The idea of cultural relativism does not come out a vacuum. Like any important idea it arises in a certain concrete situation. Herskovits was doing anthropology during the period of European colonialism - back in the 1930s and 40s. He believed that all cultures were ethnocentric. In itself, he didn't regard that as a problem. The problem was that colonial nations like England and France and Belgium believed that their values were superior to all others and they had the power to harm people around the world. They could destroy people's lives and hardly even know they were doing it.

His ideas about cultural relativity were intended to protect colonized peoples from harm. In place of arrogance, he want to see mutual respect and tolerance. He was also worried that world peace would be increasingly difficult to maintain if we did not develop greater tolerance for cultural differences.