CULTURAL RELATIVISM AS IDEOLOGY

The concept of culture was originally an expression of German national ism, which reacted to the French Enlightenment by asserting the unique ness and incomparability of all cultures as historical creations. This understanding of cultural diversity, which prevailed in American anth ropology, is widely understood to imply the moral equality of all cult ures. Yet its relativism originally applied to different individuals s ocialized in the values of their culture, rather than to different cul tures. The debate over multiculturalism, which presupposes cultural re lativism, ignores this distinction. The vogue of multiculturalism refl ects the decline of tile Left, quests for community and identity, and an actual reduction in diversity move than a genuine appreciation of d ifferent cultures.