Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism: History, and its Place in Society

Vegetarianism is a type of life style that one who wishes to stop eating meat lives by.
There are two types of people who live on a leafy plan based diet. The first are the vegetarians,
those who refrain from eating any form of meat, fish or poultry (Vegetarianism). The second are
vegans, vegans are vegetarians who abstain from eating or using all animal products
(Vegetarianism). Like I stated previously vegetarianism isnt like a normal culture that you
would have to be born into to be a part of. Its a way of life that anyone at any point in their life
can choose to live by, or leave when they see fit to do so. The difficulty of this life style really
depend on the environment you live in. During an interview I did with a Dr. Magdalena
Muchlinski, a declared vegan, she confirmed this after I asked, Was the transition hard? And
why? she told me, Now being vegan is kind of hard, but it really depend on where you live,
like I grew up in Oakland, San Francisco I lived in Austin, TX also in New York City. Those
areas were all very vegan friendly places. Lexington; however, awful place to be a vegan. (Dr.
M. Muchlinsky, personal communication, Oct 7, 2014). Though hearing this did surprise me it
really did make quite a bit of sense. The true nature and origins of vegetarianism are unknown to
many areas which would understandably make it hard for some others to accept their ways of
life. In my personal view I say, Dont knock it until youve tried it but many people find this
hard to do because it is a change they arent prepared for or one that they simply just dont want
to accept.
In the revolutionary time we live in of exercising daily, eating right and dieting to
maintain and better our health many of us have begun to take after the general vegetarian
lifestyle for it many benefits. Though the vegetarian lifestyle has been becoming more popular in
this day and age the origins in which vegetarianism originated has become lost in these modern

Vegetarianism

times. Many believe that vegetarianism originated from Buddhism due to their teaching of loving
and cherishing all life but this is not the case. Though it is said that Buddha never ate meat, the
first vegetarians we know of for sure were the philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome. They
were the first to notice the ultimate cruelty connected with killing animals only to feed humans.
Pythagoras, Plutarch, Seneca every one of them became a vegetarian because of ethical reasons.
This notion was also visible in many various religions, including Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and
several Christian churches (Brown, 2014). These philosophers are the earliest specific
individuals we have been able to identify as being vegetarians that was in the year 580 BCE;
however, it has been found that Pythagoras's ideas mirrored, in part, the traditions of much
earlier civilizations including the Babylonians and ancient Egyptians. A vegetarian ideology was
practiced among religious groups in Egypt around 3,200BCE, with abstinence from flesh and the
wearing of animal derived clothing based upon karmic beliefs in reincarnation (World History).
The culture of vegetarianism regardless of what some may think isnt new to society.
Vegetarianism has been around for a very long time it has even in some extreme cases changed
the standings in which major ethnics groups have stood by. An example of this, in the Hindu
caste society many higher caste members began to convert to Jainism due to their treatment in
the Hindu society. As these cases began to grow in number the higher caste Hindus began to
reform their views and started practicing vegetarianism themselves to prevent anyone else from
leaving (Vegetarianism in India). Vegetarianism is a movement that has been known to be a
great source of change in the world.
The original reason for the practice of vegetarianism was merely the ethics saying that
killing animals was wrong. Nowadays people have become vegetarians for many reason:
religious restrictions, health concerns, food safety, animal rights issues and because of

Vegetarianism

environmental degradation (large scale slaughter houses being environmentally unsustainable)

(Baca, 2012). In the interviews that I had one of the individuals was a vegan and the other was
just a vegetarian we can see from each of them the different reasons to carry out the lifestyle. I
asked both of them What drove you to make the choice to become a vegan/vegetarian? the first
responded with, So I was raised vegetarian. In 2005 I became vegan again, but it was for
mostly environmental reasons because the amount of fossil fuels, part of it is its humane I dont
like hurting things and I love animal; if everyone went vegan or vegetarian for one day a week
we would save so much energy. Number one reason is environmental. Also Im an anatomist and
you can either two way one is you could care less about what people are eating, but to me I look
at it and Im like youre eating muscle. I can name off every fiber theyre eating, its just
weird.(Dr. M. Muchlinsky, personal communication, Oct. 7, 2014). In the second interview,
which was a little less lengthy, he responded with, Simply to try a different life style. To make
my own assessments on it to see if there were actually any health benefits. (A. Dufy, personal
communication, Oct. 9, 2014). As you can see the reasons really do vary greatly from one
individual to the next. One may be very passionate about their choice so much that it defines
their life, or in my second interviewees case where it was just a simple choice, basically like an
experiment, to see what the health benefits are from it.
The difficulty of carrying out the lifestyle of a vegetarian is only as hard or easy as you
make it. Some people enjoy planning and preparing elaborate meals, while others opt for quick
and easy vegetarian dishes (Vegetarianism). The main arguments of those who find it wrong to
be a vegetarian is that you cant get all of the necessary nutrients you need for your body.
Particularly protein is the main source they bring up due to the fact that many people are under
the assumption that meat products are the only source of protein. First you just need to be a little

Vegetarianism

educated in vegetarian life to know what foods contain, protein very simple to get, everything
has protein, potatoes have protein. (Dr. M. Muchlinsky, personal communication, Oct. 7, 2014).
One way to acquire that information is by talking to someone whos lived their entire life as a
vegetarian, another is probably the more obvious choice of using the internet. Vegetarians easily
meet their protein needs by eating a varied diet, as long as they consume enough calories to
maintain their weight. It is not necessary to plan combinations of foods. A mixture of proteins
throughout the day will provide enough essential amino acids (Vegetarianism in a Nutshell).
Meeting the nutrition needs of the body as a vegetarian isnt at all as hard as some may believe,
and for vegans who abstain from eating or using all animal products, milk, cheese, other dairy
products, and eggs and so forth there are many substitutes to those products.

Vegetarianism

Figure.1:
As seen above (figure 1.) the opsions for what can be substituted are quite vast, and this
shows only a few choices.
With the extent of vegetarian cultures history, and those that make up it each having
their own reasons to be a part of it one could expect to see a widely diverse range of social
norms and rules to be present within the culture. Each person's definition of vegetarian was
used to construct a particular type of vegetarian identity to establish the norms and rules they
would set and enforce for themselves (). My interviewee is a firm example of this type of
action. He carried out a vegetarian lifestyle for only three months, without having any
problems with slipping in some meat every once in a while. His personally set rules were

Vegetarianism

somewhere along the lines of him just committing to the lifestyle until he saw fit to change it
again. A respondent to an interview for an article by the name of Managing Vegetarianism:
Identities, Norms, and Interactions by Jennifer Jabs, Jeffery Sobal, and Carol M. Devine from
1999 described the behavioral norms inherent in her identity as a vegetarian. She said, I
guess it's modified vegetarian or modified vegan because I still use some dairy products,
although I would prefer not to. I keep relapsing or backsliding like an alcoholic who keeps
falling off the wagon. Id like to add the author of the articles analysis of this statement as
well I feel like it is need, She located her own place within the hierarchy of being less or
more completely vegetarian, using a metaphor of abstention. When she ate "given up" or
"forbidden" foods, she felt she was breaching the code or rules of what constituted more or
less acceptable vegetarian practices. Though it is rare to find a large populous of declared
vegetarians that have established a group with a set rule base we still see this with those who
carry vegetarian lifestyles.
Similar in the respect to all culture the vegetarian culture also receives a large range of
stereotypes. The top five stereotypes people have been known to place on vegetarians are as
follow: vegans are weird, vegans are hippies, all vegans become that way to save animals,
vegans are scrawny weaklings, and vegans are counterculture on everything, with lots of
tattoos, piercings, and hemp clothing (Bentley, 2010, p383). I am now going to disprove all
of these stereotypes in the reverse order. First, most vegans, just like most people, arent
counterculture on every single thing. Everyone chooses to be different in their own way.
Vegans are empowered choice makers. Second, People who dont use their muscles are
weaklings, vegans can be and usually are strong, vital, and healthy. They can even be
bodybuilders! Third, individuals go vegan for a variety of reason wanting to improve their

Vegetarianism

health, wanting to eat a green diet, wanting to eat a diet natural to humans, and, of course,
wanting to be kind to animals. Fourth, there are just as many suit-and-tie vegans as hippy
vegans, if not more, and all shades in between. The majority of hippies that Ive met havent

even been vegan.

Fifth and lastly, you probably know a vegan personally without realizing they are vegan.
Veganism isnt a cult or religion its just a lifestyle choice that happens to not include animal
products. In most cases studies and interviews done many vegetarians arent open with the
people around them for a number of reasons. The most common out of the many reasons is
that the subject just doesnt come up in conversations. In an article written about coming
out to strangers and how they respond to it one respondent, the same one whose school
friends mooed at her, encapsulated this well when she replied that she had experienced, the
entire spectrum. All the way from trying to find flaws in what she does and saying that shes
anti-American because she does not support cow and dairy farmers, to wow, she is such a
giving person.(Lindquist, 2013, p11). In my personal opinion I think societys views on
vegetarians are harsh and unnecessary.