Amish Culture Essay

The Amish is a group of traditionalist Christians that rely on simple living, plain dress and refuse to adapt to modern technology. The history of the Amish started in Switzerland in 1693 led by Jakob Amman. Today majority of the traditional descendants of the Amish live in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Amish view pregnancy and childbirth as normal biological functions of the female body, however; due to their cultural beliefs they will not seek out prenatal care until late in their pregnancy, if no problems arise. Women who are primiparous, giving birth for the first time, will generally seek prenatal care at around four months, while those who are multiparous, those who have given birth multiple times, generally seek prenatal care during the third trimester. Amish women typically do not outright reject the use of modern medical technology and practices if it can assist in the pregnancy, however; they must determine which practices coincide with their cultural and spiritual belief system. Many Amish women will seek the advice

The Amish family life is that of a simple one, they believe in living separate from non Amish and justify this belief with the quote from the bible “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (II Corinthians 6:14) Frater, J.(2012) Unlike in British modern day society the Amish do not own cars, they use what they call buggies to travel in, there has been very little march of progress from the Amish. The Amish also use their dialect as another means to keep their society separate, although they can speak English, they

     Many people have different views on what Appalachia is, I grew up thinking that Appalachia meant people were dirty, poor, illiterate, inbreed and we also called them mountain people. As I grew up I realized that most of the things they went through and had a hard time with, I was dealing with the same problems. So what exactly is Appalachia? Well you will find out as you read on.

Perhaps the most culturally diverse nation on the globe, the United States is home to a dominant Anglo-American Protestant culture intermixed and alongside a host of sub-cultures that live and thrive on US soil. Among these cultures exists an array of distinct form of living all who boast an identity specific to only that select group. These subcultures exist in a couple different forms; convergent subcultures and persistent subcultures. First, convergent subcultures intend toward assimilation with the dominant society through various tactics to include: residential clustering, adherence to the language, dress, and cultural norms of their native land (Parrillo, 42). Contrarily, some cultures simply do not assimilate. In these cases, persistent subcultures adhere as much as possible to their own way of life and resist absorption into the dominant culture (Parrillo, 43). Among these persistent subcultures within the US are the Amish. The Amish are a sect of the Christian faith whose members have roots in twenty-two states across the

“Well, it’s a bit of a foreign idea to me, really. The town I’m from, my school was 99% white. Literally, we had two black girls and a half-Peruvian guy in my class of 140. So the emphasis on diversity is interesting to me, more than anything. Because I can’t relate to it. I’ve never seen it in action, as it were.

The Court, in its ruling in Yoder, applied the “Sherbert Test” and found that the compulsory education law was a substantial burden on their religious practices and the State’s interests were not compelling enough to disrupt the Amish way of life.

Amish culture is a European born group of Christians who are descendents of Mennonite church. Due to few fundamental religious differences, they separated from Mennonite regime which made them go through a series of violence causing a remarkable decrease in their population. However, after gaining ground sin United States and Canada, they are living their lives peacefully in isolation. The current culture of Amish people is a true representative of simplicity, humility, thrift, obedience,

The relationship between mainstream society and the Amish society of a particular interest because the Amish lifestyle is not meant to be admired or praised. The American public thinks the Amish way of life is so interesting that it becomes irresistibly fascinating and fashionably old-fashioned. Mainstream American culture has adopted the “Say No” approach to the Amish way of life because most Americans will not be doing any back breaking work like farming, driving a buggy every day, or living a simply settled life. Americans pay taxes, social security, state and federal taxes, real estate, county taxes, sales tax, etc. On the other hand, Amish does pay the same taxes except for social security. If the Amish is self-employed, they do not pay

The Amish people are a subculture group. This culture is one of the more distinctive and colorful cultural groups across America. Their rejection of modern technology is what has kept them apart of the high tech culture. They start back in the sixteenth-century Europe when a rebaptism of adults was then a crime punishable by death. Anabaptists or rebaptizers were groups’ that threatened civil and religious authorities. The Swiss Anabaptists followed a Jesus life were they loved their enemies, forgiving insults, and turning the other cheek. While other groups we’re more into violence. The Amish came in 1693 when the Swiss and the South Germans Anabaptists split into two groups: Amish and Mennonites. Looking for political stability and religious freedom they moved to North America where they first settled in southern Pennsylvania then to Ohio, Indiana, and to other Midwestern states. Were they have been able to maintain a distinctive subculture. They try to maintain cultural customs to preserve their identity. Amish speak a dialect of German known as Pennsylvania German or Pennsylvania Dutch. This language is not a written language. Amish use the English when conversing with non-Amish individuals. When talking in Pennsylvania German to each other they tend to switch to English

The Amish and the State is wrote with the intent to identify the cultural values and social organizations of the Amish order along with how the traditional values of the Amish counteracted with the modernity of the state. This book covers the most prominent aspects of the Amish order dating all the way back to their very existence during the Radical Reformation in the sixteenth century. It entitles one to see and feel the persecution the Amish order has faced since 1525. Donald Kraybill believes that the Amish order, even though some individuals view their religious practices as being extremely impractical, is a major attribute toward the freedom

Many of the young men who chose to join the Amish church after Rumspringa agree that giving up the keys to their car is the single hardest part. Most men wear “English” clothes during Rumspringa while most of the women wear traditional Amish clothes. If an adolescent joins the Amish faith and then quits they are excommunicated from their families and shunned by the Amish church. The adolescents who do not join the Amish faith seem to have a very difficult time in general society because of their lack of education and just the total differences in their upbringing. Many of the teens seemed to be very distraught over the decision and it caused more depression than

The old order Amish worship in individual homes compared to the New Order Amish. Old Amish send their children to elementary school but do not believe in them attending high school. The Old Order Amish are descendants of the colonial Amish who came to Lancaster and Berks counties Pennsylvania from 1738 to 1756 from Switzerland, Palatinate, Waldeck, Hesse- Cassel, Alsace, Bavaria, and Montbeliard ("Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online," 2012).

These realized people have a choice about whether or not to join The Amish community after sixteen. I was shocked about the court’s decision to allow this but happy that The Amish have the option to home-school their

The Amish are a small group of people that live in a secluded area of the eastern United States of America. The cultural group known as the Amish has constituted themselves as a unique entity in America's diverse landscape. Amish life is centered on religion, agriculture, and the family. For most people who live outside of the Amish culture, this group seems out of touch with the present time; a culture of another era. This belief is primarily attributable to the Amish belief in simplicity and their rejection of modern technologies (The Amish 2011). One of the most important aspects of Amish life and livelihood is agriculture; the Amish focus much of their life on the growth and harvest of food and other crops. The various factors that affect the culture are based upon agriculture; including the Amish beliefs and values, economic organization, gender relations, kinship, political organization, sickness, social change, and social organization.