• The Cross-Cultural Relationship is the idea that people from different cultures can have relationships that acknowledge, respect and begin to understand each other’s diverse lives. People with different backgrounds can help each other see possibilities that they never thought were there because of limitations, or cultural proscriptions, posed by their own traditions. Traditional practices in certain cultures can restrict opportunity because they are “wrong” according to one specific culture. Becoming aware of these new possibilities will ultimately change the people that are exposed to the new ideas. This cross-cultural relationship provides hope that new opportunities will be discovered but at the same time it is threatening. The threat is that once the relationship occurs, one can no longer claim that any single culture is the absolute truth.
• Cultural relativism is the ability to understand a culture on its own terms and not to make judgments using the standards of one’s own culture. Using the perspective of cultural relativism leads to the view that no one culture is superior than another culture when compared to systems of morality, law, politics, etc. It is a concept that cultural norms and values derive their meaning within a specific social context. This is also based on the idea that there is no absolute standard of good or evil, therefore every decision and judgment of what is right and wrong is individually decided in each society. The concept of cultural relativism also means that any opinion on ethics is subject to the perspective of each person within their particular culture. Overall, there is no right or wrong ethical system. In a holistic understanding of the term cultural relativism, it tries to promote the understanding of cultural practices that are unfamiliar to other cultures such as eating insects, genocides or genital cutting.

There are two different categories of cultural relativism: 

1. Absolute: Everything that happens within a culture must and should not be questioned by outsiders. The extreme example of absolute cultural relativism would be the Nazi party’s point of view justifying the Holocaust.
2. Critical: Creates questions about cultural practices in terms of who is accepting them and why. Critical cultural relativism also recognizes power relationships.

Cultural Relativism vs Ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world largely from the perspective of one''s own culture. This may be motivated, for example, by the belief that one''s own race, ethnic, or cultural group is the most important or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups.
• Ethnocentrism can often lead to incorrect assumptions about others'' behavior based on one''s own norms, values, and beliefs.
• Cultural relativism, meanwhile, is principled on regarding and valuing the practices of a culture from the point of view of that culture, and to avoid making judgments stemming from one''s own assumptions.
• Cultural relativism attempts to counter ethnocentrism by promoting the understanding of cultural practices unfamiliar to other cultures. For example, it is a common practice for friends of the same-sex in India to hold hands while walking in public.
• In the United Kingdom, holding hands is largely limited to couples who are romantically involved, and often suggests a sexual relationship.
• Someone holding an extreme ethnocentrist view may see their own understanding of hand-holding as superior and consider the foreign practice to be immoral.

Criticisms on Cultural Relativism

• Cultural Relativism has been criticized for numerous reasons, both theoretical and practical.
• Cultural relativism attempts to integrate knowledge between one''s own, culture-bound, reality. The premise that cultural relativism is based on, that all cultures are valid in their customs, is, vague.
• Cultural relativism from a theoretical perspective for having contradictory logic, asserting that cultural relativism often asserts that social facts are true and untrue, depending on the culture that one is situated in.
• Nonetheless, cultural relativism also has several advantages. Firstly, it is a system that promotes cooperation. Each individual has a different perspective that is based on their upbringing, experiences, and personal thoughts; and, by embracing the many differences that people have, cooperation creates the potential for a stronger society.
• Each individual definition of success allows people to pursue stronger bonds with one another and potentially achieve more because there are no limitations on a group level about what can or cannot be accomplished.
• Secondly, cultural relativism envisions a society where equality across cultures is possible. Cultural relativism does so by allowing individuals to define their moral code without defining that of others. As each person can set their own standards of success and behavior, cultural relativism creates equality.
• Additionally, Cultural relativism can preserve cultures and allow people to create personal moral codes based on societal standards without precisely consulting what is "right" or "wrong."
• However, it can do so while also excluding moral relativism. This means that the moral code of a culture can be defined and an expectation implemented that people follow it, even as people devise goals and values that are particularly relevant to them.
• Lastly, cultural relativism has been praised for stopping cultural conditions — the adoption for people to adapt their attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs to the people they are with on a regular basis.
• Despite these advantages, cultural relativism has been criticized for creating a system fuelled by personal bias. As people tend to prefer to be with others who have similar thoughts, feelings, and ideas, they tend to separate themselves into neighbourhoods, communities, and social groups that share specific perspectives.
• When people are given the power to define their own moral code, they do so based on personal bias, causing some people to follow their own code at the expense of others.
• Nonetheless, cultural relativism promotes understanding of cultures outside of one’s own, enabling people to build relationships with other cultures that acknowledge and respect each other’s’ diverse lives.
• With cultural relativism comes an ability to understand a culture on its own terms without making judgments based on one’s own cultural standards. In this way, sociologists and anthropologists can draw more accurate conclusions about outside cultures.