Final answer:
Cultural relativism is the practice of understanding a society's customs and ideas within the context of its own culture, avoiding ethnocentrism and enhancing cross-cultural appreciation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The concept that a society's customs and ideas should be viewed within the context of its own culture is called cultural relativism. This practice involves assessing a culture by its own standards rather than comparing it to another culture. Cultural relativism helps to avoid ethnocentrism, which is the evaluation of other cultures according to one's own cultural standards, and promotes a deeper understanding of cultural diversity. By recognizing and respecting the differences in values, beliefs, norms, and practices, one can better comprehend the complexities within various societies and foster cross-cultural understanding.
For example, when studying a customs and ideas of a society, cultural relativism means understanding and evaluating them within the context of that society's own culture, rather than comparing them to the customs and ideas of another culture.
By practicing cultural relativism, we can gain a deeper understanding of different societies and avoid ethnocentrism, which is the tendency to judge other cultures as inferior to our own.