The anthropologists and sociologist talk about an ethnocentric predicament in which we all find ourselves, by which they mean that the people of one society, one tribe, or one culture simply cannot judge in anyway the value, the rule, the practices, the habits, or the beliefs of the people of another tribe and culture since any judgment that would be made would have to be made from the point of view of a given society; and therefore judgment made from that point of view would be necessarily be prejudiced and invalid.

From my English teacher.

Discuss or something.

It bothers me when someone is told that he/she/they "can't" judge something when they are certainly more than capable of making a judgment -- the real issue is with the accuracy of said judgment.

Open minded people that have informed themselves about the other culture can make a valid judgment.
This is a rare case however...

I can judge all I want, and I'll use my judgement, not anyone elses, to determine the value of that culture to me. It's really that simple for me. I apply this to almost everything - 'Respect all religions' - Why would I do that? That one caused millions of deaths since its conception and promotes inequality where none exists. 'Everyone is special' - You're a moron. 'Just because you think that they're primitive, it's only because you're not familiar with their culture' - Yes, and I'm using this familiarity to judge them based on my culture. Problem?

I would like some evidence to be shown as to why an arbitrator could not recognize the other party's set of values and make a judgement with that in consideration.

Evidence as to why judgement from a particular point of view implies prejudice and invalidity should be shown.

Judgment will always be prejudiced to some degree. A person's upbringing and values of their society will ALWAYS influence their believes and the outlook on other cultures.

In addition, judgment is relative and therefore there is no absolutely "right" or absolutely "wrong" way to judge.

Take into consideration, yes; be free from cultural difference, no. Some cultures have completely different ways of thinking about certain things. By taking the set of values of another culture 'into consideration' when making a judgement, you are acting as an interpreter or an emulator seeing as these are not your natural cultural values.

This doesn't mean that such judgements are invalid, but they will be coloured, however slightly, by cultural difference.

Yeah, this has always bugged me too, especially when people pull the "judge not that ye be not judged" card, although I find it interesting that in the footnotes in the King James Version of the bible, as printed by the LDS church, the JST translation says "Judge not unrighteous judgement", a much less ridiculous statement.

It's cute because you think you're using big words.

Of course it's inaccurate to judge a culture (or anything for that matter) if you have limited knowledge about it.

I witness countless people everyday making comments that make them sound like morons because they are talking about something which they know nothing about.

Hrm?

I didn't write it, my English teacher did. It's an part of an assignment we just finished.

I would claim that an arbitrator could make a judgement free from either societal point of view, simply by taking an object of comparison.
Say that society 1 holds these values
A is 'good'
B is good
C is bad

Society 2:
A is bad
B is good
C is good

Say C is murder. In the context of society 1, its an evil despicable thing. In the context of society 2, murder may be the means through which one comes into manhood, or power, or whatever society2 deems "good". So how does this arbitrator make a judgement? He takes an object of comparison. If the object of comparison is the longevity of an individual in a society, then society1 is right and society2 is wrong because people who don't get murdered live longer. If the object of comparision is a fitter society, then society2 is right and society1 is wrong because the effect of murder induces a "survival of the fittest" scenario.