In the following essay the Amish and modern day British societies are compared, using the main sociological terms of culture, norms and values, inequality and conflict, social stratification, social class and life chances. When comparing the societies it is essential to be familiar with the key sociological definitions. Culture is the way of life, all things that are learned and shared by society or group of people and transmitted from generation to generation. It consists of different elements that a society regards as important, such as language, beliefs, norms, values and behaviours. Values are widely accepted beliefs that something is worthwhile and desirable. Norms are specific rules that govern behaviour in particular situations. They …show more content…
They put great "emphasis on the values of humility, family, community, and separation from the world. Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their revulsion of Hochmut (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on Demut (humility) and Gelassenheit (calmness, composure, placidity). This all translates into a reluctance to be forward, self-promoting, or to assert oneself in any way"(Religionfacts.com, 2015). This is a stark contrast with modern British society which values competition, ambition, individualism, materialism and self-promotion as stated by Hall and McGuire(2005). As pointed out by BBC(2009) Amish achieve separation by wearing destinctive simple made clothing, don 't own modern technology, have their own educational system, speak German dialect and marry among their community. "The conventional marks of modern status (education, income, occupation, and consumer goods) are missing and make Amish society relatively homogeneous." (Everyculture.com, 2015). In modern British society, a society with well defined social stratification, social class is based on individual 's income, wealth, occupation and status. Individuals are born into it, but it is an open system which means individuals can move up and down. Social class affects life chances and is related to unequal access to …show more content…
The Amish society is patriarchal. It adopts "traditional gender roles in which wives are subordinate to their husbands." "Men are in charge of the spiritual life of the family and are responsible for providing sustenance." "The Amish have a traditional code of ethnics that rejects sex outside of marriage, divorce, homosexuality and public nakedness as sins forbidden by the Bible. Modesty and purity are vital virtues." (BBC, 2009) In comparison a wide variety of family structures can be observed in British society. Single parent families, same sex, couples who are cohabitation, marriage outside of the society are just some of the examples, with many choosing not to have children. Even though it is accepted that men and women have equal rights, feminist theorists believe that women have traditionally been disadvantaged. They argue that men have better jobs in terms of pay and status. According to research in 2003 women in full - time work earned on average on 81% of male
...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
The Amish lifestyle and religion promotes voluntary isolation and has been a major obstacle for anyone wanting to collect data or research on the Amish community. The lifestyle of the Amish emphasizes "the importance of humility, modesty, strong obedience to God, and social conformity; they abhor pride, social snobbery, individualism, and winning through competition. Family bonds and their faith are the cornerstones of the Amish lifestyle. " The Amish are a perfect example of a Gemeinschaft community.
What I found in the process of my observation and interview was that my hypothesis on social change and survival was greatly influenced by my own secular and scientific world view. I had also underplayed the importance of certain key ideas which help to explain Amish cultural ideologies, Amish survival, Amish social change, and dynamics. I found that religion, more than I had assumed, played a crucial role in Amish survival in America. The Amish family, I also found, contributed to the rate of Social Change. Prosperity, to my surprise, played a greater part in social change than I had previously thought. In addition, I was able to establish the accuracy of other research information on Amish society that I had collected and observed.
Amish lifestyle is a very strict and limited lifestyle in which the Amish people choose to live a life that is very sheltered from the outside world. They have very limited electronic access and do not drive typical cars that most Americans drive. They all live basically with the same goals and family values. The male works and brings home the supplies necessary for living while the female is tasked with raising the family and providing meals and household duties. Amish families are typically very large and in many ways, they do practice many of the same activities non-Amish people do. They go to church, they have schools at least for a period of the children’s lives, they hang out, they spend time with their families, and they even play sports. However, they are very more strict and serious with their values and try to limit, as much as possible, their communication with the outside world because it is said to be a bad influence and leads the Amish people to the devil.
The father is recognised and acknowledged as the head of the family and household, in charge of the family’s spiritual life and providing the family’s sustenance while wives are subordinate to their husband. Males provide overall leadership within the community. They are responsible for educating young boys in masculine areas such as farming and woodwork. Females are to do the same with young girls, educating them in feminine areas such as running a household and homemaking skills. Unmarried women may work outside the home yet married women are not allowed to work and are expected to hold their families and house as the priority. Gender dictates those within the Amish society, with their roles clearly structured and set out. Unlike the Amish, this strict definition of gender roles doesn’t apply to me. There is a certain degree of restriction within Australian society in me being a young, female student. Mainstream Western society still values the traits of being feminine with the media constantly reinforcing feminie standards. In my macro world, as a female, I am expected to be soft, pretty and ladylike. This value, my culture and heritage come with the expectation for a woman to marry, have children, maintain a household yet also participate within society in working. However, societal expectations for females within mainstream society are slowly being broken. There is the implication that females cannot work once they become mothers, but there is no set of defined rules for females restricting them to traditional roles, despite the societal expectation for women to conform to
Individualism and conformity seem to be the exact opposites of each other, but what if being individual meant conforming to the way of everyone else, and what if conformity was the key to being apart of a community? In the essay by Andrea Fishman “Becoming Literate: A Lesson from the Amish” the author looks at the conformity in the Amish culture in regards to education. However, in the essay by Stuart Ewen “Chosen People” Ewen discusses how mainstream America prides itself on individualism. Both essays explore the complexity of being an individual in societies that thrive on conformity.
When an adolescent in the Amish culture turns sixteen, they are encouraged to pursue “Rumspringa”- a period of time to go experience the English world, free from traditional Amish restrictions. The intention of this exposure is to give teenagers the experience of life outside the restrictive Amish community and truly decide if they want to join the Amish church and its traditions or live in the English world. During this period, parents and elders of the Amish church allow children to be their own authority. They do not question the actions taken, regardless of the dangers or consequences of those decisions. The Amish community believes this is the best method for the adolescents to decide their fate freely. I however, disagree with this hands’ off, ignore-the behavior approach Amish parents and leaders take with their children. I believe the approach of introducing inexperienced youths to uninhibited freedom, without warning or guidance, increases risk-taking behaviors and provides the adolescents with a skewed view of what the “outside world” has to offer. Yes, the majority of the Amish children return to the community after Rumspringa, but did they really get an accurate picture of what a balanced English life could be?
You’re on vacation in rural Ohio en route to your bed and breakfast when your GPS has lost signal and you take a wrong turn down a dirt road. You start to notice the modern looking farm buildings but there are no power poles with electricity running to these quaint farms. Next thing you know you are being passed by a black buggy driven by a muscular horse and you think to yourself that the gentleman driving with his plain black hat, white shirt, black pants, and a full beard must be from back in time. It all of a sudden arises to you from reading your favorite Amish books by Beverly Lewis that you must be in Old Order Amish country where the society lives in the modern world but not up to modern standards. What has always interested me on the Amish, is the youth’s Rumspringa, the different Amish sects there are, and how there every day life is.
Watching the Amish riding their horse drawn carriages through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, you catch a glimpse of how life would have been 150 years ago. The Amish, without their electricity, cars, and television appear to be a static culture, never changing. This, however, is just an illusion. In fact, the Amish are a dynamic culture which is, through market forces and other means, continually interacting with the enormously tempting culture of America. So, one might be led to wonder how a culture like the Amish, one that seems so anachronistic, has not only survived but has grown and flourished while surrounded by a culture that would seem to be so detrimental to its basic ideals. The Amish, through biological reproduction, resistance to outside culture, compromise, and a strong ethnic symbolism have managed to stave off a culture that waits to engulf them. Why study the Amish? One answer would be, of course, to learn about their seemingly pure cooperative society and value system (called Ordung). From this, one may hope to learn how to better America's problem of individualism and lack of moral or ethical beliefs. However, there is another reason to study the Amish. Because the Amish have remained such a large and distinct culture from our own, they provide an opportunity to study the effects of cultural transmission, resistance, and change, as well as the results of strong symbolism in maintaining ethnic and cultural isolation.
The society during the New England colonies comprises of different three social classes. The lowest in the social order is the slaves and were for the most part domestic servants, and they usually received mild and humane treatment, were instructed in religion and morals, and were not infrequently admitted to the family circle. The next class is the social ladder is the most numerous of all, comprised the traders, shop-keepers, and small farmers. Most people in this class were moderately educated, religious, comfortable and wealthy. The uppermost class comprises of the ruling class, which in New England includes the clergy, magistrates, college professors, and other professional men.
The culture of a community invariably determines the social structures and the formation of a society. Developed over time, culture is the collection of beliefs and values that a group of people maintain together. Culture is never constant, and thought to be continually renewed over years as new ideas and concepts become mainstream. It ranges from how people live, day to day topics for conversations, religion, and even entertainment. It is analogous to guidelines, or the rulebook of the said group of people. Society, on the other hand, emanates from the social structure of the community. It is the very institutions to which create a regulated and acceptable form of interaction between peoples. Indeed, culture and society are so perversely intertwined in a
Culture constitutes common characteristics of a particular group of people or a society such as behaviors, beliefs, objects, and any other characteristics of such a people. It is thus through culture, that groups of people define their unique characteristics that conform to their shared values and contribute towards building the society as sociologist suggests. Therefore, culture includes different societal aspects such as the customs, language, norms, values, tools, rules, products, technologies, morals, institutions, and organizations. The terms organizations and institutions will thus refer to the set of rules associated with specific activities within the society. For instance, healthcare, education, security, family, religion, and work
Ossowski, S. (1966). Different conceptions of social classes. In R. Bendix, & S. M. Lipset, (2nd
Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects and behavior. It includes the ideas, value, customs and artifacts of a group of people (Schaefer, 2002). Culture is a pattern of human activities and the symbols that give these activities significance. It is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold and activities they engage in. It is the totality of the way of life evolved by a people in their attempts to meet the challenges of living in their environment, which gives order and meaning to their social, political, economic, aesthetic and religious norms and modes of organization thus distinguishing people from their neighbors.