anti-anti-relativist

is not a relativist, but thinks that naïve anti-relativist are more dangerous than relativist.

whatever cultural relativism may be or originally have been, it serves these days largely as a specter to scare us away from certain ways of thinking and toward others' (Geertz 1984:263). The type of thinking anti-relativism is meant to scare anthropologist away from is a wishy-washy world where anything goes... however, relativism scares us away from provincialism. The end result is a 'choice of worries' (Geertz 1984:265). Geertz thinks that provincialism is the greater danger. Moreover, unlike anti-relativist stances, cultural relativism is not the product of a grand unifying theory, but the result of anthropological data (Geertz 1984:264). As Geertz says One cannot read too long about Nayar matriliny, Aztec sacrifice, the Hopi verb, or the convolutions of the hominid transition and not begin at least to consider the possibility that, to quote Montaigne again, 'each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice for we have no other criterion of reason than the example of idea of the opinions and customs of the country we live in. (Geertz 1984 264-265)http://www.indiana.edu/ wanthro/theory pages/Geertz.htm

anti anti relativist, n.All

anti anti relativist