Cultural Differences

The article brings an interesting light to the subject of morals in different societies. When the article talked about the differences between the Greeks burning their fathers and the Callatians eating their fathers it reminded me about my view point on Okonkwo and his society. I was horrified about how carelessly Okonkwo would beat his family. The article made me realize that if Okonkwo and I sat down and had a conversation he would be stupefied to my objections. It makes sense that neither way is right or wrong because every society has their own morals. In our society when we see something being done differently and it goes against our morals, we simply can not believe a culture would be like that. For example the Eskimo's that do not value life sound like criminals but in that society they find it perfectly normal. What is normal to others seems ludricous to an outsider. The only reason Okonkwo was reprimanded for his actions was because he committed this act during a week of peace. If it had been any other week he would have not been reprimanded because even though not everyone in his village would beat their wives it was still a norm in their culture. With that being said  the article also brings up the problems with culture realistivism. Which is even if it is someone else's culture how could we not stop ourselves from stepping in when a society starts killing one of their own. For example a genocide, the Eskimos would not care but in our society there is always a debate. Is it right to step in and order another country wrong because there morals are not like ours? I believe it isn't a matter of right or wrong when it comes to innocent people being killed. The article has gotten me to look at the other side of things but one can only lean over so far. There is definitely a limit to understanding and putting up with how another society works. I think completely being mellow with everything is not the way to go. Throughout history if one person had not stood up and yelled for a change in a society, the world would be very different today.