A CULTURAL RELATIVISM PERSPECTIVE OF VEGETARIAN DIET: NO EGG OR NO GARLIC AND NO ONION

Abstract

Living beings need food to survive. As such, the gravity of edible material is paramount for our livelihood. Needless to say, our cultural distinction introduced us to the diverse palates due to the religious beliefs, ethnic composition and geographical landscape. Furthermore, the contemporary approach such as diet or health issues, environmental concern and animal cruelty had set forth various cuisines to meet these specifications. On that note, the meat-free consumers have gained popularity around the globe. However, these followers distinguished themselves according to their vegetarian perspective. Therefore, this paper intends to explore the cultural relativism concept among the vegetarian community in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Moreover, two research questions were posed in this paper: i) why eggs are not consumed? and ii) how garlic and onion are discarded from the vegetarian diet? This qualitative study recruited 10 informants that consists of 5 participants who do not eat eggs and another 5 participants that do not take garlic and onion in their food. Besides that, the interview sessions ranged from 20 to 40 minutes based on voluntary participation. The conversations were audio-recorded with their consent and was solely utilized for the academic studies. Thus, the significance of this research is essential in understanding the numerous interpretations of vegetarianism in the context of cultural relativism despite being meat-free.