Amish Sociology

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.

It’s very easy to find the differences between Amish and American societies and even though it may not seem like it at first glance there are some similarities between the two. Such as religion, yes America has a diverse set of religion, but both societies believe the right to religious freedom. That is why Amish societies are located in America because they are allowed to express their religion. Another similarity in both societies is education. Even though Amish children mostly only go to an eighth grade education, both societies prepare the children for adulthood and teach them skills that will help them in society.

In the film, Inside Out directed by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen it talks

How would you describe your inner mind? crazy? genius? They say that both are two sides of the same side. Through my experiences, I shape the world around me, developing a unique perspective from my worldview. When it comes to how I perceive reality I just summarize it in these six concepts: culture, meaning, self, self-fulfilling prophecy, and scripts, and self-serving bias. My culture defines me down to my very genetic core. It explains why I drive the way I do, how I talk, what is socially acceptable, why I react to things the way I do , why I attend LIU, etc.

Which of the following groups have the highest incidence of use and abuse of alcohol?

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 Amish are people who believe in Christ but have strict rules in their style of living, which is quite different from the modern society today. They live in a city in Philadelphia called Lancaster County, it is a very country style due to the acres of land each house has, the barn houses, and the animals. The uniqueness of their lifestyle to me is how they live in the world where technology is practically taking over every aspect, but they continue to stick to their beliefs and not change anything. To me it’s difficult to comprehend due to the fact that you can’t live like that in a majority of the cities today since technology is widely known. This is part of the reason why they live in their city far away in the middle of Philadelphia and have kept all their traditional ways. Part of the Amish belief is their separation from electricity since electricity is part of the “outside” world. They are not able to watch tv, have any public utility line running to their houses, or operate automobiles. It just blew my mind sitting there listening to how they live and how they follow all these guidelines in their life. For me it was different, but it intrigued me for some odd reason, just the fact that they have family time with no interruption, and dinner time with no distractions. Those two aspects alone bring families much closer and to me all the families in the world have become detached from true family time. Seeing their lifestyle and hearing all the guidelines they follow make me think of life without technology and how it would change our

Amish children are considered to be done furthering their education after 8th grade. At this point, the young women are to learn how to manage the household. Likewise, the young men learn how to manage and maintain the farm. Amish people do not allow people to join the military, because “they follow the biblical aspect of love thy neighbor and forbids violence and active military service” (AmishCountry.org, 2015). Alternative treatments are what they use instead of seeking professional help, but when that fails they do what is necessary (AmishCountry.org, 2015). “Amish pay state, federal and county taxes and usually refuse Social Security benefits” (AmishCountry.org, 2015). Their faith and religion makes it mandatory for them to care for their

Amish society is based on co-operation among people. By accepting the orodung, the Amish establish

a. An example of this community is the barn-raising, which usually occurs after the destruction of an Amish building, due to a fire or effects of a bad storm. The women of the community begin a wave of mass baking and cooking with recipes for up to 175 men that would make Martha Stewart jealous. The men begin to collect materials and the rebuilding of whatever is the focus of the raising, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

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.

This essay will be discussing the extent to which social class and poverty affects health and illness. Firstly, what is social class? Each person’s perception of social class can be different; is social class defined by a person’s accent, the area they live in, or something as simple as their income? Project Britain describes social class as “The grouping of people by occupations and lifestyle”. (Cress, 2014). To find social class Sociologists group people according to common factors, they compare people and various criteria can be conveniently used to place people in social groups or classes. Next we ask the question what determines a person’s health, the NHS defines health as “Physical and mental, it is the absence of disease”. (NHS 2017).

The Amish, who are also called “The Plain People” or Old Order Amish, originated in Switzerland in approximately 1525. They originated from a movement called the Anabaptist movement. Jacom Amman was the leader. This happened during the reformation in the16th Century Europe. They believed in holding on to traditions and keeping themselves separated from the world. He was stricter about this than other Anabaptists of that time. The Anabaptists were against the union of church and state and also against infant baptism. They felt that each individual should make this choice for himself when he or she is old enough. They felt the age for baptism was about 18 years. This disagreed with the laws of the time. It was

The Amish live a different life style than we do. A lot of people misunderstand the way they live their life in rural communities. They think that the Amish live an old fashioned life and fear the real world. All they want to do is help their community every way they can. Each fellowship is broken down into districts where they live independently by rules their community agrees on. The rules consist of clothing requirements, color of buggies, household items, etc. There are around 200,000 members of the Amish in which come from more than 20 states. In fact, the Amish community has been growing. Every 20 years the population doubles.

Based on this definition it is interesting to note that the Old Order Amish Mennoite community satisfies the requirements of place, interests and communion. Aside from being a perfect example of a community the Amish people exemplify what it means to be a part of a community that it is their source of identity, strength, and sustainability. Each individual exists for the community but as a whole the community nurtures each member and therefore it is unthinkable for an Amish man or woman to leave their community behind. On the other hand many Americans feel they must “get involved.” In public life as well as in private, we can discern the habits that sustain individualism and commitment as well as what makes them problematic. (Bellah, p.74)