>I think Maggie Coleman is quite right that one can offer a >critique of non-Western cultural practices (i.e dowry, widow >burning) without being a cultural chauvinist. May I ask what it means to call something a "cultural practice"? In the media, and to undergrads I teach, it means that the practice is widespread and of some antiquity, and that it has a positive value in cultural terms, enjoys social consensus, or is at least tolerated. Is it being argued that sati and dowry deaths meet those criteria? Or is some other meaning implied? Is slavery a western cultural practice? Is lynching a U.S. cultural practice? Are violent attacks on nonwhites by citizens and police a U.S. cultural practice? Best, Colin
