Is it possible for one culture to be inferior to another culture?

Question

if so,give me some examples.

thanks!

Answer 1

Do not listen to the ignorance being spewed by these people. They simply do not understand your question. Instead of accusing you of discrimination and giving you a lesson on how we're all just 'the human' race, because all that is thoughtless, canned answers, I will attempt to give an honest opinion on the possibility you provided above.

I do, absolutly, believe it is possible, and not just possible, but fact that cultures can be superior and inferior to each other. It is just the same for individuals. The problem we face in answering this question, however, is on what terms do we define superiority. I would say the best way to asses this question would be to examine the scope of attributes a culture can posses and then asses its superiority. By looking at criteria such as economic growth, political stability, international respectability, arts and music, health care and other such things that exist in cultures, we can begin to asses the situation a little better. For example. Certain tribes around the world are so backward, so behind the times, so to speak, that they rely on the barter system, have no health care other than religious rites and herbal medicine, no set governmental structure, and very basic music and arts. Going up the scale a bit, to small, third world cultures, which are culturally superior to the tribes, we see that they are irreversably impovershed, health and medicine only in the form of relief aid from other, more advanced cultures, and are racked with revolutions and military coups. And so on and so on, up the ranks until we get to the world's most powerful nation-states.

All this to say that the cultures which provide the highest quality of life to the people that make up that culture are superior to those which provide squalid life styles to their people. Anyone who will argue that all people or cultures are the same are indoctrinated to believe that by saying certain things are better than others, they are discriminatory.

One last note, what I was discussing was cultures, not race. I was not arguing for ideas that promote racism. What I am saying, however, is that certain races reside in predominantly inferior cultures, and this face, no one can deny.

Answer 2

Yes, if you are judging from the point of view of evolutionary adaptation.

First of all, keep in mind that culture != race. A culture can be almost any group that has its own internal set of signs. Skateboarders, Harojuku girls, Italians, Rocky Horror Picture Show fans, etc.

The cultural tools provided by language is a good example. There's some thoughts that simply aren't expressed in some languages. In English, there's no word for red-brown, but other languages have a name for it. English also doesn't have masculine & feminine nouns, and plenty of Latin-based languages do.

But think about the inferiority of the Romans when it came to doing intense mathematical computations. The Roman numeral system was like throwing wrenches into the mind's gears. The Arabic numeral system that we all use now is far superior for doing calculations. I suppose I'm dancing back and forth between technology and culture, but if you look at it from a Western Marxist standpoint (reality is historical), you can say that Roman culture dependent on calculations was inferior.

Answer 3

I hate to sound trite, but it comes down how you define superior/inferior. If given a framework of certain criteria, say modern technology, then you can easily say one culture or group may supersede another. But what we need to take into context is that the guidelines and what we automatically use to define superiority are subjective. In essence, since we define what is 'best' in a certain context, doesn't necessarily make it so across the board. I only make the distinction because I think it can easily happen when having discussions like these.

BTW, I think Alex B. has fallen into this trap. His organization of the world is very western and says nothing to the credibility of other social systems. Just because a certain culture or society is dominant doesn't make it superior. For example you may have an economic model that runs the world, but if you use sustainability as a criteria for superiority, then it may fail the test since evidence suggests that the planet cannot handle this model indefinitely.

Answer 4

No self respecting anthropologist would ever say that cultures can be superior or inferior to one another. The hallmark of anthropology is cultural relativism, which states that a culture can only be judged within the social rules, norms, mores, laws, of the culture. Judging a culture based on another culture's perspective is flawed, on the basis of what is good or bad in.one culture, may not be good or bad in another. Examples are numerous, polygamy and maritial customs, social hierarchies, economics, political systems etc. What one culture may accept as normal, another may find abhorrent and intolerable. From within each culture's perspective is how a culture should be judged good or bad, not from another. Now this isn't to say there aren't universal ideals, such as xenophobia, love of one's mother, and laws (or customs) to protect the weak and innocent within a culture. But these are adaptive and serve to strengthen the society itself.

Answer 5

No. Each culture is an adaptation to its physical and geographic location. Only if a culture is taken out of its context, then it might be considered inferior, and subsequently die off. For example, you can't transplant a Masai village onto Greenland and expect them to maintain their same culture. If they want to survive bodily, they would have to learn from the culture of the inuit people. That's why the Vikings died off in Greenland, not that their culture was inferior, they just refused to adapt and change, and died off.

Answer 6

yes it is possible for one culture to be inferior to another...however only in certain aspects...while industrialised culture is indeed superior at providing food and medical resourses...it is inferior at providingthings like respect for the elderly...ritual...and a sense of community to tribal cultures

Answer 7

It is possible for people of a culture to think they are superior and that others are inferior but this is caused by ethnocentrism, arrogance and ignorance.

Answer 8

I'd think of it in the way that I think of animals. A type of animal, assuming they do well enough to survive, is not really superior to another type. Lions are not superior to rabbits; they each respond to their environment in different ways, but they each do a good job of surviving. Lions, however, are superior to rabbits in terms of killing power, while rabbits are the superior breeder. So one society isn't better than another if they're both surviving, but no one will dispute that some societies are good at some things, while others are good at other things. For instance, Westerners rock at the military thing and at logical thinking (yeah, yeah, don't laugh, but it's true), but we suck balls at caring for our elderly and raising non-suicidal teenagers.

Answer 9

it cant be a person cant be inferior to another how can we expect society to be that

culture is just set of rules society is what follows that rules that is living with culture

Answer 10

Depends on the criteria and what you define as superior vs. inferior.