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In-Depth Information
The rationale of conducting a qualitative study is
because of it's subjective in nature and reflecting
on the perception in understanding the social and
human activities (Merriam, 2009). The informants
for this study were among three generations of
Malay women, namely grandmother (age between
71 to 85 years old), mother (age between 50 to 70
years old) and daughter (age between 20 to 40
years old) within a family. A Malay residential area
in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor
are the contextual setting for the study. To guide
the informants to share their knowledge, experi-
ence and opinion on the meaning of traditional
Hari Raya food, a set of open ended interview
questions were developed.
Before the actual interviews, eight groups of
informants (grandmother, mother and daughter)
were first identified through relatives and head of
the Malay community. All respective groups were
contacted via telephone asking for permission,
date, times and venues for the interviews were to
be conducted. Subsequently, the interviews were
successfully conducted within two weeks. All the
information was analyzed using thematic analysis.
Table 1.
Informants' profiles.
4
RESULT OF THE INTEPRATATION
4.1
Informants' profile
As previously mentioned, eight groups of Malay
women informants involved in this study. They
consisted of grandmother, mother and daughter
from selected families. For the interpretation, they
are recognized as Group informants. In short, the
group of informants is simplified and presented in
Table 1.
It is worth mentioning, in the subsequent sec-
tion the response given by the first generation or
grandmother is indicated by Group Informant A
while information addressed by second generation
or mother is specified by Group Informant B and
information given the third generation or daughter
is indicated by Group Informant C. Below were
some of the responses given by the informants.
4.2
The meaning of traditional Hari Raya food
Besides other important questions the one ques-
tion used in this paper is asking the meaning of
traditional Malay Hari Raya food. As this question
asked the individual women from different genera-
tions, different views are also expected. However,
the majority of three generation women as key
informers were having similar or identical views.
Two specific themes were identified from the
response received during the interview session with
regard to meaning of Malay traditional Hari Raya
food 1). Food that attached with a religious festi-
val and 2). Common acceptable food for Malays
or family.
4.2.1
Food that attached with religious
celebration
The majority of the three Malay generation
women refers the traditional Malay Hari Raya as
foods or dishes that are closely related to the Malay
communities during the religious celebration. The
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