In Europe and North of disablement as a human and social issue that touches us all, the disabled and the temporarily abled as well. Powerful popular accounts by and about persons with disabilities articulate the experience of impairment.
Cultural relativism, the idea that phenomena must be understood within their relevant cultural that takes two forms. The few anthropologists would be satisfied with this form of relativism, because it remains at the level of specific functions and tasks and ignores the way in which culture structures whole life worlds, imbuing individual variations of the human condition with significance more far – reaching than the simple ability to perform a given activity.
Europe and North America exists within and is created by a framework of state, legal, economic, and biomedical institutions.
The kinds of processual analysis mentioned so far have to do with the movements and efforts of people within the possibilities of a given place and historical period. But any overview of disability and culture should also consider the historical processes through which the rage of possibilities and the nature of practices change.
While organizations for the disabled people, charity organizations, have a long history in North America and Europe and are fairly well established in countries of the South, organizations controlled by disabled people themselves are relatively new in developing countries. They are based on the people: through publicity and lobbying, they attempt to change laws and policies in order to promote integration in all sectors of society. In southern countries the groups, themselves often feel that the most immediate needs are for practical programs of rehabilitation. Many donors prefer to channel aid through such groups, and the future will no doubt see a considerable expansion in their numbers and activities.