Question

Pange and Matini were two women who lived all their lives in a secluded area of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) belonging to the primitive Kalanga tribe, and had never interacted in any significant way with people outside of the tribe. In 1961 there was a drought in the area, which posed the threat of starvation to the entire tribe. While talking to a local witch doctor, the women expressed their fears to him, and he promised to prepare some muti, a magic potion, to mix with seeds during planting so that crops would be plentiful. It was a custom among the Kalanga people to prepare such a potion during the times of drought, consisting of several ingredients collected by witch doctors plus the fingers, toes, and inside portion of the stomach of a tribe member who is killed, usually a relative of the person who requests the potion. The witch doctor told Pange and Martini they must kill a child. Neither woman had children, however, they killed Martinis two year old cousin, and brought her body to the witch doctor. The colonial authorities of Rhodesia (Rhodesia was a British colony) learned of the killing and brought murder charges against Pange and Matini. The two women were put on trial in a Rhodesian court.

Required:
What would the Ethical Relativist argue in regards to the two women killing the infant?

Answer 1

Ethical relativism would argue that women did not commit a crime, as their act in killing the child was a cultural and justified thing in the society where they live.

Step-by-step explanation:

Ethical relativism allows individuals to be judged according to their cultures, values and social classes. In this way, ethical relativism prevents a person from being judged by the ethical values of another person who has a different culture, as he believes that the ethical values of each individual are related to the culture and social context in which each individual lives.

In this case, the ritual of killing a family member to make a potion to help seed germination is cultural in the society of the two women shown in the question above. Although this is a shocking attitude, for us, ethical relativism states that we should not judge them as murderers, as they are acting in accordance with the ethical values of society itself.