This is a short response I wrote to an older colleague in the context of the recent debates on Child Marriage in T&T
Dear Older Colleague,
There are limits to cultural relativity. At some point a scholar must draw a line. This is a fact in anthropology and has always been the case. That line of course will not be the same for all. I will of course defend the culturally relative in many areas but when cultural relativism comes to stand in for issues that are far more about an imbalance in power relations than cultural relativity i think its important we call that for what it is.
I am not against child marriages because i am Western or a bad second generation Indo-Trinidadian, although persons might want to suggest that. I am against child marriage because a 12 year old has no power in that decision making - on all levels. It is a form of abuse and i can make a argument for indentured servitude, slavery and sexual abuse too. Child marriage is an example of how people use progressive ideas such as cultural relativity to hide the replication and reinforcement of unequal systems/relations of power.
So i am very reluctant to get into a conversation about cultural relativism about something so patently unfair and rooted in an imbalance of power as child marriage. Hence i was slightly concerned to think you are in support of child marriage in T&T and are dressing it up under a banner of cultural relativity.
Regards,
Dylan
Dear Older Colleague,
There are limits to cultural relativity. At some point a scholar must draw a line. This is a fact in anthropology and has always been the case. That line of course will not be the same for all. I will of course defend the culturally relative in many areas but when cultural relativism comes to stand in for issues that are far more about an imbalance in power relations than cultural relativity i think its important we call that for what it is.
I am not against child marriages because i am Western or a bad second generation Indo-Trinidadian, although persons might want to suggest that. I am against child marriage because a 12 year old has no power in that decision making - on all levels. It is a form of abuse and i can make a argument for indentured servitude, slavery and sexual abuse too. Child marriage is an example of how people use progressive ideas such as cultural relativity to hide the replication and reinforcement of unequal systems/relations of power.
So i am very reluctant to get into a conversation about cultural relativism about something so patently unfair and rooted in an imbalance of power as child marriage. Hence i was slightly concerned to think you are in support of child marriage in T&T and are dressing it up under a banner of cultural relativity.
Regards,
Dylan
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