No Culture is Perfect
Let us begin by recalling one of the many definitions of culture; it is described as an interdependent complex of cognitions, codes, representations, rules, values, aspirations, religious beliefs, myths... which appear in all daily behaviour, from the manner of dressing to the way of exercising authority or organizing religious rites.
A culture totally permeates the lives of it's members, conditioning the judgments and attitudes of each individual much more profoundly than can be observed at the conscious level. One's identity is forged within a culture, and it is only by starting from this identification that it is possible to open to other cultures later on, to understand them and enrich them by what one can contribute.
Each culture has its values and its limitations. It is the result of experience, matured by certain conditioning and certain concrete necessities, to which it gives a reply that is not always the best of those available. This is the basis for knowing how to relativize one's own culture and that of others ~ understanding of course, that relativize does not mean devaluing or despising them, but seeing them in their right dimensions, which is an essential requisite for all cross-cultural dialogue or being together.
Since adopting the Declaration of Human Rights (December 10th 1948), the principle that "we are equal" is accepted, at least in theory, as a deeply human and Christian principle. Nevertheless, in order to avoid false interpretations, it has to be completed as follows: we are all equal in dignity and rights, but we are all distinct in character, history, culture and many other elements which make each person unique and unrepeatable. To ignore differences in the name of an equality that makes everything uniform is a way of doing violence to persons and groups.
Cultures are not static realities, closed in on themselves, but are in constant change and evolution ~ both through their own internal dynamics and through contact with others. The cultural identity of an individual or social group is not an immutable essence, but goes on building itself all through life and through history. It's possible, at the same time to cross the gap into another culture, "inculturating" oneself in it ~ adopting it through a process of identification which however, can never blot out the radical identity with one's own culture. One starts from one's own identity, but goes along picking up new content and values through a relationship of dialogue and inter-dependence.
