work as a form of “magic”, he truly captured the essence of how foreign  American culture can seem to outsiders looking in (Miner, 1956) . Slowly, only as the article unfolded, this Nacirma culture he described, became American.

In America, households vary by size, socio-economic status, who works, and who doesn’t. To explain the culture from an etic perspective, each family is different and evolving. In the past. Most American mothers stayed at home raising children while the father was working, but as more mothers join the work force, two-parent working households it up to 46%, while just one parent working is at 26% (PRC, 2015). In 1970, a two-parent household with both working was at 31% (PRC, 2015).  Economically, households with two parent’s working are better off financially than without, having a median household income of  $102,400, compared to just the father working at $55,000 (PRC, 2015). Though, this does cause difficulties balancing the work and home life for these families. More than half (56%) of families say that the balance is hard (PRC, 2015).  Many cultures believe women should be at home doing only childrearing tasks and keeping up the home, while the father did the work and labor to support the family---that is even what American’s used to do. After many years, American women started to provide more financially for the family for many reasons.  One would think that with both parents working full-time , the mother would still have the majority of the tasks of household duties as well, but surprisingly  most parents in this type of household say the mother and father share jobs about equally when it comes to chores, disciplining and playing with the children (PRC, 2015). Households in America can be very career driven, with many responsibilities to balance. Most parents, including at least 86%  and  85% of father, say they feel rushed at times (PRC, 2015). Mother who work part-time or not at all, in comparison, feel dramatically less rushed, at 29% (PRC, 2015). Balancing all the tasks seems to cause more stress for a working family. In America, with nearly half of all marriages end in divorce, avoiding additional stress would be ideal (Crap, 2013).