Introduction
The phenomena of ethnography revolve around the proper investigation of the people and their cultures. With the particular subject the investigator, observe the culture and the traits of the community. The research focuses on the people of certain cultures who have regular interactions with each other. The study of ethnography originates in European in the late nineteenth century. There are various forms of ethnography like a feminist, life, and confessional ethnography. In the same way, the identification of how a culture or subculture works can be made through ethnographic research. The study will explore the language, beliefs, behaviors, and related issues of a group residing in the community. Information, interviews, and the sharing of knowledge from certain respondents are generally the primary sources in researching the ethnographic way of subcultural study.
Discussion
Background
The interviews are helpful in understanding the particular belief and values of a subculture. After interviewing and getting information from two individuals Sean Muttaqi and Lindsey, we have a broad idea about the characteristics of Hardliner’s subculture (Kahlos, 2016). The culture attracted its followers in the years nineteenth ninety with the release of Vegan Reich hardline EP. The hardliners are strict with the dietary regimen, which according to the followers of the subculture are good for a healthy life. The food used by these people is mostly natural. They also include the issues of human rights in food politics. Those individuals belonging to the culture of hardliners have shunned the crops of the developing world like tropical fruits, chocolates, and coffee (Kopelman, 2016). Similarly, the appeal regarding the punk and the hardcore got certain success, however; the issues of abortion and sex are frequently a tension between followers and cousins of their subculture.
After conversing with Sean Muttaqi on the telephone, he invited me to visit New York. I reached his home located in the main city and after welcome gestures; he started introducing me to his family and the location where is residing. While starting the interview I ask the question about his professional background and the beliefs he has in his mind. He is an economic expert in the business center of New York and living a happy life with his family. He told me that his parents are the primary feeders for instigating those hardline ideas and the beliefs he possesses today.
What about the response and atmosphere of your office regarding your cultural beliefs? “He responded that the atmosphere of the business center is quite cool and everyone has usual interaction with each other”. How did you become the hardliner? “He lamented that his childhood was passed under the strict environment and the prohibitions of parents from those students, which are regular drinkers and smokers”. What are your approaches toward life? Did you want to live in the caves? “He responded that the real purpose of life is not to destroy health by using certain harmful medicines and drinks. Instead, we need to think of positives about life and include those exercises that allow us to move upwards in social and moral values”.
“We are open to everything and activity but not to the immorality”, replied the Muttaqi.
I asked the Muttaqi Are you a Fundamentalist. He responded by saying that what he believes is that we must preserve the natural order in our life. “There is no such concept of fundamentalism in my mind; I like to live a balanced life with more focus on respect for life”. He presented vegan food to me, and told me “we use purely natural food and do not like to eat artificial and fast food products”. Regarding his personal and home life, he answered that his wife possesses the same ideas and dislikes concepts like homosexuality. He also told me that his wife has militantly opposed the options of abortion by the doctors at a daycare center. According to Muttaqi, he is happy and satisfied with his life. He introduces me to the woman who was the friend of his wife.
The woman hesitantly welcomed me to her home, which was located a walk twenty minutes from the residence of Muttaqi. She was looking fifty years old. “What’s your good name please?” I ask. ‘I am Lindsey” she replied. What about you are daily activities and where is your husband? I bluntly put questions. Lindsey replied that she is a homemaker and that her husband died a year ago due to cancer in his lungs. Without waiting for the next question, she started revealing his story. She told me that her husband was a liberal and often use to drink a lot. The husband according to Lindsey have a number of contacts and unfair relations with other females. She passed her life caring of such an immoral person and in return, she got nothing. She told me that she is also belonging to the hardliners. Her father and mother educated her in a close and restricted environment. She never drinks and often uses natural food to eat. Her saying was looking true because her health and way of conversing during the interview were also unfolding her past.
Lindsey told me that she never imply any sexual relation with more than an individual, the only one who was her husband. However, after the death of her husband, she is persistently finding some person who must belong to the society of hardliners. In order to save the guidelines of her parents, she told me that she would pursue her life with those instructions provided to her by her parents. Lindsey also told me that she has a thorough reading of Abrahamic religions. I intervene in her story and ask, “Are you satisfied with your life? “I am fine with my life, satisfied and enjoying but with certain pains”, she replied. “What about your children”? “They are in the school now”, she responded and again started her remaining story.
The children of Lindsey are getting their education in the nearby school. She told me that continuous development is going on in her children along with moral and social values. She has a strict focus on the activities of her children. She uses natural food like brown rice, natural oils, and evaporated cane juice to make her children healthy and full of life. Strict prohibition is there for her two children on unusual activities along with smoking and drinking. She explains that her children will become very impressive and useful to the society of Hispanics. I concluded the interview while thanking her for giving me her precious time.
Following the two interviews, we have the idea that people are the primary motives and resources in enhancing any kind of subculture. For the Hardliner subculture, it is noted that those who are following and living under the hard-core beliefs are also enjoying their life like that those people who are open and frequent drinkers along with immoral activities (Pieslak, 2014). The philosophy of the hardliner cultural community revolves around the concept, which forbids its followers from immoral and harmful drinking. Restrictions are also included so as not to use beverages along with illicit drugs and smoking (Spradley, 2016). The tone and the way of Muttaqi and Lindsey led me to the conclusion that both have a proper education to remain the hardliner.
Conclusion
The discussion on the ethnography of hardliner culture reveals that cultures and individuals are highly connected with each other. Shaping, influencing, and making ideas among the people are the core values, which people inherit from their groups and subcultures. The scientific description of the hardliner’s subcultures is the primary purpose of ethnographic research. The interviews of the two individuals Lindsey and Muttaqi have explained the real issues and characteristics of hardliner subcultures. Like others, it also offers positive and negative aspects of cultural norms and values.
References
Kahlos, M. (2016). Debate and dialogue: Christian and pagan cultures c. 360-430. Routledge.
Kopelman, S., Hardin, A. E., Myers, C. G., & Tost, L. P. (2016). Cooperation in multicultural negotiations: How the cultures of people with low and high power interact. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(5), 721.
Pieslak, J. (2014). A Collection of Interview Correspondences with Incarcerated ALF and Vegan Straight Edge/Hardline Activist Walter Bond. Journal Exit-Deutschland. Zeitschrift für Deradikalisierung und demokratische Kultur, 69-92.
Spradley, J. P. (2016). The ethnographic interview. Waveland Press.
