“Anthropology and the Abnormal” by Ruth Benedict

What Ruth Benedict thinks about morality is that it was also relative to culture. It differs in every

society, and not every time the people of the same society have the same moral concepts. Morality

depends on what is good to see in society, what is approved or what is not.

Culture varies from society to society. Some cultures have their own belief that can be normal or

abnormal for other cultures. Different cultures provide knowledge of what can be good or bad for

society. How we communicate depends on our culture; how we can express our feelings, life, and lives

vary depending on our race and beliefs (culture). These types of communication and ways of seeing the

world differ in all societies, from culture to culture. What is considered normal or abnormal is influenced

by cultural relativism. Normal and abnormal are relative to culture; what is abnormal in one culture is

expected for another. Abnormal is considered for cultures as the non-well saw things that people cannot

do or think. Things that are not permitted that goes against society. Examples of abnormal scenarios that

are relative to culture are in all societies. Homosexuality, in some cultures, was accepted, and other

cultures refused to accept and permit it. Even in some cultures, homosexuality and transgender were

used to survive and adapt to society. Another example is Language; how we communicate is also relative

to culture. Supernatural experiences were considered for many cultures as the most intelligent people

and people that deserved respect; on the other hand, in other cultures, these supernatural experiences

are considered bad, and people are treated differently and, without respect, considered something

“abnormal.” When we see history, we notice that things that are abnormal now were permitted at some

point in our culture, or things that are normal now were abnormal in the past. Normal is considering the

things that are right and are permitted in the cultures. Normality is relative to culture. As RUTH

BENEDICT said, “The very eyes with which we see the problem are conditioned by the long traditional

habits of our society.” “Normal action is one which falls well within the limits of expected behavior for a

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 particular society. Its variability among different peoples is essentially a function of the variability of the

behavior patterns that different societies have created for themselves and can never be wholly divorced

from a consideration of culturally institutionalized types of behavior.”

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