Principles of Sociology Week 2 Individual Work - Research Paper Example

Principles of Sociology Week 2 Individual Work A Research Paper By: The ethnographic differences are enough to create discrimination in eating habitsand dietary of some specific geographical area. It has been a long time debate over the issues of eating habits and the gravity of geographical differences. The effect of getting diverse with the geographical boundaries contradict is very sturdy as well as very imperative (Smelser & Badie, 1994). A few years ago the eating and culture was taken in view in the research perspective such that several empirical findings were noticed through the in depth ethnographic and historical studies which were conducted under simulated as well as in real world environment (Perrin & Lee, 2007).

It was a matter of concern for socialists and for different reference groups who were interested in results of such research questions. For the perspective of socialists it is often described under certain grounds as the main perspective of sociology (Smelser & Badie, 1994). Eating and meals are very diverse all around the world. Even in a same country’s territory, people have different tastes and preferences according to availability of food resources and many other aspects such as religion, traditions, special area specific recipes etc (Pritchard, 2009).

First interactionism theory, if applied over the underlying scenario, states that the people who live in a same territory have similar tastes with a very little differentiation. A wider similarity is found in such groups which are interacting with each other frequently for a longer duration of time. Secondly the functionalism theory states that if you are an immigrant, you will adapt (and/ or adopt) certain traits including which eating habits are also significantly observed. The people who move to different countries for any purpose are more likely to adapt their style of meals and diets if and only if the eating predilections of the new place are not contradicting with their core preferences such as religious bindings (Smelser & Badie, 1994).

For example, when McDonald launched their outlets in India and they offered the same beef burger, they had to face very critical criticism over the issue because Indians are indulged in cow worship. Similarly in Muslim specific regions, the slaughtering is done by following a specific procedure. Without that, they do not eat the meat. In English and European countries, mostly people do not think a lot while choosing the foods. They are taste and diet conscious and they do not take time to analyze the nature of the food like in many regions, roasted ants, frog legs, snakes, pork and even certain parts of lizard are also included in the daily foods (Pike & Borovoy, 2004).

The conflict theory has two dimensions, one that comes in result of any mismatch of preferences with respect to demographics and other comes up with reference to the class difference (Pritchard, 2009). The class difference refers to the exploitation of poor from the hand of powerful and wealthy ones. In the same way the rich countries which are economically stable have enough substances to provide quality food to their people and vice versa for the under developed and sometimes for developing countries as well (Perrin & Lee, 2007).

Ethnocentrism is directly applied over the phenomenon described above because the people who have different preferences find themselves at right (quote McDonald example over here). Cultural relativism establishes the groups in a society who have differential characteristics (study of anthropology). The different eating habits are also a sub head of the same heading. It is a social perspective which creates differences in eating preferences of difference racial or religious groups but indulged in the society in a sophisticated manner that they cannot be differentiated without conducting research (Pike & Borovoy, 2004).

ReferencesPritchard, S. (2009). Cultural Belongings.Journal for Cultural Research, 13(2), 115-124.Perrin, A., & Lee, H. (2007). The Undertheorized Environment: Sociological Theory and the Ontology of Behavioral Genetics. Sociological Perspectives,50(2), 115-129.Smelser, N. J., & Badie, B. (1994).Sociology. Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell.Pike, K., & Borovoy, A. (2004). The Rise of Eating Disorders in Japan: Issues of Culture and Limitations of the Model of "westernization". Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 28(4), 493-531.