Doc,
I agree with the idea that one culture should not judge another...until it becomes a matter of universality all cultures agree are wrong like...stealing, murder, rape, torture, slavery, child abuse, etc. You use the example that women have been treated as no better than animals for centuries and people are accustomed to that, so it's right from their point of view.
Based on your principle of long tradition and accepted cultural practice you would say mass child sacrifice by the Carthaginians and pagan cultures, the capture and sacrifice of anyone by the Aztecs, the burning of unbelievers by Romans, Christians, Celts, the mass extermination of peoples by many conquerors, 5000 years of enslavement, imprisonment and execution without trial, the burning of women as witches, the genocides against First Natives, the slaughter of infidels to go to heaven, the theft from, expulsion and murder of the Jews, and so much more evil was all good because it was tradition and accepted cultural practice people got used to for thousands of years.
Let's be less extreme. For hundreds of years royalty tied people to their land without pay, education, rights, and were traded like cheap trinkets for bargaining.
In Islam some still claim the right to marry children as young as 7 or 8 years old because the Prophet Mohammed proposed to 6 or 7 year old Aisha and married her at 9 creating a tradition and accepted cultural practice 1400 years ago.
You say because of tradition all of the above are right because of tradition and outsiders should not criticize it. Well I don't see how that's acceptable to anyone. There are many things that are wrong/evil and tradition is no justification. IMHO certain things are barbaric and the one indisputable wrong anywhere is the control and/or abuse of any other person. Just because mankind was in a state of barbarism so long, and still is in some parts, abuse of anyone cannot be justified.
I hope your post was just joking.
really,
Merlot
