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[artekka]

Just read an amazing article for one of my material culture classes. I have transcribed an excerpt here that really made me sit up and take notice, on the comparison between the debates over slavery and debates over abortion. If you think this passage too long, just read the bold parts. :)

Comments

[artekka]

this is true. and i originally had it in mind that that bit of the story was going to be about cultural relativism. but because i have never lived in another culture, i don't even realize when i'm working off of assumptions that others don't hold--b/c i've never been a part of a culture that didn't hold them! i guess that's why they call them assumptions. lol so when i realized that i couldn't at that time get into a mindset that would allow for slavery, i ended up making the debate about something else--after all, my main character IS a Westerner, so the way i see it is how she would see it, too.

it's like historical literature: no matter how much we think we're getting into the historical mindset of that period, our own culture seeps in the cracks. i'm really going to have to think about my "god's wife" story, too--b/c she'd be part of a collectivist, pagan society that would have totally different assumptions about interpersonal relationships, what constitutes an argument on truth, how religion actually works, etc. Yeesh.