Amish Customs And Death Case Study

At some point in our lives, we all come to realize that death is a part of life. Cultural diversity provides a wide variety of lifestyles and traditions for each of the unique groups of people in our world. Within these different cultures, the rituals associated with death and burial can also be uniquely diverse. Many consider ritualistic traditions that differ from their own to be somewhat strange and often perceive them as unnatural. A prime example would be the burial rituals of the Native American people.

Mitford writes that embalming has long tradition in America, but it used to be performed at home, and all members of the family had to witness the procedure.

Different cultures, countries, religions, and community with various behaviors and rituals that guides their belief and action when a loved one pass away. Religious and spiritual belief, type of life after death, superstitious beliefs after death and beliefs towards the meaning of life are all based on tradition and death ritual.

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

There are three main negative aspects of the Amish culture, they are that Amish people do not let their kids finish school. They stop till eighth grade and then they drop out of school. The second reason is that the Amish do not use electricity and any modern technology. They don't have phones. The final negative aspects is that they always use face to face communications.

Spiritual connection with the dead is also one of the important elements of Latino culture, which is demonstrated by frequent gravesite visits and praying to spirits. Death is always associated with separation, which leads to sorrow, and grief; however cultural perceptions and beliefs help to look at death from a different perspective and perceive death as a natural state that can be approached with love, respect, dignity, and tremendous family support. Latino culture supports their dying people during the last journey, and believes in afterlife, which gives them hope and helps to overcome unbearable grief of permanent loss.

In general, when a member of the Amish community dies, their body will be embalmed. Unlike most of the more conservative religions, the Amish believe in using both arterial embalming (The process of injecting chemicals into the arterial system of the body) and visceral embalming (The process of injecting chemicals into the viscera or organs). In most modern circumstances, the Amish family will use an English funeral home (There are VERY few Amish funeral home) for the preservation of

Illnesses, epidemics, and pandemics derive from the living conditions and the social stratification of a society. Poverty tends to increase an individual’s possibility of getting sick due to deficient housing conditions, malnutrition, pressure, etc. Research supports that impoverished individuals experience higher death rates due to the insufficient medical care and nutritious food available to them. “An estimated 25 million Americans do not have enough money to feed themselves adequately and, as a result, suffer from serious nutritional deficiencies that can lead to illness and death” (Tischler 383). In effect, this contributes to the overall high mortality rates among groups of social classes. Those that live in poverty experience high levels

Multiple family members gather together to give care to the loved one from far and near. The father or the oldest male relative holds the greatest power in most families to make health-related decisions for an ill loved one. Family members feel responsible for bathing, changing, and feeding their loved one daily even during hospital stays (Taxis, 2008). In addition, prayer and ritual are also critical components of the dying process. Family members may pray with the patient at the bedside, at a home altar, or at church. At times, candles are kept lit for 24 hours a day as a symbol of continuous worship. Clergy members may visit to offer spiritual support. As the ill loved one approaches death, the sacrament of anointing of the sick is administered by a priest or lay member (Kemp, 2001). Mexican American families use religious beliefs in the afterlife to help them cope with this emotional process.

This week in class we learned about some basic facts about loss, the journey of dying in America, how life expectancy has changed over the years and some examples of how they have changed, we went through some questions like why to study grief and loss, how there is a lack of training for those helping professionals, different settings in which grief can be encountered as well as experiences that could generate reactions, and the benefits of training in loss and grief. Talking about these things made me feel more comfortable with the situation of loss. It also made me feel sad when people share their experiences for some reason. I guess I am more of an emotional person than I thought when it comes to death and dying and usually I just try

The family care for their own and the Amish community gives assistance as needed. Therefore, the way how mainstream American life is driven by technology, I don’t think many Americans will take on the Amish culture.The Amish culture believes in the idea that everything has a reason in life. Their philosophy comes from their deep-rooted Christian faith from the church. They follow the basic tenets of the Christian religion by emphasizing on adult baptism, simplicity, community, separation from popular culture and the division of the church. In 1693, the Amish people formed their own branch of Anabaptism in Switzerland and eastern France under the leadership of their founder Jakob Ammann.All of the Amish communities today are from that group. We already know that within the Amish culture they do everything with hands, but there is some selective technology they do use by permit for agriculture. They use the tractor to help with the farming and time management. For the American society, farmers use computers, cell phones, cars and other technology, but for the Amish, they reject this technology because they believe it will do harm in their

The Amish faith is to be considered as living a life of self-surrender. According to Kraybill this attribute is the core of the Amish religion. The cornerstone to the values in the Amish faith is Gelassenheit. “The German word means submission=yielding to a higher authority. It entails self-surrender, resignation to God’s will, yielding to others, self-denial, contentment, and a quiet spirit” (12). Being able to display wholesomeness and respect toward the individuals which are trying to bring about an end of your complete form of life is an influential aspect which enabled the Amish to aid in the uprising of the First Amendment clause. They continued to fight for their religious rights in away that does not intrude on their belief of living a

America is filled with multiple cultures from different parts of the world. The most secretive culture is the Amish. Amish do not use modern day technology, and they have strict rules to follow. If anyone breaks those rules, they receive a punish that is more severe than we would imagine. Shunning, the punishment, affects different parts of Amish life.

Priests, Ministers, Clergy members and People of the Cloth are usually involved in your end of life care. The faithful can support the ill with education on their beliefs about life, dying, death, and afterlife. Clergy aids in support for the family in regards to being an advocate within the medical system for their religious beliefs, and spiritual care. They can also be a big help with advanced directives, estate planning, grief and bereavement counseling and burial planning (EndLink 2004).

Social death has taken many forms, has been referred to by different terms and occurred for different reasons throughout human history. To die a social death is not a physical death but a theoretical one and is effected by one’s community, peers or circumstances. Mainly, social death is seen in group behavior where a person is informally excluded from a group through social rejection by being ignored. It can occur with verbal and non-verbal communication. One’s standing in the community ceases to exist.