<P> Although Kluckholn was using language that was popular at the time (e.g. "savage tribe") but which is now considered antiquated and coarse by most anthropologists, his point was that although moral standards are rooted in one's culture, anthropological research reveals that the fact that people have moral standards is a universal . He was especially interested in deriving specific moral standards that are universal, although few if any anthropologists think that he was successful . </P> <P> There is an ambiguity in Kluckhohn's formulation that would haunt anthropologists in the years to come . It makes it clear that one's moral standards make sense in terms of one's culture . He waffles, however, on whether the moral standards of one society could be applied to another . Four years later American anthropologists had to confront this issue head - on . </P> <P> It was James Lawrence Wray - Miller who provided an additional clarification tool, or caveat as some would call it, of cultural relativism's theoretical underpinnings by dividing it into two binary, analytical continuums: vertical and horizontal cultural relativism . Ultimately, these two analytical continuums share the same basic conclusion: that human morality and ethics are not static but fluid and vary across cultures depending on the time period and current condition of any particular culture . </P> <P> Vertical relativism describes that cultures, throughout history ("vertical" meaning passage through past and future), are products of the prevailing societal norms and conditions of their respective historical periods . Therefore, any moral or ethical judgments, made during the present, regarding past cultures' belief systems or societal practices must be firmly grounded and informed by these norms and conditions to be intellectually useful . Vertical relativism also accounts for the possibility that cultural values and norms will necessarily change as influencing norms and conditions change in the future . </P>

The cultural relativist perspective of ethics for the global profession is defined as