A Matter Of Opinion

Growing up as a child most people were taught basic morals from their parents; don't steal, always tell the truth, be kind to others, etc. We were also taught to respect peoples opinions and realize that not everyone felt the same about everything, and that was okay. But what they didn't teach us was that these two can overlap, that sometimes it is okay to lie or to kill, it all just depends on where you are and how you view it. The basis of many of our morals are all dependent on the society that we live in, and can change from place to place. This leads to a large confusion when two different moral codes confront each, neither one is right (or wrong) but each thinks that they are.

In his article The Challenge of Cultural Relativism James Rachels uses a number of examples to help to explain this to his readers. His first is the example of two different cultures of people, the Greeks and Callatians, who had two different rituals with deceased people, cremation and cannibalism. His point was basically that each of these cultures had reasons for how they treated the dead, and were appalled by how the other culture acted. Neither one is particularly correct in the manner, it is the tradition and moral code they were raised with that makes is correct for them. Rachels also shows this with Eskimos and their infanticide, how for their society it is necessary and acceptable to do what we have deemed to be terrible and immoral. However, just because people disagree does not mean they are both correct, Rachels states. The previous examples were opinionated subjects, but if someone say that a fruit is an apple and someone else says it is not, both cannot be correct. Often today people struggle to realize the difference between their societal morals and traditions, and what are actually facts.

In Things Fall Apart these cultural differences are shown in many ways because of the background from which the story comes. The first is the ultimatum given stating that a young man and a virgin must be given up or the two tribes will go to war. Today we look at this with disgust, trading people and forcibly taking them is cruel and inhuman. But in reality our culture does it just the same. We bargain for resources and land; materials we can use to fuel our economy and keep our nation going. These tribes are no different, men are useful as workers, farmers, warriors, and hunters; a valuable commodity. Women are the sole source of reproduction, you cant expand as a society without people in that society. Then in the end of the novel the kinsmen refuse to touch the body of a man who committed suicide. Although we may view this as disrespectful and silly, they are justified in their reasoning. Just as we would not dig up the body of anyone already buried they wont touch the body of someone who has shamed himself and his kin in such a profound way.

Personally I believe that there are many things that we view as a society as a fact or universal moral that in reality is just an influence of our past traditions. These rules and codes of conduct that we have are very malleable and should not be accepted as facts, because they are not. However, as we travel around the world we should take into consideration  the society we are in and how their culture is different from our own. Just because we are from another culture does not give us the right to blatantly bash and spit upon another one we are not familiar with. As long as someone actions have a proper and valid motivation, they cannot be seen as evil or incorrect. After all, we have many laws and moral codes stating that murder is injust and wrong, but we have millions and millions of people trained and ready whose sole job is to fight and killed when they are called upon to do so.