"It has historically been the rule, rather than the exception, that the encounter with a different society induces a measure of humility and relativism about one’s own."

The Critical Bite of Cultural Relativism

The pioneers of cultural anthropology taught not just how to study other cultures, but how to criticize their own.

"But this argument, on the whole, boils down to the banal observation that the people who studied other cultures taught us to appreciate diversity. It has historically been the rule, rather than the exception, that the encounter with a different society induces a measure of humility and relativism about one’s own. In his 1580 essay Of Cannibals Montaigne famously wrote about the ceremonies relayed to him by a traveler to the New World: 'every one gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country. As, indeed, we have no other level of truth and reason than the example and idea of the opinions and customs of the place wherein we live.'"