Old Order Amish in the United States - Essay Example

Old Order Amish I. Introduction Amish is a community with its particular religious traditions. The most significant part of its traditions is relatedwith the presence of members of the community in services. According to a relevant research “Amish church services are held every other Sunday; the geographic area where the Amish live is divided into church districts for this purpose; since church services are held in homes, not in a church building, each family normally hosts church about once a year”. The religious traditions of the community have been kept at the same standards throughout the years almost since the arrival of the first members of the community in USA (which is the country where this community mainly based). In fact the history of the community can be traced back in 1700. According to a relevant report “the first Amish, so named for Jakob Ammann, arrived in Lancaster County and nearby Berks and Chester counties in the early 1700s to take part in William Penn’s "Holy Experiment" of religious freedom; originally called Anabaptists, they came to America from Europe to escape religious persecution by both Protestants and Catholics; the county is now home to three Anabaptist groups called the Amish, Mennonite and Brethren” [2]. The conflict with other religious ‘teams’ like Protestants and Catholics has been intensive since the appearance of the particular religion. These conflicts have led the community to follow a particular code of life away from the centres of ‘civilization’ as the big cities around the world can be characterized. At a next level, in order to keep their traditions, the members of the community followed a particular ‘code’ that differentiates them from other religious ‘teams’. It should be noticed here that because of the many particular characteristics that the way of life of this community presents, it is rather difficult to proceed to a completed presentation of their intervention in modern social ethics. However, it could be possible to investigate their role in the development of particular ideas and styles of life. II. Amish – particular perspectives 1. Amish from a functional paradigm perspective The settlements of Amish across USA are many. However, “the leading settlement of the community in Pennsylvania is in Lancaster County; in the Lancaster Plain near Intercourse and Bird in Hand live the House Amish, who, objecting to churches as worldly, worship in houses or barns” (Klees, 1950, 37). The existence of a central point of reference of the community’s life is important for the reservation of the community’s beliefs as they are presented mainly in the members’ daily activities. At a next level, it should be noticed that although Amish community is regarded as a ‘union’ in fact it is divided in particular ‘teams’ who follow the basic principles and ethics of their religion, differientated in accordance with the beliefs of the members of each particular ‘team’. It has been found that those teams of the community that follow strictly the traditions “wear plain clothing styles, which has earned them the name "Plain People"; it is the simple, peaceful lifestyle of these plain people that attracts such a curiosity today; many wonder how these people can survive in their supposedly backward ways; well, theyre not only surviving - theyre thriving; since 1960, the Amish population in Lancaster County has almost tripled” [4]. Although there are many groups within the Amish community, all of them have to follow the general principles of the community’s initial code as well as any decision which is possibly taken by the community’s committees. In accordance specifically with the governance of each community (meaning each sub-group in fact) it is noticed in a relevant rule of the Old Order Amish Steering Committee (1986, 4, in Olshan, 1990, 612) that “each community should have home rule and each community or state its home standards but all rules and standards should fit within the scope of the green guideline booklet so as to be protected as well as possible from legal action and the law”. Generally, it could be stated that most of the teams follow strictly the traditions and only a small percentage has formulated its own rules that have been incorporated in this case in the Amish traditions. The number of these ‘teams’ is noticeable. In this context it has been found that currently there are “over 25 different Amish, Mennonite, and Brethren church groups in Lancaster County, all holding to slightly different traditions and their own interpretations of the Bible; the more traditional groups are called old order; they do not permit electricity or telephones in their homes; by restricting access to television, radio, and telephones, the Amish are better able to keep the modern world from intruding into their home life” [3] . The way of life of Old Order Amish can be considered as an excellent paradigm regarding the value of retentions of traditional functions and ethics. The basic principles of the community’s way of life have been studied by Ediger (1996, 162) who came to the conclusion that the principles of life of Old Order Amish could be summarized to the following ones: a) The Amish do not believe in receiving money from the government. They believe in helping each other. Old Order Amish have a good social security system because immediate help is available from their own parishioners when disaster strikes; b) The Amish do not participate in wars; c) The Amish do not believe in the evolution of human beings; d) The Amish do not believe in accumulating wealth. Rather, they believe in families being raised with adequate food, clothing, and shelter and e) The Amish believe in living on farms in rural areas, not in cities. They do not consider something new necessarily good. Traditional ways are best”. However, it should be noticed that the above principles are in practice differentiated among the Amish sub – groups in accordance with the beliefs of the members of each particular group. The way of life of Amish community has been the subject of an extensive research around the world. Towards this direction, the study of Plotnicov (1990) showed that this community is characterized by its unique style of life which resembles with the way of life followed internationally in the eighteenth century. On the other hand, it seems that the members of this community prefer generally “to be left alone, but must relate politically, commercially, and socially to others within the wider American communities in which they reside while most of what they produce, like tobacco in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is not intended for subsistence but for market”. (Plotnicov, 1990, 4). The main characteristic of this community’s life is its code of daily life. More specifically, all rules of church have to followed by the members of the group while the Old Order Amish (the old rules of living, the first code of living of the community) is the main code of behavior of the community. In accordance with this code, the members of the community have to follow these principles: “no electricity, telephones, automobiles, central heating systems, or tractors with pneumatic tires; beards but no moustaches for all married men; long hair (which must be parted in the center if parted at all); hooks-and-eyes on dress coats; and the use of horses for farming and for travel within the community and no formal education beyond grade eight is also a rule of life” (Plotnicov, 1990, 27). In practice, the above rules have been partially transformed under the impact of the technology and the development of way of daily life as taking place internationally. The way of life of the Amish community has been strongly influenced by the development of life globally even this fact is not admitted by most members of the community. 2. Amish from a conflict paradigm perspective The main characteristic of the community is its opposition with other existed religious ‘teams’, particularly the Protestants and the Catholics. More specifically in a relevant report it is stated that for the members of the particular community “the act of joining the church through baptism has great importance mostly because over 400 years ago, their ancestors in Europe were often tortured and killed because of their belief in adult baptism; anabaptist means "re-baptizer"; these people were so-named because, although they had been baptized as infants in the State Church, they believed that one became a Christian only by a conscious decision as an adult”. The above conflicts are the main elements of the community’s history and represent in fact their efforts until achieving their ‘independence’ from other religious influences. Their resistance can be used as a conflict paradigm related with the creation of an autonomous society, which was the main target of the particular religious group. The principles that constitute the code of life of Amish can be characterized as rather hard but clear. On the other hand, it is obvious that these principles come to opposition with all societal aspects as they are observed in the local population (USA). In this context, it is noticed by Olshan (1990, 604) that “the Old Order Amish stand out on the American cultural landscape like human outcroppings of especially unyielding material; one highly significant but seldom emphasized expression of their uniqueness is their rejection of formal organization; in a world where formal organizations have become necessarily ubiquitous, the Amish have been perhaps most unique in their ability to survive well into the twentieth century without employing the degree of formal organization routinely assumed to be a prerequisite for survival”. In other words, the differentiation of this community from the rest of the American population should not be regarded as a weakness but rather as a significant advantage. The survival of the community’s codes and ethics almost at their initial form until today prove the power of human to resist to the development of technology which although offer several advantages for daily life, gradually it leads to the limitation of ethics and moral principles especially in the more industrialized parts of the world. In this way, the constant conflict of human with technology, as it can be observed in the case of Amish, can be proved to be valuable for the retention of social ethics on the long term preventing the absolute dependency of life from the developments of the technology. 3. Amish from a symbolic interaction perspective One of the main characteristic of the style of life of the members of the community is their dependence on the traditional ethics and rules as these were delivered by their ancestors. Furthermore, it has been proved that the separation of the community from the rest of the population in USA has helped towards the development of the social principles (style of life) within the community. At a next level, “Amish children attend Amish one-room schoolhouses through the eighth grade; Amish worship services are held every other week in one of the members homes while socializing is an important part of Amish life” [3]. In other words, the traditions of the community have to be followed by all of its members without differentiations in accordance with the age. The participation in the common efforts and the style of life is a necessary condition for the continuation of the community’s code throughout the years. In this context, it is noticed that “the Amish have a strong sense of community spirit, and often come to the aid of those in need; their barn raisings are a good example; neighbors freely give of their time and their skills to help one another”[3]. Regarding this issue it has been noticed by Plotnicov (1990, 27) that “The Amish take their social institutions with them to other areas where group fulfillment can be successfully resolved; complete disintegration is rare, for staunch families generally migrate if they dislike their community or the conditions in it while migration is frequently the only alternative for those Amish who wish to shun all progress; Amish who cannot put up with change frequently sell their farms and move to other settlements, often across state lines”. The differentiations observed among the members of the community can be explained by the intervention of personal assumptions which can be often unjustified, however, if developed, they can lead to the ‘separation’ of the particular teams into further sub-groups. III. Conclusion The community of Amish in USA should be regarded mostly as an example of a traditional style of life rather than a religious group. Their history can easily explain their current principles of life. In this context, the study of Klees (1950, 2) led to the conclusion that “the "plain people," so called from the plainness of their archaic dress--their bonnets and shawls and broadbrim hats--were the first of these groups to reach Pennsylvania and by far the most picturesque; they are the Mennonites, the Amish, the Dunkards (or the Brethren, to use the name they prefer), and the River Brethren”. The existence of many different groups within the same community could be possibly regarded as a reason for the existence of many differentiations. In fact, there are several differentiations in the way of life followed by the particular groups, however the rules of the community (the Old Order as already mentioned above) is generally followed by all members of the community with only partial differentiations mainly in cases that there are different opinions regarding the ‘interpretation’ of the initial code of behavior. As for the religious aspect of the community’s life, it has been found by Klees (1950, 31) that “the principal theological difference which caused the split of the community was the Amish doctrine of Meidung--literally avoidance or shunning; based on the Pauline injunction "not to keep company," "not to eat" with an unfaithful member, but to "put away from among yourselves that wicked person," this doctrine is used to correct and punish an erring member”. The above findings support the assumption stated previously that the differentiations in the social and religious behavior of the members of the community is not an issue of ‘radical opposition’ but rather of the existence of multiple opinions regarding particular issues of the religious life of the community. On the other hand, it is noticed by Klees (1950, 40) that “the Amish do not attempt to make any converts; they hold no revivals; they have neither home missions nor foreign missions while voluntary withdrawals are also exceedingly rare; the Amish have little difficulty in holding their own people”. In other words, the members of the community focus on the reservation of their ethics and principles without interested in the opinions of the ‘external society’, as the rest of the country’s population is regarded. The main differentiation of this community by the rest religious groups around the world seems to be the way of handling conflicts. Although the members of the community had suffered a lot in the past – as analyzed above – they continue to retain their ‘calm’ approach in all conflicts that appear within their society. In this context, they have been compared with other populations around the world who share the same approach of conflict, the Japanese. More specifically, the study of Hostetler et al. (1990, 895) showed that “informal methods for dealing with conflict within both Japanese and Amish society have been interpreted as being the natural result of, and an important source of support for, traditional cultures but on closer examination we find similar patterns of intentional manipulation of informalist ideology as elements of strategy in the midst of conflict”. The behavioral patterns of Amish, as observed in their daily activities should be considered as the result of their resistance in the modern style of life and the application of a ‘natural’ approach in handling challenges. The particular behavioral characteristic of Amish is the one that helped the population to survive through the centuries. Works Cited Amish Religious Traditions, available at http://www.amishnews.com/amisharticles/religioustraditions.htm [1] An Amish Introduction, available at http://www.amishnews.com/amisharticles/amishintro.htm [2] The Amish and the Plain People, available at http://www.800padutch.com/amish.shtml [3] Amish: Labor relief in the works http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/local_story_063010501.html [4] Ediger, M. (1996) Teaching About Another Culture: The Old Order Amish. Social Studies, 87(4): 161-165 Hostetler, J., Kidder, R. (1990) Managing Ideologies: Harmony as Ideology in Amish and Japanese Societies. Law & Society Review, 24(4): 896 Klees, F. (1950) The Pennsylvania Dutch. New York: Macmillan Olshan, M. (1990) The Old Order Amish Steering Committee: a Case Study in Organizational Evolution. Social Forces, 69(2): 603-617 Plotnicov, L. (1990) American Culture: Essays on the Familiar and Unfamiliar. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press Read More