Embed Notice

@Gnomeshatecheese See also

https://thecritic.co.uk/only-the-truly-privileged-can-be-cultural-relativists/

Cultural relativism is an odious conceit that can only be indulged in by a sanctimonious few who benefit from life in industrialised, liberal democracies. Do the curators, people who so clearly consider themselves better than the museum’s ordinary visitors also believe that the culture of, for example, present day Afghanistan under Taliban rule, is equal to our own?

It is quite obvious to those who have not been educated into ignorance that Britain is a better place to live than either Afghanistan, China or indeed 19th century Ecuador. To believe that people suffering under Taliban rule are different from us, that unlike British women, women in Afghanistan are content to be treated as property, is rank racism. Our culture, imperfect and fragmented though it may be, is better by every metric.

It is sobering to reflect that had the women who now lead collections at the Pitt Rivers museum been born in nineteenth century China, they would scarcely be able to stand on their mutilated feet, let alone hand down diktats about what visitors should think about other cultures.