5. It may seem baffling at first to realize that Mohanty's discussion about cultural relativity has led us to comments on rigidity and reification; however, such inflexibility occurs when what is relative attempts communication. At the point of communication, social identities, which were earlier freed from evaluative judgement, must now "declare" themselves. Since distinct identities are often needed in such instances, differences rather than commonalities frequently arise. Mohanty reasons the popularity for this type of relativity:

"My view is that for many literary theorists cultural relativism of some sort is sanctioned by a deeper epistemological relativism or skepticism. And such an epistemological view (or attitude) is supposed to derive from the genuine antipositivist insight of modern thought that all knowledge is contextual and mediated by theories and paradigms" (1997: 142-3). These mediated "theories and paradigms," if based only on such differences, frequently become rigid orthodoxies which block communication between diverse cultures.