Appreciating cultural values

All cultures have their own sets of values that make them unique. Although values vary among individuals and groups within one culture, they are quite uniform if compared with a set of values of another culture. For example, literacy was not at all important in the traditional Gypsy culture and it is of little importance for Roma today. Gypsies could imagine life without having to be able to read and write. Besides, it protects them from the invasive influence of the gadjikane culture. For the non-Roma, however, literacy is one of the basic prerequisites for playing a part in their contemporary world. If questioned within these cultures separately, it is possible to say whether literacy has (high) or hasn't (has low) value. That is impossible when comparing the two cultures, since there are different values ascribed to literacy; none of these two cultures can both value and not value it.