Ethnographic study

Ethnographic study

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The ethnographic study

The ethnographic study took place in an Indian Vegetarian Restaurant called Tulsi.

It is adjacent to Bradford Gallery and located in Bradford city. Culture “globalization and production of globalization theories relate to the ethnographic study in relation to the restaurant. The ethnographic study of the Tulsi Restaurant touches on various elements of production globalization and culture. The method of participant used for the observation is called Verstehen and helps in understanding the social phenomena.

Ethnographic study

The restaurant names comes from a sacred plant in India called Tulsi, which is evident establishes it’s connection with Indian traditions. I visited the restaurant in the evening on a weekday. While entering the restaurant, I saw a conspicuous waiting area with an Indian middle-aged woman sitted on one of the sofas reading a magazine. This was different from many restaurants, which main objective was to maximize the use of the waiting area; the existence of a comfortable waiting room depicted the attention given by the owners to the hospitality Indian culture (Begg &Ward, 2007). The beautiful stools with subtle Indian motifs carvings, little pink cushions as well as a little decoration plants near the window provided a grand look interior. The main dining hall theme Tulsi color with pink and green repeated all through the restaurant interior. There were designs, which were oval and pink in shape on the ceiling with Tulsi handsome vegetables and plants pictures on the wall (Hofstede, 2008).

At the same time, the thematic color repetition gave a colossal appearance to the interior and highlighted its function as a major vegetarian restaurant. I sat at the far end of the restaurant to have a complete and isolated outlook of the restaurant. It was capacious with more than 50 tables and around 100 seats. There was also a formal gathering of thirteen local British at the centre of the dining Hall. Apart from them, there were two Indian men taking their dinner one table away from me. A few minutes later, several customers started trooping into the restaurant to have a taste of the Indian vegetarian food’s customers were from different countries such as China, Africa, India, Great Britain, and Pakistan (Begg &Ward, 2007). The menu had various of traditional Indian food listed with Northern and Southern Indian variations foods such as Dosa, samosa,Uttappam and Sambhar. There were also typical Chinese foods in the menu with Tulsi Drinks varieties such as of Lassi, which is an Indian traditional drink made from yoghurt. On the other hand there was flavored Lassi such as Mango Lassi offered which was not in other local Indian restaurants. Various alcoholic drinks like Tequila were also sold in the restaurant besides the Buffet items comprising of vegetables, Pulao, Daal and Achar.

The aroma and food taste was not different from the delicacies provided in other typical Indian restaurants. It was astonishing that some dishes like Pulao and vegetables seems to taste more delicious from those I had taken in India. I had the opportunity to meet the manager and introduced myself as a Bradford University student and he explained to me that the hotel owner was from India and had other stores in England with some food ingredients acquired from their individual stores (Begg &Ward, 2007). He also informed me that the employees of the restaurant came from different countries in the world in that the main chef was from India, pot washer came Afghanistan with the kitchen helpers from Pakistan as majority of the waiters were Indians from Pakistani who were Bradford University students(Hofstede, 2008).

Culture

Culture is an intricate concept, which comprise of morals, customs, law, knowledge, art and beliefs with other capabilities acquired by a person from the society. Culture comprise of beliefs, values and norms expected from specific group members. Globalization seems to have an immense effect on these ever-changing cultural values. A considerable growth in the cultural goods exchange such as televisions, movies, radio, cinemas, music, photography, printed matter and music seems to be the catalyst to the entre process of cultural diffusion (Begg &Ward, 2007). Nevertheless, some experts view it as pessimistic as they believe that material wealth often comes with high spiritual coupled with cultural cost with others terming globalization as a fuel to global destruction. Some author’s argument is that monolithic, materialist, secularist, and homogenization of cultures jeopardize the special values (Hofstede, 2008). On the other hand, pro-globalization writers have a belief that globalization can result to a general understanding of various cultures, which leads to a worldwide cultural and political agreement. They have found a paradoxical relation in globalization and culture in that global forces create and support local cultures or identities by eliciting a creativity process.

Analysis

The ethnographic study depicts the various globalization facets evident in an Indian vegetarian restaurant. The location of the restaurant at the center of the city in Britain illustrates the notion of a more increasing and shrinking globalized world into a global village. The environment, music, food, tastes and presentation seems quite comparable to distinctive Indian restaurants (Hofstede, 2008). The study showed that the hotel clientele were from different parts of the globe such as Russia, Africa, Nepal, and China present in the restaurant to take pleasure in the Indian foods. The presence of individuals from varied backgrounds shows the rising interconnections as well as interdependencies of populace elicited by globalization (Begg &Ward, 2007). At the same time, the study showed that English language remained the major communication mode evident between the staff and the clients. Both men and women main dress code was jeans and T-shirts by men and women with the non-locals also clothed in jeans and not their local way of dressing.

Conclusion

The study concentrated on Globalization of Culture as evident in the Indian Vegetarian Restaurant and associated them with the present literature on the subject. The study shows solid evidence on globalization of culture in relation to the restaurant as supported by various authors. At the same time, the restaurant had an atmosphere of a characteristic Indian restaurant, which mainly served customers Indian food as well as customer-focused adaptation like alcoholics drinks provision to cater for the local customers needs. Customers were from diverse religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds mainly exploring Indian cuisine; individuals from different countries offered evidence on how the daily lives of people has been reshaped with the globalization phenomena. At the same time, the extent it has weakened the cultural boundaries among individuals by bringing people more closer. The unity in diversity aspect, which advocates for a common understanding on various cultures, is the core and most conspicuous globalization feature with support from various authors’ analysis on globalization. The restaurant was a microcosmic manifestation of the UK much talked about policy on multi-cultures’.

References

Begg, D. and Ward, D. (2007). ‘Economics for Business’. 2nd Ed. McGraw Hill Publications. P.321.Hofstede, G. (2008). ‘Cultures Consequences’, London: Sage.