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Sociological Theories And Analysis Of Seventh Day Vegetarian

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I have learned a great deal about Seventh-day Adventist vegetarians from my interviews and observations. I have also been able to make associations to some of the sociological theories that have been presented over the course of this class. The theories I will connect and explain in relation to my group are culture and identity, primary groups, and gender roles. I can see how these theories are in effect within the group of Seventh-day Adventist vegetarians. I will expand on the connections I discovered in greater depth in this paper. In addition to these social theories, I discovered that this group possesses a social structure and its own culture complete with rules and procedures for being a part of the group. I also learned more about …show more content…

Membership into the group comes by way of first, being a Seventh-day Adventist and secondly, by adopting the health message of the Church and adhering to a vegetarian diet. To maintain one’s place in the group, members must possess both of these criteria at all times. If you left the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the members of the vegetarian group would not care about any information you could bring to the group and you would be considered an outsider. You would not fit in because you are missing key criteria for membership to the vegetarian group. Many of their group time occurs on Saturdays, which is when the larger Church meets. If you were not first a Seventh-day Adventist, you would not be in this place at this time so you would be missing out on key functions of the group which naturally take place on Saturday mornings and …show more content…

They have a strong identity and feel that their way of eating and clean living is the best way. They are proud to mention the fact that they are vegetarians and tend to look down at those who do not strive to adopt these eating habits. They boast that they are in better health than non-vegetarians. While they are a part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in general, they are sure to distinguish themselves from those Seventh-day Adventists that do eat meat unapologetically. These vegetarians can usually site verses from the Bible, which they believe, clearly provide dietary guidelines. They believe they are eating correctly and in accordance with biblical laws. Vegetarianism itself provides a strong identity for these members. Members of this group have a clear identity that separates them from the rest of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Vegetarian eating is a strong part of their identity and clear lines are drawn to distinguish between the meat eaters and the vegetarians or those who at least strive to be

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