Amish: An Exclusive Lifestyle Imagine living life without technology and cars. Many people would be lost without a cell phone or a car to drive; however, traditional Amish people live without all the technological tools most people have throughout their daily lives. Think of the “Old West” ideology, that is similar to the way the Amish live, without the gunfights of course. Amish live without technology, most of the clothes they wear are self-made, and their funeral services are special to their culture. There are two types of Amish, New Amish and Old Order Amish. “‘Old Order’” Amish is strictly an American term which came into usage as some Amish Mennonite congregations resisted "new" methods of church work, as well as "new" forms of social organization and technology” (Hostetler & Thomas). Old Order Amish are the people who oppose the use of technology. They travel in horse-drawn buggies and ride bikes for transportation; however, in case of emergencies, the Amish will ride in cars, yet still refuse to drive. The use of personal home-based telephones is shunned by the Amish; although, they will use a communal telephone on …show more content…
Their clothing is similar to that of a 17th-century European peasant. “Men and boys wear broad-brimmed black hats, dark-coloured suits, straight-cut coats without lapels, broadfall pants, suspenders, solid-coloured shirts, and black socks and shoes” (“Amish”). Conventional buttons fasten their shirts, but hooks and eyes fasten their coats and vests. Men are forbidden to grow mustaches; however, they grow beards after being married. “Old Order Amish women and girls wear bonnets, long full dresses with capes over the shoulders, shawls, and black shoes and stockings; their capes and aprons are fastened with straight pins or snaps” (“Amish”). They wear their hair in a bun and are forbidden to cut it. Women are also forbidden from wearing jewelry of any kind
The Muckleshoot are a Native American tribe are a part of the Coast Salish people. their territory can be found located in Washington. They are recognized as the Muckleshoot Tribe, they are composed of generations of different tribal groups who inherited Puget Sound areas and occupied river drainages from the rivers confluence in Auburn to their reservations in the Cascades.
"For the most part, headdresses are restricted items. In particular, the headdress worn by most non-natives imitate those worn by various Plains nations. These headdresses are further restricted within the cultures to men who have done certain things to earn them. It is very rare for women in Plains cultures to wear these headdresses, and their ability to do so is again quite restricted."
The Amish Religion and Catholicism are actually quite similar. They both use the bible; both celebrate Holidays relating to Jesus like Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, Pentecost, and the day of Ascension. The Amish have districts, which are similar to different diocese for Catholics; they celebrate communion but only twice a year, and perform baptisms also. A difference is their beliefs on war. Amish believe in peace and pacifism, while Christians will go to war, and believe in the Just War doctrine. Christians also join the world with advances in technology, while the Amish want to stay away from outer influences. Overall there are many similarities that most people would not know about the ideas of the Amish religion compared to Catholicism.
...n, A. M. ( 1995, Spring) The Amish Struggle with Modernity. Virginia Quarterly Review. Vol. 71, Issue 2
The family provides a dense web of social support from cradle to grave. […] Family members help each other during an emergency, a fire or flood, and, of course, at a death”. The Amish community would not have withstood the drastically shifting eras had it not been for their foundation built on solid family and community relationships. Within Amish homes, bonds between siblings, parents and their children, as well as potentially extended families ties including aging grandparents or other relatives, are of utmost importance. Importantly, these interrelationships are not left within the household as the Amish community holds an interconnectedness inclusive to the community that creates an additional support network. This patchwork community of benevolence is not a gift, but a reward. There are expectations and consequences, as the BBC reports “[…] Members are expected to believe the same things and follow the same code of behaviour (called the Ordnung). The purpose of the ordnung is to help the community lead a godly life. […] If a person breaks the rules they may be 'shunned', which means that no-one (including their family) will eat with them or talk to them”. Expectations must be met for an Amish individual to earn and maintain their spot within the community. Despite guidelines wavering depending on each community and their location, the Amish are expected to follow God and seek salvation in a preset and dictated manner. Punishments for breaking the ordnung are strictly enforced and the insubordinate individual is completely excommunicated as a result of their disobedience. Since family connectedness is universally valued amongst Amish communities, if an individual is shunned, they will lose not only their community status but communications will be severed between immediate family members. When applied to education, if prohibited by that particular Ordnung, pursing a higher
When interviewing my grandmother, she automatically told me how different things were back in the day. She mentioned that she was born in a bedroom rather than a hospital setting. She grew up on a farm with her mother and father, and all of her siblings; I think there was eight all together. Her parents did not have electricity growing up, and they did not have indoor plumbing for the longest time. Her parents were religious, but they did not have the time to go to church. Joyce has always been very dedicated Episcopalian, a form of Christianity. She would have to find ways of transportation herself since her parents could not afford to go. It was almost considered a luxury. She actually met her first husband by going to Church every weekend. She would get a ride to church from family friends, and they had a son who was a few years older than she was. My grandmother, Joyce had become pregnant at the young age of sixteen. This actually is not all that surprising, considering her family was very conservative and sheltered her for the majority of her life. Growing up on the farm she was not even allowed to go into the barn when the cows were giving birth to their
Wise, Stephan. "How the Amish Work." How Stuff Works.com. Amish America, 19 Sept. 2002. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Compare your own experiences to those of an individual from an overseas cultural group (The Amish) in relation to gender and roles and status.
Both are a way of conformity, but the two handle it in different ways. For the Amish conformity is just the way things are done, and have always been done so people do not feel the need to change it, because they may lose the respect they have within their community. The Amish have been doing the same things for centuries with little changes so the conformity is just their way of living and their use of literacy is one part of that. Eli Jr.’s parents carefully check what books they bring into the house and most of the houses in the Amish community contain the same books so that their children will not read something that goes against Amish virtues. Instead they read bible verses and sing songs that everyone in the family has been singing for their entire lives. However, in mainstream America objects like cars, clothes, and phones are symbols of status, but not class which allows for people to have a higher status while being in a lower class. While people can customize their status symbols they are still conforming to what society has laid out, and unlike in the Amish communities, there will be people who do not conform to mainstream America. For example, I would refuse to wear name brand clothes because that is what everyone else wore. While
The phrase, "small Midwestern towns," often brings to mind an unfortunate stereotype in the minds of big-city urbanites: mundane, backward people in a socially unappealing and legally archaic setting. Small Midwestern towns, however, are not all the hovels of provincial intellect that they are so frequently made out to be. The idiosyncrasies each of them possesses are lost on those who have never taken more than a passing glance at them.
In the Great Planes of America there was a tribe of Indians known as the Arapaho Indians. There is little documentation as to when or where they came from but it is known they were in many different places in the Midwest including Oklahoma, Wyoming, Kansas and Colorado. The Arapaho Indians were nomadic people who survived on hunting buffalo and gathering. This tribe was greatly changed when they were introduced to horses. The horses provided them a new way to hunt battle and travel. The horse became the symbol and center of Arapaho nomadic life: people traded for them, raided for them, defined wealth in terms of them and made life easier.
The main point of this video was to show how the lives of Amish teens are changed drastically when between the ages of 16 and 21 they are faced with a whole new lifestyle. This then leads them to face a very difficult decision. Durring the ages of 16 and 21, Amish teens are 'let lose' or able to live the life that English children live. They can move out, get their license, wear normal clothes and party on a regular basis. Then after this is over with they must make their decision, they can either continue to live the life of an English person and basically be free, or they can join the church and give their lives to God and the Amish ways. When these kids were allowed to be free they seemed to chose the wrong road, many following the path of drugs and alcohol. They weren't just messing around with common drugs either, they were actualy getting into more dangerous drugs like crystal meth, and in some cases even gettin involved with drug dealers and police. There were definitely elements of structural funtionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionalism present in this video. Structural functionalism was present in their everyday behavior. Their society is so stable in their own world because of how they work things out. They marry, grow beards and work for the rest of their lives for God. This all helps their own society function. They comitt their lives to the church and they are all content with that. They stick to the ...
The notion Grossman sculpts in her article is part Frederick Remington, part Sea of Galilee. Indeed, “[f]undamentally, it’s an attitude, whether you ride a bronc or a computer keyboard“ (Grossman 1D). The cowboy church movement seems to cut in on a growing herd of believers in America who seem to think that the values of the church as it should be are undermined by the very urbanity, the very sophistication that has come to characterize modern life and popular culture. They seek their solace in The West, in a picture - however mythological it may be - of a simpler way of life. This is a phenomenon, after all, that exists simultaneously with ranchers who hang cell phones where their six-shooter used to be, who use multi-tools to mend fences and all-terrain vehicles to run down stray livestock.
The Amish culture consists of many unique beliefs that makes their ways unlike that of any other culture. They lead a life of simplicity and yet have very harsh ways of doing things. The Amish is perhaps the most diverse culture in the entire United States. The Amish of Pennsylvania and Ohio greatly differ with the rest of American society. "Although the Amish look like they stepped out of the rural nineteenth century, in fact they do change," (Amish Cultures). Their lives move more slowly than ours, but they definitely are not stuck anywhere. They move on slowly but surely. Instead of accepting new technology like the rest of American society, they choose to examine change carefully before they approve of it. If the new idea or gadget does not succeed in keeping their lives simple and their families together, they will most likely reject it. Family is among the most important values the Amish stress. They don't like to let anything break their family ties. The fact that they have lived this way for hundreds of years and not allowed the "modern" world to deter them from their pursuit of their service to God, is truly unbelievable. As mentioned earlier, the Amish do not like anything technologized in fear that it will break the family up. In actuality, they are completely right. If you take a look at an Amish family and compare it to an average American family, you would see major differences. The average American family would be very divided. You'd find the children and parents watching T.V., accessing computers, surfing the internet, playing video games, etc. In the Amish family, everyone would gather together to eat, work, and play. The Amish keep their materials basic. This way they are certain no technological advance can pull them apart. "Old order groups all drive horses and buggies rather than cars, do not have electricity in their homes. Bottled gas is used to operate water heaters, modern stoves and refrigerators. Gas-pressured lanterns and lamps are used to light homes, barns, and shops," (The Amish People 14). The Amish place very large emphasis on humanity, family, community, and separation with the rest of the world. They place value on simplicity and self-denial, whereas, typical Americans cherish comfort, convenience and leisure.
The Amish material culture is very different than the material culture I live in today. Their commonly used materials include: horses, buggies, and clothing. However, the main difference