Culture and Morality: The Relativity of Values in Anthropology

by Elvin Hatch

Book Overview

Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231055897
• ISBN13: 9780231055895
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 163 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Chillingly relevant

This is a book I read in my student days and it is even more relevant today. It basically posits the idea that certain actions must be stopped, regardless of whether they are perpetrated by a native government or an occupying power. Such actions include, for example, such extremes as genocide and severe human rights abuses. How far does the slogan 'respect for culture' go in the face of watching people tortured or starved to death? An example he has given that has stayed with me to this day was a series of human rights abuses conducted by the colonial governor of an African village. The occupying forces rightly stepped in and put a stop to it. Hatch points out that if the native government had been doing such a thing, there would have been no authority to stop it, although the abuse would remain as abhorrent as ever. The question of what to do, and whether it is possible to intervene disitnerestedly, is what takes up the majority of the book. The flip side, of course, is respect for countries' sovereignty. While Hatch concludes that some abuses must be stopped, he nevertheless conducts a thoughtful analysis of how easily the license to use military might could be abused. Whether you ultimately agree or disagree with Hatch, he'll get you thinking, and these are issues that must be discussed. I doubt he's updated it in some time - I would appreciate a post-Afghanistan and Iraq chapter where he analyses whether or not this constitutes a practical application of his theory, or a violation thereof - but the book remains a must-read for these times.