Methodological relativism refers to a practice, by Anthropologists who are concerned with describing actual human
behaviorBehavior or behaviour refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary....
, in which the researcher suspends or brackets his or her own
cultural biasCultural bias is a bias effected by one's culture. The alleged problem of cultural bias is sometimes considered central to social and human sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. To counter perceived cultural bias, some practitioners of the aforementioned fields have...
es while attempting to understand
beliefBelief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.- Belief, knowledge and epistemology :The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
s and behaviors in their local contexts. Relativism of this kind is intended as a methodological antidote to
ethnocentricEthnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to their own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...
distortions in science, and should not be confused either with
cognitive relativismCognitive relativism is a philosophy that claims the truth or falsity of a statement is relative to a social group or individual.- Main figures :...
or
moral relativismIn philosophy moral relativism is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect universal moral truths . Instead, Moral Relativism makes claims relative to social, cultural, or historical circumstances. Moral relativists hold that no universal standard exists by which to assess an...
.
Methodological relativism refers to a practice, by Anthropologists who are concerned with describing actual human
behaviorBehavior or behaviour refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary....
, in which the researcher suspends or brackets his or her own
cultural biasCultural bias is a bias effected by one's culture. The alleged problem of cultural bias is sometimes considered central to social and human sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. To counter perceived cultural bias, some practitioners of the aforementioned fields have...
es while attempting to understand
beliefBelief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.- Belief, knowledge and epistemology :The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
s and behaviors in their local contexts. Relativism of this kind is intended as a methodological antidote to
ethnocentricEthnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to their own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...
distortions in science, and should not be confused either with
cognitive relativismCognitive relativism is a philosophy that claims the truth or falsity of a statement is relative to a social group or individual.- Main figures :...
or
moral relativismIn philosophy moral relativism is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect universal moral truths . Instead, Moral Relativism makes claims relative to social, cultural, or historical circumstances. Moral relativists hold that no universal standard exists by which to assess an...
. The need for methodological relativism is implied by the principle of
cultural relativismCultural relativism is the principle that an individual human's beliefs and activities should be understood in terms of his or her own culture. This principle was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the 20th century and later popularized...
, which states that an individual human's beliefs and activities are best interpreted in terms of his or her own culture.