Ethnography of Vegetarians

Introduction

Food consumption around the world makes up the basis of human ecology as we eat foods based on our cultural, religious and moral beliefs. Nourishment utilization around the globe makes up the premise of human biology. We, as a whole, eat various nourishments around the world, dependent on our social, strict, and moral convictions. Moral and profound concerns have propelled numerous Greek savants like Pythagoras, Plato, Plutarch, and Porphyry to keep away from meat utilization (Dewan, 2017). The meat forbearance and veggie lover way of life have gotten in the western world in the course of the only remaining century. This is brought about by later philosophical points of view set forth against speciesism, hostile to carnism, moral issues about the murdering of creatures, basic entitlements, and sentiment of network and character with the creature world. The logical contentions for the advantages of a veggie lover’s way of life and diet are very later.

A vegan or vegetarian is an individual who forgoes eating any creature substance. Research has been set up on the physical well-being ramifications of receiving a veggie lover diet. In any case, until now, there has been no subjective examination investigating social and mental prosperity of veggie lovers (Torti, 2017). Vegetarianism as a way of life is hard to evaluate and examine, principally because there are such vast numbers of understandings of “veggie lover.” This disarray on the expression “vegan” has introduced issues for exact research. There has been a great deal of research as to inspirations of individuals turning veggie lovers, from natural concerns, moral concerns, strict concerns, basic entitlements concerns, and well-being yet practically no exploration of the experience of being a strict vegan.

Ethnography is defined as an illuminative record of public activity and culture in a specific social framework dependent on different point by point perceptions of what individuals do in the social setting being watched. Contingent upon the on-screen characters included and the earth, veggie lovers and vegetarians may either be met with acknowledgement, resistance, or antagonistic vibe when they disclose their dietary practices. By meeting veggie lovers and vegetarians about these social communications, this examination has looked to conceptualize the subjects’ treatment just as their sentiments and activities (Lindquist, 2013). All through the study of ethnographic techniques have been utilized, just as personality and social aberrance hypothesis, and verifiable data about the development of vegetarianism. This has prompted a superior comprehension of how veggie lovers and vegetarians offset their elective way of life with standard social standards.

Ethnography is characterized as an illuminative record of public activity and culture in a specific social framework dependent on numerous points by point perceptions of what individuals do in the social setting being watched. Contingent upon the entertainers in question and the earth, veggie lovers and vegetarians may either be met with acknowledgement, resilience or antagonistic vibe when they reveal their dietary practices. By talking veggie lovers and vegetarians about these social communications, this examination has tried to conceptualize the subjects’ treatment just as their emotions and activities. However, analysis ethnographic strategies have been utilized, just as the character and social aberrance hypothesis, and factual data about the development of vegetarianism. It has prompted a superior comprehension of how veggie lovers and vegetarians offset their elective way of life with standard social standards.

 

 

Reasons For Choosing The Topic

My choice to seek after the subject of inspiration instead of the definition requires me to offer some fundamental expressions. My meetings with veggie lovers, vegetarians, and meat-eaters propose that these three classifications don’t, indeed, remain as distinct classifications. Rather than any compatible example of specific (self-)definitions, dietary decisions and inspirations, I found a befuddling mess in which every individual comprised its class. The second reason behind choosing Ethnography of Vegetarians was to comprehend and encounter the difficulties of autoethnography as an exploration strategy and to attempt to legitimize it as a sound class of academic work. My other inspiration for this exploration is that I love the way a Hindi meat-devouring man wedded into a transcendently Hindu veggie-lover family. Veggie lover suppers all the time were additionally a piece of my life before marriage as we had many ordinary days where we disregarded meat and liquor because of strict reasons. Eating vegan nourishments for extensive periods is along these lines, not an excessively unpleasant time.

Methods of Deciding Who to Interview

I chose Ethnography of vegetarians, cooking clubs, dining hall interactions as my topic and I intend to base most of my discussion on ethnography of vegetarians. Being a qualitative research paper and a topic on vegetarianism my scope on who to interview was narrow as many people did not associate themselves with vegetarianism. Due to gender equality, I chose two females and two males of ages twenty to forty. My candidates were familiar with the topic (Ethnography of vegetarians) and comfortable with the questions I had for them. I selected them randomly for better and more accurate results.

The main criteria I used to decide on who to interview was diversity. I wanted to have opinions and views of various people of the subject matter. The age difference of between (20-45 years) as mentioned earlier is significant as eating habits in people change with, among other factors, age, and personality. The goal was to focus on acquiring different character types alongside dietary patterns. I accumulated data on what sorts of foods my participants took and why they eat them, as background knowledge to build up the interview guide. I also observed the eating routines of my participants as well as put into consideration where they were raised and the childhood diets they had.

Interview Guide

An interview guide is a list of points of a specific topic that one plan on covering in the interview with the critical questions that need to addressed by the researcher and interviewees to make the study a success. Most of my questions were open-ended to elicit more discussion on the topic.

1. Good afternoon. First, I would like to thank you for making time for this interview. My name is …………. From ………… school. As I had informed you earlier, we are going to have a discussion on the topic “Ethnography of Vegetarians.”
2. May I record this interview referencing purposes? Your identity will be concealed, and the recording will be used solely on research purposes.
3. Please can you tell me your name and occupation, and what you grew up eating as your staple food?
4. Is what you grew up eating the same kind of food you mostly eat today? If Yes/No give a reason.
5. Do you think what you eat today, can be termed as a healthy diet? Or as eating healthy?
6. Have you heard of vegetarians? What is the first impression you always have when someone tells you they are vegetarians? That is interesting. Please elaborate.
7. Why do you think people choose to be Vegetarians?
8. There is a lot of stereotyping when it comes to the ethnography of vegetarians. What is your take on this?
9. Do you think by being a vegan you are leading a healthy life? Or do you believe vegans are eating healthy?
10. If vegetarianism entails eating plant-based foods (vegetables and fruits), then does it mean vegans lack essential nutrients and minerals found in other foods such as carbohydrates and proteins?
11. How much do you use on food a month?
12. Between eating out and cooking your food, which do you find to be cheaper? Explain.
13. Do you think being a vegan or eating a vegetarian diet is expensive as many say it is?
14. Lastly, would you become a vegetarian? If Yes/No give a reason.
15. Thank you very much for your time to participate in this interview. I appreciate it.

References

Dewan, M. (2017). My Vegetarian Experience: An Autoethnographic Approach. Asia-Pacific Journal Innovation in Hospitality and Tourism.

Lindquist, A. (2013). Beyond Hippies and Rabbit Food: The Social Effects of Vegetarianism and Veganism. Sociology & Anthropology, Theses.

Torti, J. M. (2017). The Social and Psychological Well-Being of Vegetarians: A Focused Ethnography. Retrieved from ERA Education and Research Articles: https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/b2a600a6-c3d1-40b8-9cc6-3e699f9a157a