Distinguished Lecture: Anti Anti-Relativism

Abstract

In this article, Clifford Geertz offers a rigorous critique of anti– relativism. He does not seek to defend relativism so much as criticize anti– relativism as a discourse, deriding the association of anthropology with cultural relativism. He questions the reasons for the emergence of this discourse, and argues that, historically, anthropology was not a relative field, nor was it anthropological theory that has made the field seem to be a massive argument against absolutism in thought, morals, and esthetic judgment, but rather anthropological data. In this regard, the article explores two main reactions that characterize anti–relativism: the attempt to reinstate a context–independent conception of “human nature”, with an emphasis on social deviance; and in turn to reinstate the “human mind”.