This is a post I originally planned to be on my personal blog, but never actually put up. I modified it to fit this class.
For those who don't know, the Dothraki (pronounced Dawth-rocky) are a clan of peoples from the show Game of Thrones. Generally, the culture of the Dothraki are stereotypical, tribalistic, uncivilized, and violent. It is a warrior based culture, where honor is earned through skill in battle.
Through a lot of questions we touch on in philosophy however, this culture becomes very interesting. More specifically, looking at it related to our discussion in class about cultural relativism, this culture raises a lot of questions.
First I'll go a little more in-depth with some of their cultural practices. The Dothraki are a conquering culture; they do a lot of battling, even with each other. You gain rank in the tribe by winning more in battle. The physical sign of this status is the length of their hair, which stays in a braid; a battle is lost when your braid is cut off, so (obviously) those with longer hair have gone longer without losing a battle (Often having your braid cut off is irrelevant, because you're almost always killed directly after; however in the few moments of life you have without your braid, its considered a massive dishonor).
Weddings are the other relevant part of the Dothraki culture. They're spontaneous. They happen in a matter of minutes, and are largely random. When a man wants a woman (yes, it is a largely male-dominated culture) they have this highly sexualized dance (they may even be having sex during it, I don't actually know). If another male had his eyes on the same woman, he will push the man off and they will fight to the death. The woman marries the victor. The wedding is that dance and that battle. Afterwards, the wedding is complete and they're married.
I find thinking about this culture interesting because- very simply- this is
just the way it is in that culture. Every member of the Dothraki grow up and learn these customs and live by and embrace these customs. It is
just accepted that the price of losing a battle is death. It is seen by all as perfectly okay, including the loser. The loser does not fight after their braid has been cut off, because- through their own customs- this means their life has lost its honor and they are deserving of death. They are simply okay with it. Similarly, the women marry the victor because
that's how it is. They agree to it, they have (presumably) no desire otherwise (for being the wife of a great warrior is a great honor itself) and side with the victor simply because they won and because
their culture says so.
Now most of us deem murder (I will define this as murder- it isn't necessary that the loser dies after their braid is cut, yet the victor kills them anyway) and this sort of limit on women's freedom morally wrong. Most of us would say that a more civilized society or culture would not hold these practices, and a more civilized society would encourage the Dothraki to leave behind these barbaric customs.
But... Should they? It should be known I am largely against cultural relativism- Hitler and slavery are in the right under this theory. But in this case it seems somewhat different. EVERY MEMBER has agreed to a sort of social/cultural contract in which
these are the ways things are. I would use the phrase "these are the rules," but it's stronger than that; these practices are the beliefs each member of the culture holds. So if a member loses a battle and concedes to death- even believes themselves that they
should in fact die, why should we say otherwise? This is a topic we touched on in class- self harm related to cultural relativism (there may have been an exact term but I don't remember it), and it seems as if one is completely content with the consequences- even death as in this case- intervening is unnecessary. In fact, it may even be wrong to intervene based on an argument stemming from the idea that the best death is the one you choose.
I suppose the larger point of this is that while cultural relativism as a whole can't work, cultures in which everyone is 100% content with the customs and roles (and these customs aren't forced on anyone outside the culture)- as in the case of the Dothraki- make it questionable whether there is anything morally wrong going on with their practices. If someone were against the practices but forced into it by the culture, that's different and an easy question to answer. But more difficult is this one in which no one is against what's happening despite it being against what most people outside the culture consider moral, and whether or not those practices are then morally wrong. I say they are not, but it's intriguing and interesting to think about, and I'd be interested in hearing other reasonings.
