The_Dietary_Differences

TITLE: The dietary differences in cultures Theresa Root SYG2001-8 Individual Work Week2 10/22/13 In society all around the world there are many different cultures and beliefs. In some of these belief systems, some eat pretty gross dietary choices, in my opinion. In these societies they believe that their beliefs and ways of life and eating choices are better than other societies, called ethnocentrism (Henslin, 2013). Most people think there way is best, right' What are one’s perceptions on eating raw monkey brains, crisp ants, frog legs, puppies and kittens' One would think along with most of our culture in the Unites states that most of these things seem pretty gross and downright disgusting except for maybe eating frog legs. Based on ethical relativism there are no right and wrongs, it is all based upon the culture in which you were brought up in (Slick, n.d). Each culture has different beliefs and ways of life and it is wrong for anyone to judge another culture. Americans for instance may think it is wrong and in humane for anyone to eat cats or dogs because there are some many advocates for animal rights (Slick, n.d). The functionalism may look at the different cultures diversity in a part of the earth’s function to the food chain and keeping up with over population over certain animals and pests in certain regions of the world. The conflict theory being that by certain cultures or societies eating foods that others think are in humane or wrong may make some very angry because it’s not normal in their culture. The symbolic perspective is that many cultures are different and it’s how you perceive your own culture and one learns to accept that everyone has their own values and beliefs and accepts others and starts believing that no culture is better or worse; everyone just has been in different environments and starts viewing cultures differently. To sum things up, to think about eating monkey brains, crisp ant’s kittens or puppies really makes my skin crawl with grossness, but as hard as it is not to judge change has to start somewhere. In some societies there is not a lot of food to choose from like it is here in the United States or maybe it is a mere religious belief. One should not judge. Ethical relativism is based upon the society which you live and that is how it should be just like the laws of where you live. No matter what culture you are from there is always going to be ethnocentrism (Slick, n.d). References Henslin, J. (2013). Essentials of Sociology A Down To Earth Approach 10th Edition. Boston: Pearson. Slick, M. (n.d). Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. Retrieved from Ethical Relativism: http://carm.org/ethical-relativism