The existing funeral activities in the Yi area are rich in content and form, but the acceleration of economic globalization and urban modernization has had a tremendous impact on its funeral culture. The masses in the ethnic areas have felt an unprecedented confrontation between tradition and modernity. There has also been confusion and anxiety. How to help ethnic groups develop more reasonable funeral cultures is a thought-provoking issue. Cultural relativism is a special theory of American history developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This paper explores the developing course of the funeral activities of Yi people from the perspective of cultural relativism, and advocates a rational view of the funeral culture of Yi people, so that we can enhance our cultural self-confidence and develop reasonable evaluation criteria for it