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The cultural evolution of the amish culture
The cultural evolution of the amish culture
Essays on the amish life style
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Who are the Amish? Some may respond by simply saying people who ride in buggies and men who have beards. However, according to Clyde Browning, the author of Amish in Illinois they are “… a humble people living close to the teachings of the Bible and close to the soil, a people intent on clinging to the ways brought by their ancestors from Europe.” (pg xv, 5). There is a large population of Amish in Illinois who have had a great influence on the surrounding communities because of their religious beliefs and way of life. They have evolved to keep their traditions alive.
The Amish are one of many denominations that resulted from radical Reformation in 16th century Europe. Groups that came from the radical Reformation are known as Anabaptists. The Anabaptists believe in adult-baptizing and separation of church from state. These beliefs set them apart from the teachings of Catholics and Protestants. These groups were totally against adult-baptizing. The Amish religion itself arose from a disagreement among the Swiss Mennonites in 1693. It was founded in Switzerland by the teachings of Jakob Ammon. He and several others became unhappy and eventually split from their parent Mennonite Church (The Amish 8). They craved a more strict and simplistic lifestyle. They wanted to return to the original beliefs and practices. They also believed the process of shunning. They came together and formed a group that rejected wars, materialism and frivolity (Amish 3).
Many Amish communities were formed in Switzerland, Alsace, Germany, Russia and Holland (The Amish 8). The Amish immigrated to North America in search of religious freedom (Amish 3). Those who chose to stay ended up joining back with Mennonite groups (The Amish 8). They settled in southea...
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...ver, in their homes they still live without electricity and use a horse and buggy for transportation for their own personal needs (Discover and Learn 1).
The Amish are more than just “a group who travel around in buggies and men who have beards”. They are a people who craved a more strict and simplistic lifestyle and people who cling strong to their past provided by their ancestors. They are ones who value simplicity and living their life at a slow pace. The large population of Amish in Illinois has a great influence on the surrounding communities. They provide a large population of tourists because of their interesting lifestyle. They also provide the tourists/outsiders with products such as their fresh baked goods and their handmade furniture. Because of their adaptation to social change they have been able to preserve their faith for such a long period of time.
Developed from the Radical Reformation in the 1300’s, a group was formed called the Anabaptists. These Anabaptists were a joint group between the Mennonites, the Hutterites, and the Amish. The Amish people came from a split in the Swiss Mennonites in 1693 when a man named Jacob Amman and his supporters left their church to begin their own. Jacob Amman was born in Switzerland as an Anabaptist in 1644, and is considered the founder of the Amish religion.
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
The Amish religion was started by Jacob Amman as a Mennonite movement, but was originally part of the protestant Anabaptists. Jacob was trying to restore some of the early practices of the Mennonites but was unsuccessful and ended up creating a new religion. The Amish were then persecuted by the Catholics and protestant Christians when in Europe so they took William Penns offering and move...
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
They chose to come live in America and choose their own way of living. They were very strict people, who did not like to act differently from others. They were also very simple people who devoted most of their lives to God. Men hunted for food and were ministers. Women work at home doing chores like sewing, cooking, cleaning, and making clothes.
In the Amish world, children are brought up following all Amish family traditions and church traditions. At age 16, Amish teenagers do away with these traditions for several months to several years and go out into the “English”, modern world to experience what life is like outside of the Amish community in a tradition called Rumspringa. The hopes of Rumspringa are that Amish teenagers will see the evil in the modern world and turn back to the Amish church and community and will choose to be baptized into the faith. At this time, the parents of these Amish teenagers choose to overlook the new habits and actions of their children. The Amish parents want the best for their children and feel as though allowing them to party and live wild for a time away from them is the best way to teach their children. The parents have the approach to be hands off and ignore the behavior during Rumspringa. This is not an effective manner of parenting for these teenagers at such an influential time in their lives.
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 ...
In the 1700s, the Amish settled mainly in the Midwest after fleeing persecution in Germany (Rearick, 2003). They are branched off of Christianity and came shortly after the Protestant Reformation (Weyer, Hustey, Rathbun, Armstrong, Reed, Ronyak, & Savrin, 2003).
Decisional Conflict R/T Cultural, religious and family beliefs AEB Amish typically do not believe in preventative medicine (Prenatal testing and immunizations).
During the seventeenth century, there was an immigration movement and several settlers from different areas settled in the Appalachians. Many of the settlers were 3Anglo-Celtic, English, Welsh and Irish. They originally settled in the east and slowly moved westward due to larger more powerful landowners forcing them out and into the mountains.
In 1800, somewhat more than five million individuals called America home. By 1900, that number soared to seventy-five million people. A substantial part of this uncommon development can be attributed to European settlers. Europeans hit America 's shores in two diverse waves: "old" and "new." "Old" migrants were the individuals who moved to the United States between the 1820s and 1870s. It was amid this time numerous Britons, Germans, and those of Scandinavian descent arrived in America. These settlers were commonly English speaking, Protestant or Jewish—with the exception of the Irish Catholics—and could mix effectively into American culture. "New" foreigners, did not converge into American society as effortlessly; rather, they confronted an assortment of battles that will be talked about later on in the
The Amish are a traditional community of a protestant and Anabaptist background. They are derived from a group who fled during the Protestant Reformation in
It was approaching dusk as the conspicuous line of dark vans entered the reservation. These vehicles served the purpose of furnishing transportation for about 30 members of a Cleveland area youth group, whose mission was “to bring good news to the badlands';. In short, the group was ministering to the Indian children of the Pine Ridge Reservation, which was in close vicinity to the natural wonder found in the foothills of “the badlands';. The trip became a tradition for my church and I traveled there on three separate occasions. Each year, the team received a welcoming that could be described as anything but inviting. In fact, the first year the trip fell on the Fourth of July and as we drove in, our vehicles were bombarded with fireworks. I could never really grasp why we were so despised. After all, our intentions were commendable. The matter became clearer after I read Zitkala-sa’s “American Indian Stories';. Within this text, a Native American expresses her beliefs that actions similar to ours serve merely in altering culture.
In conclusion, Appalachia is a diverse area. Its people and landscape are unique. However, cultural stereotypes place the people in a low position. People are looked at as evangelicals, hillbillies, and uneducated. The area is isolated from other industrial cities due to its mountains. Many of the jobs include logging, coal mining, and lumbering. The religion in the area is mainly Christian based. The people are perceived as very devoted to their religion and often have a similar faith to their
People have been living in America for countless years, even before Europeans had discovered and populated it. These people, named Native Americans or American Indians, have a unique and singular culture and lifestyle unlike any other. Native Americans were divided into several groups or tribes. Each one tribe developed an own language, housing, clothing, and other cultural aspects. As we take a look into their society’s customs we can learn additional information about the lives of these indigenous people of the United States.