Wrong or Different?

There are many differences between various societies. Some are most definitely larger than others such as cannibalism of human sacrifice. Both of these things are completely taboo and even punished in our society yet to refrain from doing so in certain other cultures would be almost scandalous. It would mean you were disrespecting the gods or your ancestors. To the Aztecs human sacrifice was required to keep the gods happy. If the gods became displeased then there could be drought or disease brought upon them. That sounds like pretty solid reasoning to sacrifice someone if you ask me. In Beowulf and Things Fall Apart these culture differences are just as apparent.
In Beowulf revenge was a quite common motivator. People were expected to avenge the death of a loved one by killing the person that murdered them. To refrain from doing so would bring dishonor on your family and brand you a coward which is the worst thing to be in their society. Nowadays people are expected to let the legal system do the work. If someone takes matters into their own hands then they will end up in prison too. Murder is wrong no matter what the reasoning behind it is according to our society. In Beowulf revenge is not really seen as murder. It is more of a way of honoring the dead. It shows that you cared enough about that person to avenge their death. Of course this is not the only difference between our societies. There is also the issue of modesty. In this society it is expected for people to be modest and bragging is frowned upon. In Beowulf telling everyone what you have accomplished shows your pride which is a good thing. Beowulf introduces himself by recounting his past triumphs. Whereas we would see that as him being cocky and possibly annoying it is completely normal to them.
The society in Things Fall Apart shows large differences as well. For instance whenever a set of twins were born they would be left to die. It was believed that twins were unnatural and would bring the wrath of the gods if left in the village. Of course to us this is barbaric and cruel but this is just because we were not raised in that culture. It is just a necessary evil in that society. They must sacrifice some for the good of the whole village. Also the men were allowed and encouraged to have more than one wife. Wives were basically status symbols. If a man could afford to provide for more than one wife the. They were clearly wealthy and deserving of respect. This is not necessarily wrong it's just different from our society. This highlights the basis of cultural relativism. Just because something is different that does not mean it's wrong.

The Need for Humanity

In modern culture there's this need for gray areas. We have to view things from both the perspective of the hero and the villain. Nowadays most people are unwilling to accept this concept of pure evil. The book Grendel is a perfect example of this. In the book Beowulf Grendel is presented as an evil villain with basically no redeeming qualities. On the other hand in Grendel he's presented more as just misunderstood. He's a bad person of course, but he's not completely evil or totally irredeemable. It's more his circumstances than his character that drives him to evil deeds. This version of Grendel is more relatable and contrasts sharply with the killing machine from Beowulf. These two completely different versions show the differences in the cultures that produced them. In the old days most things were black and white. You had the hero as the good guy and the villain was just evil. Also good almost always triumphed over evil. Take old Westerns for example, the good guy wore a white hat while the villain always wore a black hat. Now in our culture it's not always as clear. Sometimes the good guys become bad guys like Darth Vader for example. On the other hand there are certain times where it turns out that the villain was the hero the whole time. Then there are stories where the lines between the hero and villain are blurred. For example Pirates of the Caribbean. Most of the characters in the series traded roles all the time. Sometimes they were heroes and sometimes not. Even Jack Sparrow wasn’t always the hero. Most of his actions were done for selfish reasons. There are some antagonists that are just as, if not more, likable than the heroes like Loki from the Avengers. He was clearly the bad guy yet he's a lot of people's favorite character from that movie. People are more open minded these days. Being able to look at things from a different perspective has become an important skill in our society. It helps us understand and learn from other people. It's things like this that show us how far we've come.