Uses of culture and ‘cultural relativism’ in gender violence discussions

Gursoy Ataman, Gulden 2013. Uses of culture and ‘cultural relativism’ in gender violence discussions. Kadın Arastirmalari Dergisi 13 (2) , pp. 61-80.

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Abstract

This paper aims at analysing whether the concept of cultural relativism is useful in discussing gender violence in multicultural societies, particularly, in the cultural defence cases.It is based on a theoretical discussion supplemented by some qualitative case studies. It concludes that although cultural relativism highlights “toleration” and helps to understand “the contextual nature of any principles of justice”, it has more negative implications than benefits. It prevents normative judgement about harmful cultural practices; it equates culture to views of some dominant groups and therefore obscures some underlying reasons for violence against women; it undermines some women’s agency by constituting them as victims of “cultures” and it might articulate with “nationalist” and “racist” discourses by freezing group differences. In accordance with this, it also provides further thoughts on Turkey by examining the implications of the framing “honour killings” as a matter of “tradition” or “custom” (töre).

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
ISSN:	2717-6215
Related URLs:	https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/art...
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 July 2020
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 03:07
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/133314

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