Religion encompasses various aspects of people lives and their custom of life. Further, with the in-depth analysis of religion, we can simultaneously learn the cultures of other people to acquire various perspectives on their religious practices (Crapo, 2015). As a result, we can comprehend cultural belief by interpreting and portraying values and way of life of a particular religion so that we can consecutively appreciate their religiosity and be familiarized to different perspectives of viewing life. To achieve the new perspective of viewing life, theologist proposes we gauge cultures using etic and emic standpoint (Crapo, 2015). The emic standpoint is defined as an observation from the viewpoint of an outsider. An emic perspective is described as an observation from the perspective off an insider to decipher the culture of someone else through their eyes. Hence, in this paper, I will evaluate Hinduism from an etic standpoint to comprehend it better from the opinion of an outsider. Furthermore, I will also illustrate Indians Hinduism tradition an emic viewpoint.
Marvin Harris, an anthropologist, created the terms etic and emic did conclusive fieldwork research in India, whereby Hinduism is the main religious practice of the Indian people (Smith et al. 2019). Hinduism, as a religion forbids cattle slaughter or beef consumption by the followers of the religion (Smith et al. 2019). India's sacred cattle has been utilized as the foundation of the expression “sacred cow” in English which can be employed for any group holding onto something objectively viewed as irrational (Smith et al. 2019). It is an ethnocentric viewpoint of India’s practices, presumes that slaughtering and consumption of cattle would aid in feeding people, deterring traffic dangers, and promote the economic development of India.
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From an emic point of view, the majority of Indians do not slaughter cows because they believe that it is morally off beam (LCC, 2019) . Indians deem slaughtering cattle as spiritually and emotionally defiling and repulsive; this is because they (Indians) would literarily get sick by the taste of beef. In India, the established Mc Donald Restaurants only serve to the customer’s mutton burgers as opposed to beef burgers (LCC, 2019) . In a past incident, a McDonald restaurant in India was vandalised for using beef fat in the oil for cooking French fries.
The etic description of Hinduism on the origin of the taboo of cattle slaughtering accentuates the traditional significance of agriculture to Indians (LCC, 2019) . In rural India, cows were and are used in ploughing, pulling carts, source of manure and fuel and for milk. Because of the economic significance of cattle, Harris reasons that, protecting the lives of cows was adaptive in the culture of Indians (Smith et al. 2019). Because during the periods of drought where people experience extreme food shortage, farmers may be tempted to kill their cattle for, a religious taboo was developed to prevent farmers from slaughtering their cattle (LCC, 2019) . A farmer who slaughtered his cattle would certainly perish, as he or she would not be able to sow or harvest his subsequent crop.
Furthermore, currently, etic reasoning can be arrived at for the cultural activities adopted by Indians. India has a population of approximately one billion, more than 75% of this population are found in rural settings (Smith et al. 2019). Majority of Indian farmers have in their possession only an acre of land, making it difficult for mechanization of the land. Alternatively, chemical fertilizers are unaffordable for most farmers because of the high cost (LCC, 2019) . Most Indians still experience fuel shortage, and most of the Indians in rural areas still depend on dung for making a fire for cooking. Milk and products from milk remain a significant contribution to diet in most Indian households (LCC, 2019) . Hence, cattle remain to be an essential component of the Indian economy, and the religious taboo is an adaptive habit.
In conclusion, religion enables us to understand the cultural beliefs of other people in addition to enabling us to take a more profound interest in our own religious convictions. To achieve this, religion enlightens us to observe other religious practices and our own from an emic and etic viewpoint.
References
Crapo, R. H. (2015). Cultural anthropology. [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
Leeward Community College (LCC). (2019). Emic and Etic Perspectives. Retrieved from https://laulima.hawaii.edu/access/content/user/millerg/ANTH_200/A200Unit1/EmicEtic.html
Smith, B. K., Buitenen, J. V., Gold, A. G., Narayanan, V., Doniger, W., & Dimock, E. C. (2019, May 24). Hinduism. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hinduism\
